Willett Family Estate Four Year Small Batch Rye Review

Willett is a brand I've covered many times with most those reviews having been of their earlier, well aged sourced products which is how they made a name for themselves. Those products are now mostly long gone or super expensive and hard to get when they do occasionally release them at the gift shop. What we have been seeing more of lately though is their in house distilled products which are finally starting to get some decent age.

I've had a mixed bag with Willett's self distilled products thus far. I liked the Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond, really liked a 4 Year Family Estate Single Barrel, was okay on the 3 Year Small Batch Rye but hated the 2 year small batch rye and the 80th Anniversary release. Fortunately I got to try this one before buying and liked it enough to bring some home.

Aged 4 Years; 74% rye; 57.5% ABV; Purchased in the Willett Gift Shop for $55 04/06/18

Nose: Wood sweets like vanilla/caramel and dry cinnamon powder spice. The nose leans more towards sweet than spicy which is surprising given that this is the their high rye mashbill. It's not hot at all for the proof and is rather nice.

Taste: A lot more intense than the nose. Lots of great typical bourbon sweet flavors up front but then a wallop of spearmint and baking powder spice in the middle and finish which lingers with a spicy tingle for quite a while. The intensity that you'd expect for 115 proof comes through loud and clear but is not overly hot. There's a lot of wood influence here and almost no real young grainy notes that you might expect in a 4 year old whiskey. The only real knock I can give is a little bit of artificial sweetener like splenda lingers once the spice dies down.

Thoughts: Color me impressed, this is good. Previous commentary on these small batch ryes have typically come with the disclaimer of "it's good for a young rye" or "it shows a lot of promise". I'm going to go beyond that and say this is already good right now with no caveats. I can't wait to see what this will taste like when it becomes a teenager but for now I'm very happy with where it is at.

Rating: B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Willett 80th Anniversary Bourbon Review

The history of Willett in TLDR form: 

• get mega hype hype hype famous selling old whiskey sourced from long defunct distilleries
• start distilling your own product
• release very young in house products (hey baby, here's just the tip)
• watch people go crazy for it based on the reputation of sourced whiskey
• $$$$$$$

That sounds pretty bitter and well, that's because it is but I've seen enough crotch shots of Willett 2 and 3 year rye to know there are lots of people that think landing any Willett product is a major score. 

Honestly, I like Willett and I feel like their stuff will be pretty good one day soon because most of what they are putting out now shows promise. I'm just tired of the hype machine around them because thus far the only in house products are pretty young so there's a low ceiling on how good they can be. So along those lines, here is another such product that was released at the gift shop back in March of this year. Apparently it is set for national distribution which has already started and will be limited to 5200 bottles.

No Age Statement; Bottled in Bond; 50% ABV; $35; thanks to /u/_glab for the gift

Nose: Very sweet. Some grainy corn, lots of wood sweets, cinnamon, and a bit of new make ethanol.

Taste: Corn grain, lots and lots of cinnamon, a little earthy dirt funk, and your typical vanilla caramel sweets. There's as much wood influence as you'd expect for a 4ish year old Kentucky bourbon but not enough to cover up all the rough ethanol notes. The finish is a lot of dirty, dusty, dry cinnamon. I don't know what that dirt funk note is but I often get that in other micro/craft distilleries like Garrison Brothers and this reminds me of their bourbon. This is the first time I recall tasting that in any Willett product.

Thoughts: I don't like it. It's not horrid but it's not as good as the Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond Willett put out earlier this year. As expected, it's a youngish, corn forward bourbon but there's some sharp off/craft notes here that are ruining things. The dry cinnamon note is really odd to me and so overbearing there were sessions where it was all I could taste. Given my impression, I was completely shocked when someone told me people are paying $200 on the secondary for this. What the fuck is wrong with you people? Get off my god damn lawn.

Note: In all fairness, I might be a crotchety old man. For a contrasting opinion, Liquor Hound gave this a much better review.

Rating: D+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

Willett 3 Year Small Batch Rye Review

I have a long history with Willett but the majority of my fondness for them comes from the days of being able to buy their sourced Family Estate single barrels right off my local's shelf for $55. Those days are long gone and now you're lucky to be graced with the opportunity to pay $200 for a bottle at their gift shop. Here lately however there have been some more affordable though much younger products released from them that were distilled in house. Thus far I've had ups and downs with their self distilled products - while I liked the Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond and a Family Estate Single Barrel 4 year, I absolutely hated the 2 year small batch rye they put out last year. I found that product so hot, raw, and undrinkable that I drain poured it. I had heard the 3 year rye was better but I went into this bottle with a lot of hesitation.

Aged 3 years; 56.4% ABV; thanks to /u/unbreakablesausage for the secret santa gift

Nose: Hot and spicy. Spearmint, pine, menthol, and a bit more sugary wood sweetness than I'd expect for 3 years old. It leans young as the grainy new make notes are detectable and the ethanol is a little untamed.

Taste: Sweet and spicy. Less ethanol forward than the nose but also a bit less spicy and bit more sweet than the nose. Sugary wood sweets, pine, spearmint, and a little rough grainy new make. The finish is a little short considering the proof and I suppose that's due to the relatively young age. What is noticeably absent that tends to plague most craft products is the lack of any weird funky off notes that don't belong in a bourbon or rye whiskey. 

Thoughts: This is a tremendous improvement over the 2 year rye and shows promise. I can't wait to see what their products taste like with more age. Considering that a lot of craft distillery upstarts are putting out stuff as old as this that tastes like garbage, it seems Willett is one of the few that actually has a promising future ahead of them. 

Rating: C+ / C

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond Review

My name is Ryan and I am a Willett fanboy. These days some might consider that a bad thing and that's cool, I get it. The hype and demand around their Family Estate bottles has gone so full on stupid that a lot of people are sick of them. I don't blame them and I'm not silly enough to pay the going rate or chase after it either. But for me, I'll always remember Willett Family Estate as that mysterious cask strength single barrel sitting on the shelves back when I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend *gasp* $50 on a bottle of bourbon. But one day I did and my love of cask strength bourbon was born.

But enough about old shit. Fast forward to today and we are just now starting to see Willett release bourbon distilled in house. I recently acquired a 4 year single barrel distilled by them and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. Though that product is thus far very limited and only available at the gift shop, Willett also relaunched the Old Bardstown brand as self distilled product. What I like about it is that it's bottled in bond so that guarantees a minimum of 4 years and will come in at a healthy 100 proof. Even better they appear to be staying true to the general pricing point of bottled in bond whiskey which usually means a great bang for your buck.

No Age Statement; 50% ABV; $22

Nose: Smells like a nice, simple bourbon. Not as much new-make grainy corn as I get in some other young, bottled in bond products. It's all caramel and other wood sugars here as well as some young oak. 

Taste: Again, just a simple, clean bourbon. The proof is respectable but it's not hot. It's a little thin on flavors as there isn't a lot of oak depth and the wood notes that are present have a bit of a green quality to them. The forward profile is mostly sugary sweet flavors like butterscotch and in that way it kind of reminds of a young National Distillers bourbon. The finish has some rye spice kick that rounds out for a nice sweet spicy combo.

Thoughts: A straight up, pure, no frills bourbon. It's as good some other (but not all) no age statement, bottled in bond bourbons I've had and that right there is the beauty of this product to me. It's a real achievement that a small craft distillery like Willett can put out the same level of quality as a big time distillery like Heaven Hill, Beam, etc. But then again, that might just be the Willett fanboy in me talking.

Rating: B- / C+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

Willett Family Estate Bourbon Barrel No. 770 Review

I've reviewed a lot of Willett Family Estate bourbons but up to this point all of them have been a sourced product from various non-disclosed distilleries in Kentucky. Like many other startup distilleries, Willett is on the "sell someone else's product until yours comes of age" plan but as of this year we are starting to see bourbons released under this line that were actually distilled in-house.

The guys over in the Willett Bourbon Facebook group say this is from a mash of 72% corn, 15% malt and 13% rye, with a barrel entry proof of either 110 or 125, and aged on a rickhouse first floor. Supposedly this is some of the earliest distillate Willett produced while they were still getting things dialed in so successive products down the line should be even better.

