The Widow Jane Distillery in Brooklyn, New York, is one of my favorite distilleries. They have been producing some amazingly good whiskeys in the last four years or so. It is mostly sourced and contract-distilled whiskey as they are  a small distillery that makes only a small amount of whiskey each year, but they have sourced some very good barrels. Lisa Wicker was hired as their Master Distiller and Blender several years ago and started the turn-around in quality, but has since left the distillery. However, she trained her successor well. This bottle of Decadence is proof of that!

This bottle is a marriage of Bourbons from Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana that have been finished in maple syrup barrels from New York’s Crown Maple. I generally don’t care for maple finished Bourbon because the maple quickly overpowers the Bourbon flavors, but this Bourbon is an exception. It was finished with just a touch of maple flavor, just enough to let you know that it was finished in maple syrup barrels.  This bottle is from batch 39 and is bottle 438 from 2023. Matt and I sat down and tasted it the other day and decided it had to be our whiskey of the month for March 2023. Here are our tasting notes.

Widow Jane Decadence 2023

Proof: 91

Age: No Age Statement

Nose:

  • Mike: Maple, caramel, pears, baking spices and oak wood.
  • Matt: Maple, Oak, black cherry – reminiscent of a walk in the forest with the aromas of nature.

Taste:

  • Mike: Maple, caramel, pears, cinnamon and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and the pear and cinnamon are enhanced. Tasted with a pecan and the caramel becomes a rich buttered caramel with ripe pears, cinnamon and oak.
  • Matt: Maple, brown sugar, pear, citrus and oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and maple, sugar cane and banana pancake flavors come out. Tasted with a pecan and it tastes of caramel, creamy chocolate, apple butter with cinnamon and oak wood.

Finish:

  • Mike:  Medium long with oak, cinnamon and lingering caramel. The dried cranberry made the finish longer with oak, cinnamon and lingering maple syrup. The pecan made the finish long and dry with oak, cinnamon and lingering caramel.
  • Matt: Medium long with oak and maple syrup. The dried cranberry made the finish longer with oak, maple and lingering banana fruit. The pecan made the finish very long with oak and lingering caramel.

I would pair this fine whiskey with a Padron 1964 Anniversary Maduro cigar. I think the rich vanilla and caramel notes of the smoke would pair well with the sweet caramel and maple notes of the whiskey.

Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller