Widow Jane 10 Year Old Bourbon Review
By Richard Thomas
Rating: A-
(Credit: Richard Thomas)
Right off the bat, I must call attention to this article being about the flagship, small batch 10 Year Old Widow Jane, not the single barrel version. Widow Jane is a small distillery in Brooklyn, started in a disused chocolate factory by Daniel Preston and Vince Oleson. In recent years they were one of a handful of craft distillers that Samson & Surrey bought into, and nowadays the distillery has Lisa Rope Wicker at the helm.
Wicker is about as experienced as they come in the small distillery, whiskey-making game, so I expect their in-house spirits will rock in a few years time. In the meantime, though, products like Widow Jane 10 Year Old are sourced. The croakers have long croaked about the fairytale story of using limestone-filtered water from the Rosendale Mines, but the sourcing is no joke, drawing on bourbons made in Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana (unless A. Smith Bowman is selling stock, that is pretty much the limit for where you can get aged bourbon). Combining that with how this expression is made in dumps consisting of never more than five barrels, making it and keeping it consistent is a fine example of the blender’s art expressed in small packages. It’s bottled at 91 proof.
The Bourbon
A pour of this Widow Jane has a bright, clear, middle amber look, with lots of red stirred into the color palette. The swish left a shimmering coat and plenty of thick, stud-like tears.
The scent was squarely in traditional bourbon territory, with its candy corn and caramel, but rounded out with pleasantly spicy, herbal notes and cedar. The palate was much sweeter than the nose let on, while staying well inside the standard bourbon profile boundaries, and that herbal and spicy aspect took on a lighter touch. The woody side evolved from cedar to oak as it went from nose to tongue. The mildly spicy finish lingered for a respectable period.
I gave this bourbon such high marks because of just how much it brought out of being good, plain old fashioned bourbon. Everything about it is pretty much what I expect from the benchmark experience, only more so. It isn’t especially sophisticated or robust, nor does it have any trademark outlier notes. Instead, it’s just a mighty fine example of what bourbon is stereotyped as, taking what is expected and doing it very well.
The Price
Expect to pay about $70 a bottle for this item.
An excellent choice has been made adding it to my collection thanks for the review. I often scent the glass once empty and dry and this the scent here is rich oak and tobacco, borderline leather but the taste is very much classic Bourbon, vanilla, caramel, almost cherry… Baked apples and baking spices with a unique crispness coming at the onset from the limestone water used. So good.