Widow Jane is a distillery based in Brooklyn, NY, probably best known for their 10 year old bourbon. Most of what you will find from them is sourced from MGP in Indiana, but they are distilling and aging their own whiskeys, which you can find when you visit the distillery or have shipped to you if you live in New York state. For this review, I’m exploring a Total Wine selection of Widow Jane 12 Year Single Barrel Bourbon – barrel 1932, bottled in 2019. From what I saw in 2019 and 2020, Total Wine stores up and down the east coast purchased quite a few barrels of the 12 and 13 year (a separate release), at times with aisles loaded with them.
Widow Jane is far from the first distillery to source bourbon from MGP in Indiana, but what makes Widow Jane just a little different is that they use water from upstate New York to dilute the whiskey, similar to what Sagamore Spirit does with their rye whiskey. So, what we have is a 49.5% ABV 12 year old single barrel MGP bourbon with added “special sauce” New York State water. That sounds compelling to me, so let’s determine if the bourbon itself is just as interesting in this Total Wine Select Widow Jane 12 Year Single Barrel Bourbon review.