I had, of course, seen Widow Jane Bourbon in stores many times over the years. Until recently, I wasn’t aware that Heaven Hill owned the brand, but that did raise their profile in my estimation as I am a big HH fan. Still, it’s not a cheap or even “reasonably mid-priced” offering…it’s hard for me to part with $70 or more for a bottle of anything without ever having tried it. Fortunately, I never put that kind of restriction on someone gifting it to me…which my wife did for my birthday.
The Widow Jane brand formed in Rosendale, New York. Widow Jane Bourbon is a blend of bourbons from at least three different sources, since they come from three different states: Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. It’s reasonable to conclude that the Kentucky portion is something from Heaven Hill. It would not be unusual to assume the Indiana portion is from MGP. The Tennessee portion is the real mystery, but I’ve heard of other companies buying juice from George Dickel, so that’s a possibility. All of the barrels used are a minimum of 10 years old. The final blending in batches of 5 barrels is done in New York, then they proof it down using that Rosendale water, which is rich in limestone. It is bottled at 45.5% ABV (91 proof).
As a 10 year old product, you would expect Widow Jane Bourbon to be very dark in color, but you would be wrong. It is more of a medium-amber color. Swirling it around in a mini-Glencairn glass, I saw that it had very slow development of legs and they took forever to run down the inside of the glass. Despite the relatively low proof, the non-chill filtering apparently makes a difference. Bringing the glass to my nose, I picked up a mix of apple, caramel, vanilla, and baking spice. Sipping it was a delight…tons of sweetness up front with dark cherry notes leading the way, while a slight citrus twang and dark brown sugar brought up the rear. I got the tiniest amount of spiciness and some char on the finish.
I really enjoy this well-aged blend of bourbons. The master distiller/blender at Widow Jane is doing a very fine job making the different sourced recipes come together into a harmonious single whiskey. Where I’m less certain is if the flavor experience justifies the price tag…if this was $50/bottle it would be a no-brainer. If it were $100/bottle it would be a non-starter…but hitting right in the middle of that range…it’s honestly a little confusing.
