When it comes to limited edition bourbon releases, we have by this point seen secondary finishes in newly toasted or charred barrels used in any number of different ways. Sometimes they’re employed with relatively lightly aged or moderately aged bourbons in order to “put them over the top” as it were, bringing the overall profile in line with something more intense or mature. Sometimes, a secondary maturation seems to add more richness and interaction with flavor compounds such as vanillans, which give bourbon many of its signature flavors. And other times, these finishes seem to extract less desirable components, like increased tannic presence or woody flavor saturation. A little bit of all of these elements seem to be at play in the 2023 release of Widow Jane The Vaults, the Brooklyn company’s extra-matured bourbon blend.
This is the first iteration of The Vaults released “under the direction and strict supervision” of Sienna Jevremov, who was named head distiller and blender of the company in Oct. 2022. It’s made with very mature liquid from Tennessee and Indiana (“the distillery’s oldest and rarest”), bourbons with a minimum age statement of 15 years, but there’s far older whiskey in this blend as well. That exceptionally mature blend is then given a relatively shorter secondary maturation from Widow Jane (3 months), with each year’s The Vaults release being placed into a different style of oak cask. The 2023 release features the dense Chinquapin Oak, “harvested from trees grown on a limestone-rich shelf in Northern Kentucky and air-seasoned for at least 48 months, withstanding the often dramatic shifts in weather conditions typical of the mid-South.”
That resulting blend has been bottled at 49.5% ABV (99 proof), at an MSRP of $250, in a release of 2,600 cases. So with that said, let’s get to tasting this decidedly luxe release.
On the nose, Widow Jane The Vaults 2023 is fairly enticing: I’m getting molasses and burnt marshmallow, along with fudge, tobacco, buttered popcorn and savory herbal notes. There’s butterscotch sweetness, some sweet oak and a dusting of cinnamon as well. Substantial char here for certain, though largely wrapped up in a sweeter, richer dimension.
On the palate, things move in a bit different direction. The molasses is prevalent again, but it contains some of molasses’ bitter edge. I’m getting tobacco and leather, stone fruit, butterscotch and herbal rye, along with charred oak that contributes a fair amount of astringency. This sensation combines with moderate oak tannin to dry out the back end of this bourbon pretty substantially. You’re definitely getting a good sense of its eye-popping overall age statement, but I find myself wondering if it’s perhaps a bigger age statement than this batch actually needs. It would also be fascinating to taste this liquid before and after its secondary maturation in the Chinquapin oak casks, to see what components that cask finish contributed.
Regardless, the result here is a bourbon blend with a lot of enticing elements, but one where I wouldn’t mind seeing the oak profile brought into balance alongside the rest of its flavors in a more harmonious way.
Distillery: Widow Jane
City: Brooklyn, NY
Style: Blend of straight bourbon whiskeys
ABV: 49.5% (99 proof)
Availability: Limited, 750 ml bottles, $250 MSRP
Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.