Aged 4 years; 53.2% ABV; Bottle 9 of 212; $42

Nose: All the typical wood sweets you expect from a lowish rye bourbon. This bottle has been open about 2 months and the grain forward new make notes are surprisingly diminished now.

Taste: Tastes like a classic, slightly young bourbon. The higher proof is helping give it some very forward vanilla, caramel, and cocoa sweets that I think mask the green new-make notes. There is a little rye spice bite in there but overall this lands on the sweet end of the spectrum. Again like the nose the young notes have died down the longer this has been open.

Thoughts: I came into this not expecting much but it is better than I anticipated. On the negative side, it doesn't have a lot of depth and drinks a touch hotter than it should for the proof but other than that it's pretty tasty. Granted, there's only so much you can get from a 4 year old bourbon but this shows a lot of promise. At 6, 8, or 10 years I think Willett's products are going to be great.

Rating: B / B-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Willett Family Estate Barrel No. 392 Review

I’ve tasted and reviewed quite a lot of Willett Family Estate bourbon over the years now. My main takeaway is they mostly land in the good range with a few being exceptional and a few being slightly above average. While that’s a good track record most whiskeys, that’s not so good for a bourbon that demands $120+ retail prices (when you can find it) and much higher secondary cash/trade cost. The last Willett I reviewed was unfortunately one of those that was a rather terrible value - it wasn’t necessarily bad but it wasn’t really that great either. Such is the single barrel sourced whiskey gamble you take with the Willett Family Estate line. So on that note, let’s play another game of Willett roulette with a bottle that was purchased at the gift shop back in 2014.

Aged 13 years; 60.5% ABV; $130; Bottle 46 of 104; Distilled in Kentucky, Bottled by Willett

Nose: Typical of an upper age cask strength bourbon - very heavy on the vanilla and caramel wood sweets along with a ton of woodiness. I’m guessing low rye content here. It’s really nice and not terribly hot for the proof though this bottle has been open for quite a while.

Taste: Tastes just like the nose. It’s pretty much all wood sweets and oak without a whole lot of rye bite. While it’s pretty woody, the proof is high enough that there’s so much intense flavor you never really get any bitterness from the oak. The finish is a really decadent creme brulee blast with minimal ethanol or spice heat.

Thoughts: This is a great, classic, no bullshit, cask strength bourbon. While it’s refreshing to find that in the sourced Willett line, that should be the standard rather than a surprise. I’d be pretty reluctant to purchase or trade for another one of these in the future without having tasted it first. As an alternative, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is about the same age, almost half the price, and super consistent in quality. I’ll buy those on sight all day long.

Rating: B+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Willett Family Estate Rye 24/110 Review

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve got a huge backlog of samples that I need to work through and a lot of time off so I’m making a push to bang out as many reviews as possible through the end of the year.

Up tonight is one of the more unicorn-ish samples in my backlog: Willett Family Estate Rye 24/110. Distilled on 4/10/1984, this rye was bottled by KBD in 2008 along with its cousin the 24/94 for the Japanese liquor distributor Bonili. Both the 24/94 and 24/110 are highly regarded as some of the best rye whiskeys of all time, only to be bested by the barrel proof selections from the same Bernheim source such as Doug’s Green Ink, Rathskeller Rye, and LeNell’s Red Hook Rye amoung others. I’m not sure how so many of the Japanse Bonili bottles made their way back into the US but I bet there is a thread somewhere deep in the bowels of straightbourbon.com where you can find the answer if you really want to know.

Some actual bottle pictures care of whiskeyid.com

Aged 24 Years; 55% ABV; Barrel No. 637; thanks to /u/thomasemanski for the sample

Nose: Smells old but in a soft, sweet, delectable way. There’s a little bit of menthol rye spice in there but mostly it’s funky sweet wood.

