Tasting notes

nose

caramel, honey and vanilla, toasted marshmallow, cut grass and hay, with mint and a little fennel seed

palate

honey and caramel, raw cane sugar, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger tea, with orange peel and a peppery back end

finish

a rush of spice settles into caramel, vanilla and brown sugar, then peppermint candy and a touch of oak close it out

Mash bill

72% corn, 13% rye, 15% malted barley. This is the Willett family's original low-rye bourbon recipe, the same grain split behind Old Bardstown and Noah's Mill; what sets Rowan's Creek apart is the barrel selection and its 100.1 proof. Willett mashes and ferments it in Bardstown and distills it on a column still and a Vendome copper pot still.

Why it's craft

Even Kulsveen, who married into the Willett family and took over the distillery in 1984, drew this label by hand and named the bourbon for the creek that runs past the Bardstown distillery. Rowan's Creek was long filled with whiskey bought from other distilleries; current batches are Willett's own distillate, from the stills the family restarted in 2012. It is bottled at 100.1 proof without chill filtration.