Widow Jane Whiskey Distilled From a Rye Mash Oak & Apple Wood Aged

VITALS:

- $35 (375 ml)

- 91 Proof

- NAS

- Batch #33

- New York

This was the second bottle from the two-pack of 375 ml bottles that my wife bought me a short while back. The other one was the 10 Year Blended Bourbon.  I do love that my wife bought me this two-pack. Honestly, I don't know that I would have ever gotten around to grabbing a bottle of this off the shelf. While it sounds interesting, aged in oak and apple wood and all, it's just not so interesting that I've felt I needed to try it.

But, when someone gifts me a bottle, my curiosity is going to get the best of me every time, and I'm going to give it a whirl. If nothing else, it gives me something new to write about here. So, despite that I never really had a great desire to try this in the first instance, and despite that it came in a weird little skinny bottle, I, of course, nonetheless cracked it open and enjoyed it pour after pour until it was gone.

The nose on this was actually pretty good. It was light and crisp, with notes of caramel and vanilla and a consistent undercurrent of pear. It did have a bit of a bread or cracker note to it, like a plain wafer cracker, but it also had a touch of black pepper and cinnamon to tickle my nose a bit and keep it interesting. 

The first thing I noticed upon my first sip was that it was very drinkable and, dare I say, smooth. The proof is somewhat low, but not so low that it should come across as completely watered down. But, it was certainly a softer whiskey, with few sharp edges and also not a lot of punch. So, good and bad.

The flavor was very vanilla forward, kind of like a French vanilla flavor. I'm not sure what makes French vanilla different from regular, but there's definitely a difference, and that's what I noticed here. Along with the vanilla, the other more prominent note was a crisp fruit note. But, it wasn't that apple note that I so often get with a young whiskey (I have no idea how old this one was), but rather more of a pear note. I think this is what made it so drinkable, because it was crisp and almost refreshing.

What was disappointing, though, was the lack of any rye spice. If I'm grabbing a rye off the shelf, I'm doing so because I want a rye. I want those flavors and spices that I get from a rye. Give me the pickle and pine, the cinnamon and brown sugar. Here, all I got was vanilla and pear. I did get some nice cinnamon and pepper on the nose, but that was noticeably absent in the flavor.

The last few pours of this were very sweet, almost as though the nectar from the pear had somehow settled at the bottom. And those sips were almost entirely that pear note. I don't know if it came from the apple wood that it was aged in or the unnamed source of the "rye mash" itself (the label doesn't actually call this a rye whiskey), but that was nearly all I got.

Again, this was very easy to drink, but that only gets me so far. I want flavor, I want complexity, and with a rye, or even something "distilled from a rye mash," I want spice.  And this had none of that. So, I was glad I got to try it, but I'm also glad that I was justified in not reaching for it sooner.

Grade: C-

Widow Jane Aged 10 Years Blend of Straight Bourbons

VITALS:

- $35 (375 ml)

- 91 Proof

- 10 Years

- Batch #233

- Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana

Lately I feel like I've been buying nothing but limited releases and store picks. I'm not complaining at all about that. It's great to have access to the whiskey I've been buying. But, I also feel like it's an impediment to actually trying new things. While I can't pass up a Russel's Reserve or Buffalo Trace store pick, and for good reason, I also don't then end up trying that new bottle I'm seeing on the shelf. I try to be more conscious of that, but at the same time, I'm not working with limitless resources here.

Luckily, though, occasionally my wife will randomly buy me new whiskeys, and because she wants to get me something I haven't had before, she often grabs something I likely wouldn't have gone for. In this instance, she grabbed a 2-pack of 375 ml bottles from Widow Jane, which included a rye whiskey aged in oak and apple wood, and this 10 year blended bourbon.  I've previously had the 10-year straight bourbon, but that was four years ago, and a much different whiskey than this one.

The nose was that of a very traditional bourbon, with aromas of oak and cinnamon and a sweet toffee note. It smelled like it had some age on it, as not only did I get a bit of oak but I also got a bit of a smoky char note to it. I even got a bit of chocolate that really seemed to complement everything else going on. Given the sources for this blend -- Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee -- I guess I really shouldn't have expected anything strange to come from this bottle.

When I took my first sip, I immediately noticed cinnamon and dark chocolate. The spice from the cinnamon, along with a touch of sweetness, hit the tip of my tongue immediately followed by the light bitterness of dark chocolate. 

Once I got past that spicy cinnamon and bitter dark chocolate, though, I got a lot of oak and vanilla. It wasn't over-oaked or overly bitter. In fact, that note seemed to carry forward that same dark chocolate bitterness. And it was all balanced by a rich vanilla note, like vanilla bean.

Other notes were noticeable here and there. At times I got a distinct peanut flavor, and even some dark notes from time to time. When paired with the sweetness from the vanilla and chocolate notes, it was almost like a toned down port wine note that I was getting.

All in all, this was rich and sweet and tasty. At $70 for a full sized bottle and only 91 proof, I don't know that I'm necessarily reaching for it. But, it was nonetheless a very good whiskey and I found that this little bottle just didn't stand a chance. It was gone within a week of opening.

Grade: B

Widow Jane 10 Year Straight Bourbon

VITALS:
- $70
- 91 Proof
- 10 Years
- Barrel #1398
- Region: Kentucky (bottled in New York)

Widow Jane was one of those bourbons I had only read about on social media and message boards. I knew very little other than that it existed and I had never seen it on the shelves in the Chicago area, at least until a few months ago when Binny's suddenly had three of their products sitting on the shelves.

Although a bit pricey, one of the options on the shelf was this 10 year old single barrel bourbon, and, with those qualities, I was certainly willing to give it a chance.

From what I understand, Widow Jane sources its bourbon from Kentucky, though the exact distiller is kept as something of a mystery. As they advertise, they then use "pure limestone mineral water from the Widow Jane Mine - Rosendale, NY" to proof the whiskey down. Not much more information than that is provided on the bottle's label.  In any event, it's at least worth a try to find out what difference, if any, New York limestone water can make to a 10 year Kentucky bourbon.

The nose is pleasant but soft, giving off some brown sugar and butter notes. It seems sweet, but not too sweet, and it certainly doesn't come across as pungent. There is almost no alcohol on the nose, which is good given the proof.

My initial impressions of this bourbon on the first pour or two was that it was kind of bland. Sure, it was easy to drink, but the flavors weren't very strong. What flavors were there were light cinnamon and brown sugar, with vanilla undertones. The flavor that I could find was very tasty, and there was something else that I just couldn't place my finger on.

After having the bottle open for a few weeks, this whiskey really opened up and all of a sudden seemed bursting with flavor. It sweetened up a bit, with a honey sweetness that seemed to also bring out the cinnamon and brown sugar notes. There was also a new and delicious chocolate now, and I was also able to figure out that the flavor I couldn't quite place was a kind of a plum flavor that I really enjoyed.

As I made my way through the last few pours, I also got a bit of bitterness, but a good kind of bitterness, the kind that you'd associate with a mix of coffee and dark chocolate. Again, these flavors seemed to complement the cinnamon and brown sugar that was found throughout.

At first I thought this bourbon was going to disappoint me. That first pour really was unimpressive. However, after letting it open up, even for just a short amount of time, I found myself really enjoying it! It developed a complexity that I didn't expect, and the varietal flavors all really worked well with one another to make for a very well-rounded bourbon.

Grade: A-