Taste: Tastes like it smells which is pretty stellar. Again there is not a lot of rye spice on the front or mid palate, it’s mostly just layers of oak flavors from sweet vanilla to funky wood to dark cocoa. The finish is a little dry and then finally the rye spice comes in. That spice combined with the 110 proof makes it rather warm on the finish but it’s a far cry from being overly hot. The incredible depth of wood flavors without being an over-oaked mess is the real star of the show here for me and when combined with the respectable proof and spicy rye it makes for a wonderfully balanced, delicious whiskey.

Thoughts: These hyped aged Bernheim ryes are really something else. To date my favorite rye of all time is the legendary Rathskeller Rye which has less years on this but a lot more proof. While this isn’t quite on the level of that one, it is probably the second best rye whiskey I’ve ever tried besting Rittenhouse 25 and 21 which previously held the second and third slots.

Rating: A

William Larue Weller 2010 & 2014 + Willett Family Estate C14D & C17D Bourbon Reviews

Over the last year my collection of whiskey samples has grown out of control. It was never intentional but almost every time someone asked me if I had tried something and I answered no then somehow I ended up with a sample of it. Let’s just say there are some really generous people in the whiskey enthusiast circles. With the rest of the year off, I’ve got plenty of free time so I’ve decided to make a year end push to clear out as many as I can.

Up tonight are two samples of famed Willett Family Estate C barrels. Willett C barrels are mostly gift shop only releases that are aged from 18-22 years, bottled at cask strength, and are said to be wheated bourbons distilled at the old Bernheim distillery in 1993. Good luck finding any of these as each release has sold out in hours or less even at the hefty price tag of around $300 or more a bottle. The secondary value on these is even worse at a sickening $550 or more which is beyond stupid but I digress.

In my own collection I also happen to have two different cask strength wheated bourbons from Buffalo Trace in the form of William Larue Weller. Those bottles are also very limited, impossible to find on any shelf these days, and hovering around the same sickening secondary market value. Given the extreme craze for all of these releases I thought it would be fun to compare them all in a blind side by side. Here are my blind results from worst to first and then some thoughts on the whole group.

Willett Family Estate #C14D

Aged 22 Years; 69.6% ABV; thanks to /u/ShooterFlatch for the sample

Nose: Sweet with lots of wood notes and slightly bitter undertones. Pretty damn hot so hard to nose much. 
Taste: Really warm and really spicy. Heavy cinnamon spice, some dark sweets, and some deeper tannic notes. Very rich and nice depth of flavors. Finish lingers with sweets and leather/tobacco forever. A beast of a bourbon that excels at flavor punch but loses points for being so damn hot. 
Guess: WLW 2014 
Rating: 88/100

William Larue Weller 2010

Aged 12 Years; 63.3% ABV

Nose: Cake batter. Sweet, slightly smoky, and a fairly woody. Not so hot that you can’t smell anything. 
Taste: More cake batter sweets. A good amount of cinnamon spice. Not nearly as hot as the others though the wood spice is hot on the finish. Finish is a little dry but there are some nice deeper, dark sweet notes in there. A very good and classic high proof wheated bourbon and certainly the most approachable of the bunch. 
Guess: WLW 2010 
Rating: 91/100

William Larue Weller 2014

Aged 12 Years; 70.1% ABV

Nose: The sweets are a bit darker and the wood is a bit deeper. There are some slightly funkier wood notes and fruity notes in there. 
Taste: Mostly all the same flavors - honey, cinnamon, dark fruits, dark chocolate, heavy wood. The wheater spice is heavy but not overpowering and there are lots of dark, deep sweet and wood notes. An excellent, bold bourbon that only loses points for being too hot. 
Guess: WFE C17D/C14D 
Rating: 92/100

Willett Family Estate #C17D

Aged 22 Years; 70.9% ABV; thanks to @bourbonooga for the sample

Nose: Sweet, very woody, and slightly bitter. Breathes really hot so the nose is a bit rough. 
Taste: Deeper oak and less sweet than the others. Lots more older wood notes, sweets are much darker and less forward. Still pretty hot and the wheater spice is very present but it’s not the dominant note. This is the cream of the crop by a wide margin as it’s the best balance of old, sweet, wood, and spice. 
Guess: WFE C14D/C17D 
Rating: 95/100

Thoughts: Tasting 4 x 126-140 proof bourbons side by side is brutally hard. I whiffed on the WLW 2014 but I’ve never had either of the C barrels prior to this so it was mostly a guessing game. I am really surprised by my results - I would have thought the Willet C barrels would have take the top 2 spots and the heat of the 2014 William Larue would have put it last but it looks like even the older C barrels can be overly hot. The William Larue 2010 was easy to pinpoint because of the lower proof but that probably worked against next to the beefier cousins. The bottom line is that these are all amazing bourbons but I won’t be rushing to drop secondary market prices on any of them.

