Willett XCF Exploratory Cask Finish Small Batch Rye Whiskey Cask Strength 51.7% Vol. finished in Curacao Casks from France Version 1.0 - limited release of a special Rye Whiskey
For the Willett family, distilling craft whiskey is a family tradition. John David Willlett began distilling at the Moore, Willett and Frenke Distillery just outside of Louisville, Kentucky, during Reconstruction. In 1898, his son, A. Lambert Willett - who was just 15 years old at the time - began apprenticing with his father. Eventually, Lambert purchased a farm on the outskirts of Bardstown, Kentucky and began construction of the Willett Distilling Company in the spring of 1935. While Willett Distilling Company eventually changed its name to Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, the family tradition lives on. Even Kulsveen, owner of KBD, is Willett s son-in-law.
The Willett Distilling Company released their first non-traditional whiskey via their XCF Exploratory Cask Finish Version 1.0 in late October of this year. Visitors at their Bardstown, KY distillery on Halloween Day were the ones to purchase this barrel manipulated Rye whiskey which is getting favorable reviews from most of the connoisseurs who are lucky enough to get their hands on a bottle. This Rye whiskey was aged inside the Willett warehouses in Bardstown for 7 years. The story gets a little more interesting and now drifts over to Europe. During a trip to France, Willett Master Distiller and Blender Drew Kulsveen had an opportunity to see how the orange liqueur known as Curacao was made. The barrels that were used to age the citrus-flavored spirit were actually used Bourbon barrels, which was a factor for Drew believing they may produce a nice barrel finish for some of the Rye he had aging. So after bringing 25 of the Curacao casks from France back to Kentucky, Drew and his team needed 42 barrels of the 7 year-old Rye to fill them up (remember, after 7 years of aging those barrels were not full due to angel s share/evaporation) and allowed the whiskey to age for another 90 days inside those barrels. After three months the barrels were all dumped together and bottled as a small batch, sticking to Willett s philosophy of bottling small batches at 20-25 barrels. This yielded 6,912 bottles, which might sound like a lot, but considering Willett is now in 35 states and 25 countries, this release is very highly allocated. For a Rye Whiskey that is farily high in ABV, this drinks rather easily. Sweet citrcus and caramel notes prevail on the front of the palate with light oak notes on the back end.
- Nose: Natural oak, spicy, earthy notes, and, after a little while in the glass, wonderful rich caramel notes
- Palate: Plenty of citrus notes (particularly oranges!), maple syrup prevalent with lots of rye hanging out in the background. This Rye Whiskey contains both fruit and spice elements.
- Finish: Herbal, the fruit notes and rye grain are still present, but calm down considerably. Light oak notes show their face once again.
- Colour: auburn
- Typ: Straight Rye Whiskey - Distillery Bottling
- District: Kentucky - Bardstown
- Mash Bill: 95% rye and 5% malted barley
- Vintage: 12. April 2006
- Age: 7 Years and 90 days
- Year Bottled 2013
- Cask Wood Type: New White Oak and finished in Curacao Casks
- Alcohol ABV% 51.7 / 103.4 Proof - Cask Strength
- not coloured / not chill filtered
- Bottle Size 70cl / 700ml (consumer content 75cl / 750ml)
- Packaging original boxed - card tube
- Importeur: The Willett Distillery, Bardstown, Kentucky 40004, USA
- Country of Origin: USA - Kentucky
- limited, one of 6.912 bottles - collectors item!
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