Review: Widow Jane “Heirloom Varietal” Bourbon Whiskeys
The Scots have messed around with single-varietal barley expressions of Scotch for years — so why not Bourbon? Does the type of corn used to make Bourbon make a difference, too?
You’d think this kind of experiment would be performed by the brain trust at Buffalo Trace, which never stops experimenting and releasing the results of those experiments for you and I to tipple on. But this experiment is being done, oddly enough, in the state of New York, by the good folks who make the impressive Widow Jane craft Bourbon.
This is not sourced whiskey, like Widow Jane’s 7 Year Old expression, but rather whiskey distilled right in Widow Jane’s Brooklyn-based stills. Three expressions are offered, one using Wapsie Valley corn, a hybrid of American Indian corn that was farmed in Iowa. The other varietal is Bloody Butcher corn, “bred by crossing Native American seeds with settlers’ white seeds around 1800, in the Appalachian mountains.” One of the Bloody Butcher varieties is a “high rye” expression, using the same corn. (More appropriately: the other variety is a “no rye” expression.)
All three of these are young spirits. No age statements are offered, but the mashbills are detailed exactly. All three are bottled at 91.8 proof. Thoughts, as always, follow.
Prices reflect 375ml bottles (gulp).
Widow Jane Wapsie Valley Single Expression Bourbon – 60% organic Wapsie Valley corn (mixed yellow and red endosperm corn), 15% heirloom barley, 25% rye. Nutty, almost smoky, with exuberant corn notes. The body starts off a bit brash and overpowering with popcorn notes, but these settle down a bit to reveal some notes of maple syrup and honey. That intense, smoky corn character lingers. B / $115
Widow Jane Bloody Butcher Single Expression Bourbon – 85% organic Bloody Butcher corn (dark red endosperm corn), 15% heirloom barley. How to put this? Even cornier, and smokier — with a touch of that maple syrup character. While the nose is a bit rougher (85% corn will do that), the body brings on ample sweetness, like a cola syrup, up front. Racy with spice, big cinnamon notes that do a good job at massaging some of the cornier notes and the rougher edges. A- / $125
Widow Jane Bloody Butcher High Rye Bourbon – 58% organic Bloody Butcher corn (dark red endosperm corn), 15% heirloom barley, 27% rye. Similar nose as the above, perhaps a bit gentler, with graham cracker and Bit-O-Honey notes. Cleaner on the body, too, which turns toward mint in the mid-palate, but finishes on the hot and indistinct side. B+ / $135
Widow Jane Wapsie Valley Single Expression Bourbon
$115
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Are those prices for 375 ml bottles? They sure look small.
Indeed they are. Sorry for not noting that. Yikes.
Hi folks, we just got our hands on 6 of the bloody butchers. I’ll say this… widow jane does get a tip of the hat for thinking outside the box. But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, given the pedigree of the founder, Daniel Preston, an engineer and a successful serial entrepreneur. I am all for more experimentation with grains, and hence a big fan of Van Brunt distilling as well, who toast and mix around their grains to achieve different flavor profiles. (Coincidentally, or maybe not, they are a very close neighbor of Widow Jane’s in Red hook, Brooklyn.) Anyway, looking forward to more such experimentation and more products being distilled in house by the Widow Jane guys, at a hopefully cheaper price point :) This one finds its space on my bar for now.
http://www.mashandgrape.com/products/widow-jane-bloody-butcher-bourbon-whiskey-375ml