Baby Jane Bourbon Review [In Depth]

Baby Jane Bourbon

by: ALEX WANG
Founder, writer

Baby Jane Bourbon Details

Distillery: Widow Jane

Type & Region: Bourbon, New York, USA

Alcohol: 45.5%

Composition: Unknown

Aged: At least 4 years

Color: 1.2/2.0 on the color scale (chestnut, oloroso sherry)

Price: $50-60

From the company website:

In the pursuit of intense and original flavors, our team set out to create a new generation of heirloom corn. The early growing years were curated by our team, with only the finest kernels selected for eventual growth in the fields. Years later, that corn – proprietary to Widow Jane – was harvested, driven to Red Hook and mashed, fermented & distilled, and placed into new, charred American oak barrels. The wait was a test of endurance, but the payoff? Exquisite. Because when you start with the finest raw materials, the result is extraordinary bourbon.

Baby Jane is a bourbon whiskey made from our own unique heirloom corn, “Baby Jane.” This unique corn has depth, sweetness and creamy-spiciness that makes Baby Jane Bourbon truly different. Distilled by Widow Jane Distillery in Red Hook, Brooklyn and in Kentucky. True small batch bourbon; hand-assembled in Brooklyn, blended only a few barrels at a time. Non-chill filtered and proofed with our own mineral water from the legendary Rosendale mines of New York

Baby Jane Bourbon overview

Widow Jane, based in Red Hook, Brooklyn, New York, started out years back by sourcing a lot of bourbon from MGP (now called Ross & Squibb) and Dickel. For many distilleries, that has been a common way to start a distillery, because dammit bourbon takes years to age. It’s inevitable.

While they still source a lot of bourbon for various older releases, including Widow Jane 10 Year and 15 year, they have since branched out to also produce their own homemade whiskeys. That said, I don’t have much experience with Widow Jane.

I’ve had the incredible older Widow Jane Lucky 13 Year Bourbons (I think from 2019) that was completely sourced from MGP, but haven’t had anything since. So, Baby Jane Bourbon is only the 2nd Widow Jane Bourbon, and first one distilled by them, I’ve ever had. Cool.

What’s supposed to make this stand out is the heirloom corn used in the mashbill, which they provide little to no detail about. So what is this “proprietary” heirloom corn? Based on an image on their website, it’s some type of red corn. While Widow Jane says that it’s unique to them, and calls it “baby Jane”, you should know that there are other types of red corn out there, such as bloody butcher red corn and Jimmy red corn.

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A budding group of distilleries, including Still Austin, Jeptha Creed, Savage and Cooke, and High Wire use this type of heirloom red corn. To be frank though, heirloom bourbon does not automatically guarantee that the end whiskey will be good.

I am confused about the part where some of this bourbon is distilled in Kentucky. Why did they do that? It’s not a bad thing, but Widow Jane goes on and on about being all about New York, only to have some of it be distilled in Kentucky. The messaging just feels a little weird and inconsistent. Then again, they never said that the corn was grown in New York. I don’t know…it’s just something I noticed as I scanned the bottle.

I do want to mention the age, or the lack of an age statement. I’ve seen other online posts about it being 2 years old, although those posts are a few years old. Based on what I see on the bottle – straight bourbon + no other explicit age statement, that should mean that it’s at least 4 years old. Why do I mention that? Because that’s the regulation for “straight bourbon”.

Let’s see if this “baby” has the depth and maturity of something older than that in this Baby Jane Bourbon review.

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Baby Jane Bourbon smell

I smell orange-y honey, vanilla, honeysuckle, white peach, toasted oak, clove, cinnamon, and lightly toasted grains, grapefruit peel, and smoke. Baby Jane smells…well not all that developed. There are some good brighter fruit notes surrounded by oak and spice, but none of it has much depth or expressiveness.

Don’t get me wrong, Baby Jane smells fine and there’s nothing unpleasant about it, but nothing stands out to me. I don’t think this is interesting just yet.

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After swirling and rest, I smell honey, toasted oak, white pear, orange, roasted oak, cinnamon, clove, vanilla, mocha, and some underlying dark caramel nougat, bubblegum, and smoke. It sort of has the toasty and sweet mocha note from many of Still Austin’s bourbons.

