Willett, Old Bardstown Estate Straight Bourbon Whiskey 750ml

Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 50.5% ABV

Bardstown, Kentucky, USA

Mash bill of 72% corn, 13% rye, and 15% malted barley. Produced with limestone-filtered, spring-fed water from the distillery estate. Sour mash fermented in stainless steel for approximately 3–5 days using a proprietary yeast strain. Twice distilled using a column still made of copper and stainless steel and a Vendome copper pot still modeled after Willett’s original, patented pot still. Aged 6 years in new, char #4 American oak barrels from Independent Stave Company’s Kentucky cooperage; non-age statement. Aromas of arugula, orange supremes, sea salt, and clover lead to brioche on the palate with a surging finish of toasted cinnamon and green apple skin. Non-chill filtered.

Old Bardstown Estate Bottled is Willett’s original flagship bottling and a benchmark example of the distillery’s mash bill. The Estate bottling, with its slightly higher proof and age, is a versatile sipping and mixing whiskey that deserves a space on any back bar.

The Willett family’s role in American distilling is a long and well-documented one, finding its first Kentucky touchstone in 1792 when William Willett, Jr. moved from Maryland to Nelson County—the same year that Kentucky became a state. By the mid-1800s, his son John David Willett was a partner in Moore, Willett, & Frenke Distillery, and would serve as a master distiller at four other distilleries in his lifetime. Two generations of family distillers later, in 1936, Thompson Willett became the founder and president of Willett Distillery, which was erected on the family farm in Bardstown shortly after Prohibition’s repeal. Willett Distillery launched Old Bardstown Bourbon in the 1940s. As the growing bourbon category solidified its place in America’s very identity, Willett Distillery collected accolades for the mash bill recipes still used by the family today.

In the early 2000s, Drew Kulsveen joined the business, accompanying a new chapter in Willett’s story: The renaissance of America’s interest in well-made spirits and craft cocktails inspired a return to the family’s historical methods of production. Balancing legacy with the exciting developments seen in Willett’s current stage of evolution, Drew Kulsveen now serves as Willett’s Master Distiller and Chief Operations Officer, and Drew’s sister, Britt Kulsveen, manages the estate as Willett President and Chief Whiskey Officer. Further underscoring Willett’s status as a family-run enterprise, Drew’s wife, Janelle, also helps helm the estate with a focus on hospitality and the guest experience.

The distillery uses Kentucky grains whenever possible and distills from six mash bills in total: four bourbon and two rye. Water for both production and proofing is pulled from a limestone-filtered, spring-fed source on the estate, and sour mash fermentation takes place for three to five days in 10,000-gallon stainless steel vats using a proprietary yeast strain. The whiskeys are distilled on a combination of copper and stainless steel stills. The whiskey enters 53-gallon, char #4 barrels from Independent Stave Company’s Kentucky cooperage. Willett’s core range of whiskeys, are now all distilled in-house, bottled at a minimum four years of age, and reflect the ever-evolving craftsmanship of the Willett family and team.