Did You Ever Notice? - A Willett Short Feature
Have you ever noticed that Willett distillery has multiple bourbons that don’t have the Family Estate label, but they don’t have a single non-WFE rye? I know, crazy right? Willett or Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD) has a rather large portfolio of labels and bottles that many of you are familiar with, and some that you aren’t. We will ignore the bottles that have Willett distillate like the Hirsch 6 year single barrels (not a rye), or the Old Kirk releases (also not a rye), and focus entirely on Willett bottled items.
This was once ten-years old sans age statement. Can you believe that? Not a rye, obvi.
Let’s go down the list of Willett made products that they release.
Johnny Drum Bourbon - Green label 80-86 proof. Private Stock (the standard yellow you see on shelves most places) 101 proof. Neither age stated.
Old Bardstown Bourbon - All kinds of labels here, we’ll stick to the ones nationally known (if not available). Beige label 90pf. Estate Bottled 101 proof (first distilled 1937). KY only Bottled in Bond white label.
Vintage - Some legends here that appear now and then, mostly then. 17, 21, 23 years old. *asterisk here…..
Pot Still Reserve - The bong hits for jesus bottle. Used to be single barrel if you can imagine.
Kentucky Vintage - 90pf, used to be ten-years old.
Noah’s Mill - we don’t talk about this ever. It’s Bourbon Fight Club.
Pure Kentucky XO - 107pf and everyone ignores this at their peril.
Rowan’s Creek - This used to be KBD’s best selling brand a decade ago. Doubtful that it still is.
Corner Creek - Yep, it’s Willett.
Kentucky Pride - Also Willett.
Willett Family Estate - Bourbon and Rye whiskey, also known as Purple or Green tops.
They also do some contract distilling.
Black Maple Hill - The old storied and defunct brand, not the newer clown shoe brand from Oregon.
Old Pogue - every once in awhile this one appears.
Michter’s - Open secret.
Please take note that there are some other seemingly random labels that Willett owns and puts out now and then to keep the rights current, like Speakeasy and some others. Also note, none of these are rye whiskey outside of the Family Estate labeling.
Why no Old Bardstown Rye?
It’s very interesting to me that with all of the labels that Willett holds, and Old Bardstown seemingly their flagship standard bearer, that there isn’t a rye in the lineup anywhere other than WFE. I think that this is a mistake that should be corrected. Old Bardstown is the perfect label to drop a 90-95 proof rye into. With the excellent 4-year old WFE rye coming in 104-126 proof over the last couple years, putting something in the 90 range would make sense, increase profits for the distillery, and perhaps give us Willett rye fans something far more easily found. If you have a four year green top, put it on ice, or add some drops of water, and see that it plays well at a lower proof. I am aware that people (hi, my name is People) are crazy about the WFE label, and for good reason. It’s fabulous rye whiskey, that tastes like nothing else on the market. The freshly mowed lawn notes are not common, and the richness of the rye is incomparable. Frankly, Willett makes some of the very best rye on the planet earth, and the Martians are secretly exporting it to Neptune City which is definitely not the reason why we cannot find it easily.
The Civil War backstory is pretty tired really. This is made up with no historical connection to the brand or bottle..
Heaven Hill recently added rye to their Elijah Craig lineup, which on the face of it still strikes me as odd. They already have the Rittenhouse brand, which I still cannot understand why it hasn’t been expanded beyond the well (see what I did there?) respected bottled-in-bond, and the deliberately neglected Pikesville. The only reason I can think of is that Elijah Craig is the best known Heaven Hill brand outside of Evan Williams. So, adding a rye to EC gives it almost instant name recognition, which is what all those marketing folks love. If Willett were to take a page out of HH’s playbook here, then Old Bardstown is the only line expansion that makes sense. While they have more coveted brands, it’s still lacking that name recognition. Kentucky Vintage Rye? pfffft. Noah’s Mill rye? RYE FIGHT CLUB! Pot Still rye? PASSSSSSS. Old Bardstown Rye though? SIGN ME UP! Drop a green label on it and hit me for $35? SOLD.
One of the severely under appreciated bottles from Willett. This thing is way better than Turkey 101.
I’d like to think that there are super good reasons to not add a non-WFE rye to the portfolio. I suppose one could make the ironclad case that they can’t keep the ryes on the shelves anywhere, but come on, they can’t keep the purple tops on shelves either, but look at all the bourbon brands they have! Perhaps they just love rye so much that they are like, nope, it’s so good, so different, so important, that it only gets the family crest. I honestly don’t know the reasons, but I am hopeful that with the continued growth and expansion of this bourbon and rye boom, that there will be a place for a new rye release from one of my all time favorite distilleries. Will it happen? Who knows? The legendary distillery is notoriously quiet about such things and will very likely never read, let alone respond to my inquiries. If it does happen, it surely won’t be because of me, but because it just makes absolute sense to do so.
Let’s finish with the asterisk here…
The Vintage label used to include ultra aged Rye’s, but they’re also super rare, super coveted, super limited, and they aren’t common releases. These are unicorns period, and while they’re historically epic bottles, this isn’t the point of this piece.
As always, thank you for reading, and feel free to share your comments, jokes, criticisms or insults below.
- Mickey Pinstripe