Baby Jane has some good scents, but something about this feels shallow and kind of young. It doesn’t have the crazy funk or overpowering earthiness of really bad young bourbon, but the sweetness doesn’t seem to have developed enough either. The expressiveness and pop isn’t there either.

Not bad, but not great either.

Baby Jane Bourbon taste and aftertaste

I taste honey, white peach, pineapple, vanilla, roasted oak, cinnamon, clove, toasted grain, licorice, and light floralness, darker caramel nougat, and pumpernickel earthiness. Baby Jane Bourbon is more oaky and spicy on my first few sips with about equal amounts of honey sweetness, followed by fruitiness and herbalness.

This tastes fine, but it again still feels strangely young. I wouldn’t say that it’s underdeveloped, but the sweetness and fruitiness just aren’t present enough yet.

I usually associate younger bourbon with a lot of oakiness and spiciness without ample sweetness and fruitiness for balance, so that’s probably why I feel that way. But, the fullness and richness are bolder than the stated 45.5% ABV, so that part doesn’t feel immature.

With “chewing” I taste dark honey, white peach, vanilla, orange, roasted oak, cinnamon, floralness, mocha, and a little bit of earthiness and grassiness. There you go, “chewing” brings out a lot more range and flavor.

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Now there’s more sweetness and fruitiness that sufficiently offset the oak and spice. The flavors are more honey and peach-forward with oak, spice, and the other flavors for support. It’s interesting and I appreciate the mix of bright and dark flavors.

While Baby Jane Bourbon is still not all that deep, the richness easily punches closer to 52% ABV and there are some interesting flavors, especially the peachy notes, to experience. Flavorwise, this is really good.

The finish leaves earthy and toasty sweetness, dried pineapple, roasted oak, and cinnamon with longer lasting toasted oak and oak spices. After “chewing”, there’s honey, peach, toasted oak, and cinnamon. While the finish is still generally oak and spice-forward, now there’s more sweetness and fruitiness for balance.

For most of the experience, Baby Jane was a good but uninspiring bourbon, but “chewing” makes a huge difference.

Ok Widow Jane, I see what you were going for with this.

I’ve unfortunately lost some Glencairn’s while in transit, and that made me very sad. So, I wised up and bought this Glencairn Travel Case that comes also comes with 2 glasses so I don’t need to worry so much about them breaking. I think it’s great, and I think you’ll love it too. Seriously, if you already have glasses, protect them.

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Baby Jane Bourbon Rating

Baby Jane Bourbon has two very different personalities. The scents are generally unimpressive and don’t promise much for the rest of the experience, but the flavors have some good stuff going on that makes this mostly worth drinking.

It’s hard for me to say what heirloom corn brings to a whiskey, but it seems to do some nice stuff, at least flavor-wise. While this is definitely an oaky and spicy bourbon, what I perceive as floral peach and citrus add great balance and range to make this feel more developed.

There’s some good sweet and fruity pop that gets my attention. And even at 45.5% ABV, which I usually find to be too low, it has the density of a 50% ish bourbon, which makes it even better.

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The scents on the other hand are probably a weak “Mid Shelf+”, possibly even “Mid Shelf”. They’re not bad…they’re just not that interesting. There would be a problem if this drank like it smelled, and this rating would be much worse.

But all in all, Baby Jane Bourbon is a well made bourbon that has a few forgivable shortcomings. Is it the best thing at $50? No, but I think that it’s a worthwhile bourbon to try when you get to it. Just remember, “chewing” makes all the difference to unlock its full potential.

Did the hard work pay off? Ultimately yes, and I hope that Widow Jane can continue to develop this bourbon to be even better in the future.

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Meet the Author: Alex

I have far too much fun writing about whiskey and singlehandedly running The Whiskey Shelf to bring you independent, honest, and useful reviews, comparisons, and more. I’m proudly Asian American and can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and some Japanese.

There are no sponsors, no media companies, and no nonsense. Support The Whiskey Shelf by Buying Me A Shot.

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BrüMate NOS’R, Double-Wall Stainless Steel Whiskey Nosing Glass – 7oz (Matte Black)