Willett’s New Small Batch Bourbon is Just Okay

Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.

Ask a couple of whiskey bros (and yes, they will most likely be bros) what their favorite unicorn bottles are, and the name Willett will likely enter the conversation. This Kentucky distillery is known for releasing highly coveted limited-edition bottles of sourced whiskey over the years, many of which sell for thousands of dollars at auction and on the secondary market. But the distillery just released a new bourbon that, while still limited, is much easier to get ahold of, and is priced very reasonably. I guess you get what you pay for, though, because this whiskey is fine, but nowhere near as good as those tater bait bottlings.

Siblings Drew and Britt Kulsveen run WIllett, but it was their late father, Even, who was responsible for this bourbon legacy. While the history of Willett can be traced back a century or more, the modern version really started in 1984 when the elder Kulsveen purchased the distillery and renamed it Kentucky Bourbon Distillers Ltd., often just called KBD. For years, the Kulsveens sourced bourbon from other distilleries and further aged the barrels in their own warehouses (the source was widely believed to be Heaven Hill’s Bernheim facility before it burned down in 1996). By the mid-’90s, Willett was releasing brands like Noah’s Mill and Rowan’s Creek, and in 2008 it launched three more sourced brands—Family Estate Bottled Bourbon, Rye, and Pot Still Reserve. In 2012, whiskey production commenced at the distillery, with bottles hitting the market a few years later.

Over the years, the sourced bourbon has become a favorite of collectors, particularly the high-proof, single-barrel bottlings usually known by the color of their wax tops. “Purple tops” are arguably the most popular, and for good reason because the quality of the whiskey within is often excellent. The new Family Estate Small Batch Bourbon also sports a purple top, but this is a very different whiskey. This bourbon was distilled onsite and is a blend of two different mashbills, each aged for a minimum of four years: 70 percent of what’s in the bottle is 72 percent corn, 13 percent rye, and 15 percent barley; the remaining 30 percent is 52 percent corn, 38 percent rye, and 10 percent barley. The proof will vary, however, because this bourbon is being released in batches at cask strength, with the first clocking in at 125 proof.

This is a fine bourbon, a totally decent release that will scratch your basic whiskey itch, but it doesn’t compare to those legendary bottles. That’s not really fair, of course, because it’s not supposed to—this is a relatively young bourbon from a distillery that has only actually been making its own whiskey for about a decade. I’m not sure the high proof does the whiskey any favors, as the heat sort of amplifies the graininess on the palate, which does also have nice notes of vanilla, maple, hot chocolate, and ripe berries, along with some spice and a generally earthy character.

So far it looks like Family Estate Small Batch Bourbon selling for more than its suggested retail price (around $70), but that’s a shame because it’s not really worth paying much more than that. For a similar price tag, or even much less, you can find bourbon around the same age (or older, and with a more palatable proof) from distilleries and brands like New Riff, Russell’s Reserve, and Michter’s. If you’re a diehard fan who loves Willett and is curious to see how the distillery continues to develop its in-house whiskey, give this bottle a try. But if you’re a more casual drinker who doesn’t want to spend 100 bucks on a young bourbon, this might not be the one for you.

Score: 87

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