Tasting notes

nose

honeycomb and green grape with cream soda, caramel and a salty, sea-air edge

palate

honey and salted caramel, then dried apricot, peach and fig, with allspice and milky coffee toward the back

finish

long and building; stewed peach and apricot with allspice and star anise, settling into toasted pastry, milk chocolate and dry hay

Mash bill

Baby Jane heirloom corn, with the other grains and their proportions not published. The corn is Widow Jane's own strain: from 2013 the team planted heirloom seed on John Gill's farm a few miles north of the Rosendale mines, found that Bloody Butcher Red and Wapsie Valley Yellow grew best, and spent four years replanting the medium-colored kernels of their natural cross until the strain held. Widow Jane says the corn gives the bourbon depth, sweetness and a creamy kind of spice.

Awards

• Double Gold — San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2025
• Double Gold — SIP Awards 2025
• Gold — Beverage Tasting Institute 2025

Why it's craft

Baby Jane is made from a corn Widow Jane bred itself, selected over four years from heirloom plantings on a farm near the Rosendale mines in upstate New York. Part of the blend is distilled in Red Hook, Brooklyn, on a 1,000-liter hybrid still, and part is distilled from the same corn in Kentucky, so not all of it comes off Widow Jane's own still. Each batch is assembled from a few barrels, cut with Rosendale limestone water and bottled without chill filtration. The Brooklyn distillery has belonged to Heaven Hill Brands since 2022.