Willett Family Estate Bourbon 12 Year #837 Review

Willett is a Kentucky bourbon brand that has a long history in the whiskey business. It’s only in the past 3 years though that they starting distilling again and the results of that are available in their current 2 year small batch rye and the forthcoming 3 year small batch rye. Before those products, Willet was more well known for their Family Estate line of bourbon and rye which range in age anywhere from 28 years down to 3 years. All of the products in the Family Estate line are sourced whiskeys of mostly unknown provenance though you can find plenty of speculation on their sources littered all over the various whiskey blogs and forums.

My experience with the Willett Family Estate whiskeys through the years tasting 30 or so different bottles has been something like this: many exceptional, many great, mostly good, some just okay, and a couple bad. That’s a pretty good track record if prices are reasonable like when they first became available in my area around 3-4 years ago. These days though when prices are hovering around $10 or more per aged year, paying $100+ for a bottle that might just be okay or even bad isn’t a risk many will take especially given the murmuring that quality is on the decline. I personally still haven’t reached the breaking point yet so when I was at the distillery gift shop earlier this year I picked up this bottle as well as a 13 year that will be the subject of a future review.

Aged 12 Years; 62.9% ABV; Bottle #79 of 150; Barrel No. 837; $118

Nose: Pretty hot, even after I switched to a Canadian glencairn. After about 30 minutes of air time the heat dissipated enough to reveal caramel, lots of woodiness, tobacco, and leather.

Taste: Caramel and honey sweetness takes the forefront though it’s rather muted by a pretty hefty amount of oak. The finish has the tobacco and leather notes from the nose. The woodiness here is certainly the most dominant element and while I wouldn’t say it’s overly bitter I would say that the sweetness and oaky bitterness pretty much cancel each other out leaving behind not much else than heat. It’s rather bland to be honest which is confusing considering the proof and the age.

Thoughts: A disappointing showing for the Family Estate line. This bottle is almost empty and I’m not sad to see it go. It’s not the worst Willett I’ve had but it’s far from great and somewhere around “okay”. This is the risk you take when buying a single barrel bottle from a Non-Distiller-Producer bottling of unknown provenance.

Rating: B- / C+

Value: As always, I don’t factor cost into my ratings. I regret paying retail for this bottle and can’t recommend trading or buying this particular barrel on any secondary markets. Having said that, the other bottle that I picked up on this trip (13yr #392) is quite stellar so it’s hard to recommend avoiding all these middle aged Family Estate bottlings just yet.

Willett Family Estate Single Barrel 4 Year Rye (Indiana) Review

Like many other startup distilleries, before Willett started producing their own rye whiskey they sold a sourced product under their name. Several years ago the most common of those was a 4 year single barrel with a green wax top and the wording “Distilled in Indiana” on the back label which I am reviewing here today. The Indiana part is key as that means it’s a 95% rye from the former Seagram’s distillery which is now known as MGPI. These days you can still find a similar product at various ages but Willett has since switched to green foil top bottles. At the time of this writing Willett also now has a 2 year old Small Batch and 3 year old Single Barrel that is their own distillate which will say distilled in Bardstown on the back label.

Willett Family Estate Single Barrel 4 Year Rye (Indiana)

55% ABV; Barrel 84A; Distilled in Indiana; $35

Notes: The nose has classic sweet and spicy rye flavors of evergreen and sugary spearmint. On the tongue it tastes just like it smells. It’s sweet, fruity, and spicy all at the same time. Mint, evergreen, pine, creme brulee, and spiced cinnamon apples are what I taste most. The rye flavors are pretty bright but there is plenty of candy sweetness and just enough wood to round out the edges. The only negative I can pinpoint is that the young age hasn’t totally smoothed out the alcohol so the finish can be a bit white dog reminiscent at times.

