I wish I could make a bad pun about “Whatever happened to Baby Jane Bourbon?” But I can’t, because it’s brand new and you’ve never heard of it before. But you have heard of Widow Jane Distillery in Red Hook, Brooklyn (New York). And the distillery’s new Baby Jane Bourbon gets its unusual name from some unusual corn.
Baby Jane corn is considered heirloom corn, the type farmers love so much they hand down the seeds from generation to generation. Why bother? Phrases like “intense whiskey flavor” and “incredibly creamy mouthfeel” show up in marketing messages.
In this case, it’s a new hybrid corn that came from Bloody Butcher and Wapsie Valley Yellow heirloom corns, grown in upstate New York. Widow Jane says Baby Jane Bourbon “is thought to be the first nationally-available bourbon made using a proprietary heirloom corn.”
Widow Jane Master Distiller Sienna Jevremov and the distillery’s operations lead, Michele Clark, worked with local farmers to develop the unique primary grain for this new bourbon.
Baby Jane Bourbon
Age: 4-6 years
ABV: 45.5% (91 proof)
SRP: $50/750 ml bottle
Allocation: 15,000 total cases
Availability: Nationwide
Tasting Notes (from the distillery):
• Aroma: Honeycomb, Cream Soda, Salty Air, Green Grape
• Taste: Café au Lait, Strawberries & Cream Taffy, Salted Caramel, Fresh Fig, Allspice, Raspberry Leaf
• Finish: Peach Compote, Star Anise, Cut Hay, Horchata, Soft Pretzel, Milk Chocolate
“Our mantra in developing Baby Jane, both the corn and the whiskey, has been ‘obsessed from start to finish’. With this whiskey, we wanted to break the perception that truly distinctive bottles with special stories have to be cost prohibitive to the point that you’re afraid to open them. Baby Jane pushes the boundaries of what raw ingredients can deliver and sets a new standard for go-to sipping bourbons.”
