Willett C22D - The Legend of the Wheated Willett

Willett C22D - The Legend of the Wheated Willett

You're A Wizard, Harry

Things that have proved magical in the past:

1. Really old bourbon 
2. Wheated bourbon 
3. Willett Family Estate bourbon
4. "Angel barrels" (barrels with very low yields)

Planetary Alignment

The last time all eight planets and the sun were in a straight line was in 561 BC.  The next time it's going to happen will be in the year 2,854. Unless we're all downloaded into the matrix by then eating popcorn in cyberspace, I guess I'll have to plan on missing it.

Luckily all our magical bourbon planets did happen to align, and in my own lifetime to boot. Yay! In life you have to take the wins where you can get them. This one comes in the form of a twenty-two year wheated bourbon barrel from Willett Family Estate that only produced ninety-six bottles. 

Bing, bang, boom, whoa. Planetary alignment!

Willett Family Estate Single Barrel Bourbon C22D
22 Years, 137.4 Proof  (Bottle 70/96)

The whole Willett sourcing scheme is still shrouded in mystery, but the general consensus is that these "C-Barrels" are all wheated bourbon. Every one that I've tried definitely tastes like a wheater, but no one knows 100% for sure. If they tell you they do know for sure and their name isn't Drew Kulsveen then they're lying.

These super old wheaters are only available at the Willett gift shop in Bardstown as well as a very very small distribution in retail stores like NYC's Astor Wines. Around the beginning of last year they were priced in the $250-$325 range.  Now the retail prices have climbed up to over $500. Granted that's pretty nuts for a bottle of whiskey (after taxes you're paying $45 a glass!), but in the context of other 20+ year wheated bourbons (Pappy Van Winkle, William Larue Weller) it's not that crazy. But regardless of your feelings on paying $500 for a bottle of liquor, your chances of doing so are pretty low and if you try to pick one up at auction or on the secondary market, expect to pay between $750 and $1k.  (and you said "yikes" before!!)

You can see just how dark and chocolaty looking this bourbon is in the glass. That seems to be the trend both with older bourbons and with angel barrels. There's so much influence from the charred oak that the color is almost like opaque root beer. This tends to coincide with massive flavor, both in sweetness from the sugars that are released by charring oak, and in richness from the "cooking down" of the spirit in the cask. With this cask only yielding ninety-six bottles, you have to figure that the original two hundred and forty bottles that fit in the fifty gallon cask have been reduced by about sixty percent!

Tasting Notes

Nose: Man oh man.  Tying to put this nose into words is a failed attempt at synesthesia. It's very sweet, salty, and punchy. Uber vanilla, tobacco, leather, bbq sauce, wood for hours, huge chocolate and molasses, baking bread, nutmeg, pine needles, mint, fresh pasta. It's starting to sound silly, I know.  I could go on and on.  It's so complex there's just a million things going on here. And it's so STRONG!  Seriously just a nasal conniption. Super amazingly great.

Palate: I'm one of those anti-water people for almost all my favorite whiskies.  For this one, I do recommend a tiny little bit (three eyedropper drops per ounce). Unless you've already been drinking all night and it don't matter! But seriously it's almost one hundred and forty proof, so if this is my first drink of the night I do prefer it with a tiny little bit of agua. The flavor opens up really nicely on the palate with water too. It's so tight and punchy. Wood definitely dominates and I love it, and you get all kinds of caramel, honey, spices, char, cocoa, vanilla, and hot chili peppers.

Finish: Red licorice, brown butter coating your throat, pops of cayenne, chocolate covered pretzels. It's a huge fiery finish, and this is a long finish for a bourbon.

Review

This is definitely no whiskey for beginners, but if you've been drinking cask strength stuff a while it's an absolute dream. You can pour half an ounce and sip on it for half an hour since every little drop packs so much flavor. Should you run out and spend a grand on it? That's your call, but if you see one of these Willett "C"-barrels in a bar you should definitely think about spending a little extra to try it. This one's a real winner and we'll enjoy it to the last drop. After all, who knows if the planets will ever align this perfectly again?

Cheers/SB