Thoughts: Really good stuff. I’m a huge fan of MGP ryes with the cask strength 8 year Smooth Ambler Old Scout being my favorite. With double the age and a bit higher proof it’s easy for that bottle to outclass this one but all of the classic MGP rye flavors are still here. What it lacks in aged oak complexity it makes up with some edgy almost untamed young rye notes that make it very interesting. It’s a shame this isn’t as cheap or as easy to find as it once was because at $35 I can’t think of a better value in a rye whiskey.

Rating: B+ / B

Willett XCF Exploratory Cask Finish 1.0 Review

This weekend’s review is the first release in what’s promised to be a series of cask finished whiskeys from Willett. Version 1.0 is a cask strength, small batch rye whiskey sourced from MGPI in Indiana which has been aged for 7 years. After sourcing Willett has then finished the rye in Grand Marnier casks from France. Most of the critical reception around the first XCF has been positive with the primary complaint being price. It seems that in an effort to combat secondary reselling of their whiskey Willett has aggressively priced this release much higher than usual. Of course the high price could also be due to the expenses involved in acquiring used Curacoa casks as well but that’s a debate for another time.

Aged 7 years; 51.7% ABV; $160

The orange notes from the Grand Marnier cask are immediately apparent in the nose. The typical spicy rye notes you usually get with MGPI rye whiskey are taking a back seat to a heavy dose of orange creamsicles. On the tongue there is more of the familiar rye spice like anise and clove but it is tempered with some nice oak and dried orange rind towards the finish. The taste and finish have a lot of sweetness with honey upfront and orange soda on the backend. The orange influence is heavy handed but I wouldn’t say it throws off the balance.

Thoughts: This is an incredibly unique whiskey and I’m certain you’ve never had anything like it. I’ll give credit where credit is due to Willett for pushing boundaries and doing something different here. As with everyone else who has reviewed this though the price is a huge sticking point for me. I understand why Willett has priced it as high as they have but the cost is almost enough to piss off even a long time Willett fanboy like myself. At ~$150 I don’t regret buying a bottle but I never felt the urge to pay that much for another one.

Rating: B+ / A-

Uniqueness Rating: A

Willett Family Estate 11 year #8125 (Randall's) Review

I'm pretty sure if I tallied up my reviews Willett Family Estate would be my most reviewed whiskey. That's not because it's always my favorite - overall my experience is mostly great with some just being good and then a couple stinkers. With that kind of track record though I don't usually feel like it's much of a risk to grab a bottle when I have a chance. That's been a bit easier lately since it seems there has been an influx of new synthetic cork foil top bottles popping up all over the place. The price is now considerably higher than a couple of years ago but that's an entirely different discussion and at least you can somewhat find these now. Anyway, this bottle being reviewed today is one of those more recent purple foil top bottles selected by Randall's Wine & Spirits and purchased in September 2014. Thanks to /u/bourbonbro for the hookup on this one.

64.4% ABV; Aged 11 Years; $110

The nose breaths hot and needs quite a while to cool off. Some bottles don't smell their proof but this is not one of them. If you can get beyond the ethanol there is a rich woody sweetness lurking in there somewhere. On the tongue it has a nice thick and syrupy mouthfeel. The taste resonates with a deep woody sweetness but the most prominent note is a familiar peanut butter nuttiness that I get with a certain other product from Clermont Kentucky named after a boisterous master distiller. The finish tapers off dry as the oak presence becomes more prominent but at the end it's all nutter butter cookies. The flavors are bold and rich but it drinks very hot which is my biggest negative. Coming from a guy who usually likes things others say is too hot, that's a pretty big deal. 

