Tasting notes

nose

honey and licorice, spiced nuts, cranberry and brandied fruit, with dark chocolate and pine underneath

palate

plum and dark raspberry, herbal honey, citrus peel and cinnamon over earthy, tannic oak

finish

short to medium; a flash of heat and rising spice, then anise and honey, drying to spicy oak and tree sap

Mash bill

72% corn, 13% rye, 15% malted barley. The label calls this the original family recipe: the lower-rye of Willett's two bourbon mash bills, the same grain split behind Old Bardstown at its other strengths. Willett mashes and ferments it in Bardstown and distills it twice, on a column still and then a Vendome copper pot still.

Why it's craft

The Estate Bottled label states that Willett distilled, aged and bottled this bourbon at its own Bardstown distillery, where the Willett family has made whiskey since 1936. The Kulsveen family, who run the distillery today, restarted its stills in 2012 after years of bottling other producers' whiskey, and Old Bardstown has since moved to Willett's own spirit. At 101 proof it is the fullest-strength version of the family's original recipe.