Widow Jane Distillery Visit
My wife and I made plans to visit the Widow Jane Distillery this past Winter, a stopover while we ate our way through Queens and spent time with her family. Not being bourbon drinkers neither of us were terribly familiar with Widow Jane. I only knew they were in Brooklyn thanks to WhiskyCast. Despite our unfamiliarity, their location near Ikea, which we were already planning to visit (I had never been to an Ikea before), made it a perfect stop during our Brooklyn adventure day.
Widow Jane sits in a charming, semi-industrial, quickly gentrifying, corner of Brooklyn a way off the closest metro stop. It shares an open brick building with the Cacao Prieto chocolate factory and the two were once part of the same operation.
The Widow Jane distillery is located right in the heart of the Red Hook area of Brooklyn, within walking distance of Ikea, Swedish meatballs, and a free-ferry back to Manhattan if you buy something at Ikea… like meatballs.
The Tour
My wife and I scheduled a midweek private tour for $30/each which included whisky and chocolate tastings. I let them know we wanted to add on a tasting of their heirloom grain whisky flight for an additional $10/each. The tour itself was well done and our guide was well practiced. The aroma of raw cacao being roasted and processed was mouthwatering. The constant noise and movement was a reminder that this is an active distillery and chocolate factory. The excellent chocolate tasting took place in the basement where the chocolate is finished and packaged. The Cacao Pietro was easily some of the best chocolate I have ever had.
The tour ended with a trek back upstairs, a brief explanation of the distilling operation, and a tasting of the different Widow Jane products. The standard flight that came with the tour was all sourced and blended whiskies not actually distilled in Brooklyn. Like many small craft distilleries, Widow Jane has sourced a number of its products while it lays down its own stock to mature. Despite this practice being relatively common, it can raise questions over authenticity and provenance. Craft distilleries operate on often razor thin margins and tend to sell products at a premium— selling sourced whisky at a premium after the addition of limestone filtered cave water may not be a value proposition for everyone.
The Tasting
The standard flight we tasted included the Widow Jane 10 Year Bourbon Whiskey, Widow Jane 8 Year Bourbon Whiskey, Widow Jane American Oak Aged Whisky Distilled from a Rye Mash, and the Widow Jane Oak & Apple Wood Aged Whisky Distilled from a Rye Mash. All of those are sourced whiskies and they were all solid. They were not particularly inspiring or noteworthy, they were smooth with pretty standard bourbon and rye flavor profiles. Neither of us our bourbon drinkers or anywhere near being bourbon connoisseurs so our uncomplicated enjoyment of them was probably a given.
The Heirloom Bourbon Whiskey flight was another beast entirely; its flavors were richer, more interesting, and altogether more unique and attention grabbing. The flight included Baby Jane Heirloom Bourbon, Bloody Butcher Bourbon, Wapsie Valley Bourbon, Chocolate Malt Bourbon, and Hopi Blue Corn Bourbon. All of these are distilled in-house and aged in a warehouse down the block. The Hopi Blue Corn had interesting medicinal notes. The Wapsie Valley was light and sweet with prominent citrus notes, the Bloody Butcher was spicy and full bodied, the Baby Jane combined these elements. The Baby Jane is distilled from a Widow Jane created hybrid corn varietal of Wapsie Valley & Bloody Butcher and packed in fruit, spice, and candied ginger notes like a wonderful dense holiday fruit loaf.
The star for us was the Chocolate Malt. In hindsight, as scotch drinkers, it is really not all that surprising that we would naturally be attracted to the bottle whose flavor profile best approximates a single malt due to the higher proportion of malted chocolate barely in its mashbill. It had elements of dark savory chocolate, oaky vanilla, and faint sweet smoke. We finished up our tasting with a sample of the Widow Jane 12 Year 99 Proof Straight Bourbon Whiskey which had just come in. It was richer than the other sourced bourbon blends we tried, but did not hold a candle to the Heirloom whiskies.
The little bottle of Baby Jane we adopted and a few tag-alongs.
The Great, The Good, & The Disappointing
The heirloom tasting flight was probably the highlight of the tour. I have no idea why the standard tasting does not include more of the products distilled in-house as they are excellent. I feel those should be front and center as they were the most interesting part of the tour and really show off the operation. Second to the heirloom flight was the chocolate tasting. We really were not expecting a whole lot in that regard, we came for the whisky after all! But the chocolate was delicious. Even my wife, who does not usually get very excited over chocolate enjoyed it. In fact, it was so good we even found their peppermint chocolate bar to be palatable, when we tend to collectively gag at the thought of mint or peppermint chocolate.
Our tour and tasting guide was knowledgeable and friendly. He certainly had his tour beats down. While it was nice that he had a story to tell and was clearly very practiced at the tour, he left little to no room for asking questions short of interrupting his flow. He moved a bit quickly through the whisky production side of things. The tour felt far more concentrated on chocolate, which, while interesting, was not exactly what we came for. I wish there had been a bit more focus on whisky production, yeast, mashbills, etc., as well as more opportunities to ask questions. It would have been interesting to be able to sample white dog/new make spirit, or even the limestone filters cave water to get a better appreciation for what it brings to the table.
It was disappointing that the shop was sold out of the whiskies which we were most interested in after the tasting, including the Chocolate Malt. It was unfortunate to find a great bottle we loved but not be able to take one back home with us. We did buy a bottle of the Baby Jane, so we did not leave empty handed by any means. We were also a bit disappointed in the tour guide’s explanation for chill-filtering the whiskies in order to keep them from appearing cloudy or having an oily viscous mouthfeel. I am not in a position of knowledge or authority to seriously question the decisions of a distiller who has a vision for their product, but the way the guide sort of brought it up and pitched it to us was a bit off, as if cloudy whisky or oily mouthfeel were signs of inferior quality. We are probably not the average consumer or market, but maybe the virtues of filtration in this instance could be made more clear if there was an unfiltered product to sample against.
Would we go again?
Yes, we will definitely visit the distillery (and Ikea) again. I do not think we would do the tour again, it was great to do once, but it is not the sort of tour I think you would get much out of repeating unless the distillery undergoes some major renovations. I could see us dropping by the shop to see if we could find a bottle of the Chocolate Malt Bourbon or try a flight of any new expressions or products. I would love to try future in-house distilled products as their stocks expand and mature; certainly any single malts or products with greater malted barley mash bills in the future will have our attention.
If you want to plan a visit, head on over to Widow Jane’s “Tour & Tasting page”. They offer walk-in tours for $20 on weekends at 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, & 6:00. They offer the private tours that we took every other day of the week. Both options include a tasting flight of whiskies. Though the distillery cannot serve a full pour of any of their products, the cafe/bar right next door will be more than happy to.