Thoughts: You might have asked yourself before reading the review why there is a Booker's 25th in my picture? Well it's because they taste like they are from the same stock to me. I like playing the guessing game on sourced whiskey and my taste buds tell me this Beam juice just like other recent foil top Willett's I've had. So how does it compare to the Booker's 25th? Well, they have a very similar taste profile - lots and lots of famous Beam nutty notes. The Booker's wins on the nose and is more refined in the taste and finish with considerably more depth and less burn (side note: big fan of Booker's 25 now that it's been open a while). Overall this is an okay but not great bottle of Willett. At $110 I wouldn't buy it again but it's far from the worst whiskey purchase I've ever made and certainly won't stop me from jumping on future Family Estate bottles. 

Rating: B-

Willett Family Estate 10 Year Barrel 1295 Review

My history with Willett Family Estate bourbons ranges from immaculate all the way down to terrible. Such is life when you are dealing with a non distiller producer single barrel product. By and large though my experience mostly lends towards the great side of things and I'm quite the fanboy of the brand. Here's a bottle that didn't wow me initially but grew on me over the past year or so since it has been opened.

59.25% ABV, Aged 10 years, Barrel 1295, Bottle 138/150, $75

The nose has lots of heat, oak, sweet wood sugars, and some rye spice. It noses a little hotter than its proof even after airing out for about 30 minutes. The palate gives a lot more of the same but with slightly less oak and a lot more hot spice. It's not as hot as the nose lets on but the spice is a little aggressive. The finish lingers for a long time with brown sugar and sweet woody maple syrup. As the glass goes down the finish gets a little deeper and some dark fudge notes come through. There are also a few wood polish notes here and there.

Thoughts: Like the previous 8 year Family Estate I reviewed recently, if I didn't know any better I would swear this was MGP sourced. This profile here reminds me a lot of the high rye Smooth Ambler Old Scout private barrelings I've had lately. Of course this one says Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey on it so there's no way it's from MGP. My next best guess would be Heaven Hill so I'm thinking this is what a 10 year barrel strength Evan Williams Single Barrel would taste like. It's really an enjoyable whiskey with a nice intermingling of oak, sweet, and spice. It's not nearly the best Willett I've ever had but it's really good and par for the course of the quality I've come to expect from the Family Estate label.

Rating: A-

Willett Family Estate 8 Year Barrel 6090 Review

Willett Family Estate 8 Year Barrel 6090

58.65% ABV, Aged 8 years, Bottle 120/162, Purple wax top purchased in Indiana 12/2012 for $65

Nose: The heat vapor is very, very strong but if you can get past that there are notes of brown sugar, oak, and some slight banana. I've drank a lot of high proof whiskey in my days and I had to struggle to pull out some positives here. It's mostly an ethyl alcohol blast.

Taste: Caramel and honey on the sweet side with a strong influence of leather and tobacco on the bitter side. It's also very spicy and not the most pleasant spice I've experienced. This is more along the lines of a peppery spice like Stagg Jr or a more crude ECBP batch 4.

Finish: Fairly sweet but not a deep dark sweetness - more like milk chocolate than dark chocolate. The spice is more refined now with mint notes instead of pepper. The acidic notes of leather and tobacco still linger.

Thoughts: Willett bottles are always "fun" because you never know what you are going to get. The last Willett 8 year I reviewed was one of the legendary 800 barrels (#805) and remains one of my all time favorites - top 5 material. The 7 year I reviewed recently is also way up there. This one is nowhere near those as it has some major issues with balance and acidity. The spice in the front to mid palate is very raw and less pleasant than I would like.

Overall it’s not bad but well below average in what I expect from the Willett Family Estate name. This just goes to show that even though on average Willett is usually pretty good there are occasional flat or even bad ones. If I didn't know any better I would strongly think this is MGP sourced rather than the typical speculation of Heaven Hill because of the high rye content but that's not possible since this is a Kentucky Straight Bourbon. 

