Review #431 - Willett 4 Year Family Estate Bottled Small Batch Rye
While Willett may be famous for their purple top bourbons, they also make a more widely-available rye whisky. In our area, you can now regularly find this on the shelf, an improvement from a couple of years ago; pricing is reasonable, generally $65 to $70.
The distillery actually uses two different mashbills in this rye - they produce the barrels separately and then blend them together for the small batches. Here's a quick breakdown:
90% of the batch: 74% rye, 11% corn, and 15% malted barley
10% of the batch: 51% rye, 34% corn, and 13% malted barley
Both mashbills use a barrel entry proof of 110; we can derive an overall mashbill based on the proportions, which is roughly 72% rye grain, 13% corn, and 15% malted barley. After at least 4 years of aging, they bottle these batches at barrel proof, and as an added bonus, they don't chill filter them.
For our review, we tasted 3 different batches of this Willett rye - this is a summary review.
Willett 4 Year Family Estate Bottled Small Batch Rye
USA - Rye
Current Locally Available Price: USD 68 (2024)
Age Statement: 4 Years
Strength: Varies (Tasted at 54.3%, 55.1%, and 55.5% ABV)
Details: Not chill filtered
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 2 years; bottles at 20%, 40%, and 20% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes
Nose: A decent amount of oak to start, which brings espresso and some chocolate, as well as hints of wood smoke or barrel char. There's a bit of sweet rye character, also lots of baking spice like nutmeg and vanilla. Relatively rich, and later, a sweet hard candy note becomes more prominent.
Palate: A nice mix of flavors across our tastings - strong rye spice, bringing eucalyptus, mint, even peppermint; oak adds black coffee, burnt caramel, and wet wood; baking notes of cardamom, candied pecans, Demerara sugar, caramel. Some fruits pop up, too: orange, as well as strawberry hard candies.
Finish: Baking notes take over in the finish: caramel and pepper, dark chocolate and brown sugar, vanilla and nutmeg. A nice mix of sweet and spicy, and there's still some rye character, too - herbal flavors, subtle peppermint. Nice and oily, with more subtle oak flavors... it's a medium-long finish.
Final Note: We enjoyed this rye quite a bit - a good mix of flavors and decent complexity. While the flavor profile varied a bit from batch to batch, we found all of them to be good. The rye grain flavor was prominent at times, adding peppermint and mint, but there was also a lot of tasty baking spice influence.
As for value, it's decent as well. $65 to $70 might feel a little bit pricey for a 4 year old product, but for the barrel proof presentation and the level of flavor you get, it isn't bad. We think this is a solid pickup, but don't overpay for it at any less-than-honest stores looking to capitalize on the 'Willett' name.
Our Average Rating: 7.2 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 7.03
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
Check out our other Willett reviews:
Review #219 - Willett 3 Year Family Estate Bottled Rye
