Brooklyn-based Widow Jane continues to prove that blending is serious business, and its devotion to experimentation isn’t going to stop even under its newish ownership of Heaven Hill.
“The Vaults” releases have arrived annually since 2019, each of them well-aged bourbons with often unusual finishing. The fifth Vaults release, from late 2024, is probably its most extreme yet, using polarizing Brazilian amburana wood casks to finish a 15-year-old blended bourbon.
As Widow Jane head blender Sienna Jevremov notes, amburana is “a bombastic wood,” and it has a massive impact on whiskey. I was excited to see how it would fare with a very well-aged bourbon that sees the inclusion of barrels as old as 20 years of age. Thoughts follow.
Bombastic is no joke: This whiskey evokes bold aromas right away that will challenge most bourbon connoisseurs: almond and banana are prominent, with a nice bit of dill and a light slick of furniture polish on top. It’s very exotic but surprisingly well-rounded and engaging.
The palate quickly takes you into a deep dive that is dominated by one element over all others: coconut. I don’t think I’ve encountered a whiskey that has a more vibrant and vivid coconut flavor than this one, which gives The Vaults a very sweet quality that is impossible to shake. Continuing notes of dill give the whiskey a considerable pickly quality, but this fades in the face of what follows — big banana and bubble gum notes, followed by sweet marshmallow cream.
The finish remains incredibly tropical, again touched with herbs (more dill) and a reprise of banana and coconut. Hints of strawberry take things in yet another direction on the fade out.
There’s nothing about this whiskey that isn’t unique, and even if you’re not normally a fan of amburana, I think it’s something worth tasting at least once.
99 proof.
A- / $250 / widowjane.com [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]
Widow Jane The Vaults 15 Years Old 2024
$250