Rating: B

Willett Family Estate 7yr Barrel 8659 Review

Up tonight is another bottle running low in my bunker that I'm trying to kill off to make some room for the impending Bourbon Christmas nearly upon us. I can't think of a better time to review a bottle than when it's down for the count so here we have it. This one has an interesting backstory in that it isn't empty because I drank all of it. This particular Willett selection dropped in our area last December but sadly I was out of town and missed it. In an odd twist of fate though my local called me about five months later saying they had been able to secure an extra. I immediately drove there and scooped it up. It was a rather mild day, the high was around 70 and it was overcast. I picked the bottle up around 1:30pm and drove back to work. At 4pm I go back to my car to leave work. Immediately upon opening my door I smell whiskey and think uh-oh. I reach for the bottle and the brown paper bag is soaking wet - as is my passenger seat and the floorboards of my car. The bottle had blown the cork completely off, fallen over, and spilled everywhere. Later that night I took some pictures:

 

Notice the perfect clean break in the wax around the cork. I've since learned through various other groups that Willett wax top bottles are notorious for this… when I posted on another group about this several people chimed in that the exact same thing had happened to them. Lesson learned: regardless of the temperature outside, never leave a wax top whiskey bottle in your car. My car smelled like a rolling whiskey barrel for about a month and on hot days sometimes I can still smell it four months later.

The real shame here though is fiasco happened to what is one of the better Willett bottles I've ever tasted. So on that spoiler note, let's get on with the review.

59.7% ABV; Aged 7 years; $65; Selected by Boonedocks

The nose is a very classic high proof moderately aged bourbon. There is a lot of heat if you don't let it open up but after about an hour it really calms down once the alcohol dissipates. After that there is loads of sweetness - caramel sugars, vanilla, toffee, and just the right amount of oaky goodness. It's a very, very good nose.

The taste is slightly young but not what I would call under ripe. It's hot but not overly brash. The palate and finish are intensely sweet with caramel, sugar, and vanilla for days. The finish lasts a very, very long time. It's very close to Booker's in overall experience which makes sense because the age and proof are pretty much the same. It doesn't have that peanut butter funky Beam yeast flavor though so I would say it has all the great things I love about Booker's without the things I am not as fond of. That's a pretty high bar as far as I am concerned because I think Booker's is a stellar whiskey. All in all, it's got the umph and gusto you want in a big barrel proofer but also all the sweetness and lingering finish expect in a delicious fine bourbon. It may not have the finesse and complexity of an old barrel proof wheater but other than that it's got everything you want in an upper echelon pour.

Rating: A

Willett Family Estate Barrel #805 Review

I'm trying pretty hard to clear out bottles that are nearly empty from the bunker in order to make room for the impending "Bourbon Christmas" that is nearly upon us. Up tonight is a bottle that I've treasured dearly and have been sitting on for years but tonight it's time to say goodbye. This is one of the older Willetts from the legendary 800 series - notice how the font on the face isn't cursive like the more recent bottles from the past couple of years. This bottle is what cemented my love affair with Willett and it was only recently after trying some of the ancient 40's series 18 year wheaters that I've ever had a better Family Estate.

64.15% ABV; Aged 8 years; $55 (Early 2012); Bottle 142/180

Color: I'm not a color snob but this one is dark. I mean just look at it - it looks more like coffee than bourbon. Compared to my more recent 7,8,9,10 Willett Family Estates this one is nearly twice as dark.

Nose: Full on salty caramel bomb. It smells insanely sweet with wafts of sugary oak.

Taste: The same sugary sweet notes from the nose amplified. I've never tasted so much caramel in a whiskey ever in my life. It is one dimensional in that it's just all candy sugary sweetness but this one is just a giant among men in that category. It honestly tastes like sugar daddy caramel candy sticks reincarnated as booze. The heat level is fairly warm but it's a soft glow and not overly angry. The finish is moderate to long with a tempered amount of heat given the proof. The great part in the finish though is all that bright upfront sweetness morphs into a darker cocoa / mocha chocolate. It's freaking delicious.

Thoughts: What I poured from this one tonight is the end of the line for this bottle and I'm really going to miss it. What it lacks in depth and complexity it makes up by doing sweetness better than just about any other bottle I've had. It makes me sad that I used to be able to just walk into a store and buy this stuff off the shelf. Hard to believe but at the time I debated for several weeks over buying it. Now I regret not clearing the shelves.

Rating: A