Tasting notes

nose

candied pecans and maple syrup over charred oak, with sponge cake, cacao nib and a lift of lemon curd

palate

maple and burnt sugar with vanilla, cinnamon bark and orange, then pecan and chocolate over a fizzy, cola-like mineral note

finish

moderate in length; maple and brown sugar fade into shortbread, sugared nuts and birch beer, leaving a little tobacco leaf and oak

Mash bill

Recipe not published: a blend of straight bourbons from distilleries in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Each is made from at least 51% corn, as all bourbon must be, with rye or wheat and malted barley making up the rest. Because the blend draws on several distilleries, more than one grain recipe is in the bottle.

Awards

• Double Gold — San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2025
• Double Gold — SIP Awards 2025
• Gold — New York International Spirits Competition 2025

Why it's craft

Widow Jane does not distill Decadence: it blends straight bourbons of at least ten years from Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The finish is a trade with a New York maple producer: Widow Jane sends barrels to Crown Maple in the Hudson Valley, Crown ages its syrup in them, and the emptied barrels come back to finish this bourbon. The whiskey is cut to strength with water from the Rosendale limestone mines, and Widow Jane has been part of Heaven Hill Brands since 2022.