William Larue Weller 2005, 2006, and 2016 Reviews

William Larue Weller, the cask strength wheated bourbon behemoth released as part of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. I've covered several vintages before but have been holding on to a couple special samples from the early days of its release and figured now was a good a time as any to review them. For reference, I'm also including my own bottle of the 2016 release for some side by side action. Of note here, 2005 is the first release of William Larue Weller. Prior to that it was just Weller at 19 years old and only 90 proof. The 2006 release is often regarded as something of legend - due to its age and given distillery timelines, there is the belief it is actually stock from Stitzel Weller. Given the jackoffery for Stitzel bourbons you can only imagine the foaming at the mouth for a 15 year old cask strength version. Give my experience with these and how hot / high proof they are I know they are murderers row for your palate so my biggest intrigue here is whether the 2006 stands out above the rest. 

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William Larue Weller 2005

Aged 12 years; 60.95% ABV; thanks to /u/02camaroSS for the sample

Nose: Rather muted for 122 proof but has some sugary wheated bourbon sweetness. Smells like lightly wooded caramel cake batter with a little wheat spice zip.

Taste: Rather light and again does not drink at all like 122 proof. It's mostly all wood sweets and fruits, like a honey caramel covered apple. The finish doesn't last long.

Thoughts: This isn't bad but by William Larue Weller standards it is very disappointing. I highly suspect this one has oxidized over the years because it's way thinner and easier to drink than it should be. The wheated bourbon notes are there but all in all it just tastes like Weller 12 with about the same depth and heat. Take this review with a grain of salt because I feel like something is not right here.

Rating: B-

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William Larue Weller 2006

Aged 12 years; 64.95% ABV; thanks to /u/ShooterFlatch for proxing this sample

Nose: Wow. So dark and rich - heavy wood influence and heavy sweet tones. I've talked about how some dusties I've tried before have a rich, compacted, condensed flavor profile and this certainly smells that way. On top of all the lush sweet and wood there is dark sugary cherries and prunes. 

Taste: Not quite as shocking as the nose but it's close. Massive wood notes and heavy sweet notes as well as some old dusty bourbon notes. Wood and wheat spice are there in droves from start to finish along with dark booze soaked cherries and cake batter. It's incredibly chewy, almost like eating bourbon. Totally drinkable for the proof, the intense flavor is all there but the heat isn't overpowering. 

Thoughts: I was skeptical this would stand out but I am happy to be wrong. A master class bourbon, among the best I've had. I have no idea if this is Stitzel Weller or not but I don't care - it's certainly the best William Laure Weller I've ever had by a long shot. 

Rating: A

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William Larue Weller 2016

Aged 12 years; 67.6% ABV;

Nose: Pretty dense but not as compact as the 2006. The flavor profile is the same as the 2006, wood heavy and sweet heavy with some boozed soaked red/dark fruits. It's a really nice nose, just not as condensed as the 2006.

Taste: Just like the nose and again very similar to the 2006 just not as deep. It's mostly all wood, wheat spice, and sugary cherry cake notes. The spice and heat is a little more out of control though and it feels a bit rougher for the proof though it is the highest ABV here. It has a slightly younger wood vibe than the 2006 but still has a great amount of wood depth. The finish goes on for quite a while with woody dark chocolate cinnamon spice heat.

Thoughts: Really good stuff and though I am usually a Stagg man, I am glad I went with the Weller in 2016 after having tasting them both. Going off memory this is as good as or better than a lot of William Larue Weller vintages.

Rating: A-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

Update 7/1: For what it's worth, the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection spec sheet states the 2006 William Larue Weller was distilled by the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort. Thanks to @bourbonnooga for pointing that out. There are however comments like this one on straightbourbon.com that quote Buffalo Trace employees as stating a Stitzel Weller provenance. We'll probably never know for sure.

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.

BTAC 2013 Review Smackdown Part 5 - William Larue Weller

Those that have been reading will recall that I got zilched this past BTAC season. Any of the BTAC would have been nice to have but George T Stagg was the bottle I was really gunning for. While I liked the 2012 William Larue Weller, the 2012 Stagg was my clear favorite and is still one of my favorite bourbons of all time. At the time I didn’t realize there could be such a huge variation from year to year, I just assumed the 2013 Stagg would again be my favorite from the collection. As it turned out I was rather let down by the 2013 release. Sometime after coming to that disappointing conclusion I managed to get a pour of the 2013 William Larue Weller at a bar. I’m not going spoil the whole review with my opinion yet but I’ll just say from that moment forward every bit of my whiskey focus shifted towards getting my hands on a bottle.

As someone who is dead set against buying bottles on the secondary, how was I going to obtain a William Larue Weller well past BTAC drop season? Easy, I’ll just trade for one, right? PFFFFFFT. What I would soon learn is that WLW is the most clingy, attached bottle I’ve ever tried to source. I knew I had one thing going for me though - as part of a trade for my miraculous Four Roses 120th find, I managed to get my hands on a Colonel E.H. Taylor Tornado. I knew this was a highly sought after bottle and while I personally liked it I knew it was more valuable as trade bait. Just casually mentioning owning one brought on waves of messages with trade offers. While I did find a couple of people who wanted the Tornado who also owned a WLW, none of them were willing to give up a WLW for it without me kicking in 1-2 additional allocated items. I just wasn’t ready to do that so par for the course in the series I just decided to be patient and wait for the right trade to come along.

A month or so goes by and despite many trade negotiations, nothing pans out. What I did notice one day though is a local craigslist posting from a guy seeming to have every rare bourbon on the planet for sale. In his ad he listed Tornado at $600 and the WLW at $375. Ah ha! Someone who values the Tornado higher than WLW. I hit him up and asked he if was interested in a trade. In typical fashion he balked and I got the same reply I got from everyone else: “WLW, oh that’s my favorite. What else would you want for the Tornado?”. I stood my ground though and after a bit of back and forth with him he agreed to a 1:1 trade. So here today we have that bottle, acquired for 1 EHT Tornado which really only cost me ½ of a Four Roses 120th at retail. I made out pretty well as far as I am concerned.

68.1% ABV; Aged 12 years 1 month

Nose: Surprisingly low heat considering the proof. I figured this one would take a while to air out but even in a heat tunnel glencairn I can nose things immediately after pouring with little burn. Huge wafts of sweet ripe fruits like blackberries, raisins, and sugared caramel for days. When I was a little kid I remember my father used to make homemade blackberry wine and the nose here is very reminiscent of that fruitiness. It’s very comforting to say the least.

Taste: The heat I expected from the nose came to party all the time now. Letting it simmer for a bit longer helped it cool off. It’s heavy, thick, and super viscous. The flavors from the nose are heavily reinforced - warm raisins, butterscotch, sweet wood/brown sugar caramels. Barrel char starts come on at the end.

Finish: Significant barrel char and some heat on the front of the finish. Heat is sharp and a dry at first but fades to a warm sweet glow. Finish is deeply sweet, powerful, and lingers for a very long time. Easily the longest finish of the bunch.

Notes: Wow. Also, wow. I really understand now why people cling to this one so hard. Keep in mind I’m a cask strength junkie but this is easily the best wheated bourbon I’ve ever had. It’s not simple, modest, or very complex. What it lacks in subtlety, layers, or complexity it makes up for with pure brute strength in its strong suit: a decadently sweet wheat palette. Compared to other barrel proof beasts I don’t know if this is quite up there with 2012 Stagg but I'd have a hard time deciding between the two. 

Rating: A