Review: Widow Jane Black Opal Bourbon

Tucked away in a corner of Brooklyn’s Red Hook neighborhood is Widow Jane, a distillery likely best known for its bottlings of blended Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana bourbon. (They also run their own distillate, including a mashbill with proprietary heirloom corn dubbed Baby Jane.)

Now under the ownership of Heaven Hill, the operation has previously released “The Vaults” blends with age statements up to 15 years. Their latest release, however, blasts through that ceiling. Announced in September 2024, Widow Jane Black Opal is a blend of both Kentucky and Tennessee bourbon carrying an eye-popping 20 year age statement.

Widow Jane’s Head Distiller and Blender Sienna Jevremov crafted the blend from around 100 barrels. After batching, the liquid was finished in Mizunara casks. Moving forward, brand reps tell us Black Opal is intended to be an annual release. This initial run came out to about 5,000 bottles total, with an MSRP of $500 (the distillery’s most expensive to date).

Let’s see how Black Opal — bottled at 99 proof — tastes!

Both nutty and floral on the nose, Black Opal kicks off with toasted pecan, roasted peanut skins, chestnuts, freshly-scraped vanilla bean, rosewater, lavender, and cardamom. It’s complex, with only the tri-blend of nuts really standing out early, and the other aromas taking their time to develop while doing so in no particular order. However, those highly varied scents play pretty nicely together. A final burst of crisp apple juice develops after a bit longer in the glass.

The first sip is heavy on oily black walnuts and sweet spearmint. Fruit folds in beyond what the nose implies, red plum and dried apple slices being chief among those flavors. Especially with the first few sips, Black Opal is surprisingly subtle on the oak, and the darker, tannic flavors take awhile to build across the palate. Once they do, it’s more tea — both black and green — than leather, paired with a calcium-forward minerality likely ascribable to the Tennessee bourbon component. For a 20 year old bourbon, it’s a pretty light, approachable whiskey. Still, I found myself wondering if a few more proof points would bring added viscosity or if they’d dial up the mineral flavors to a distracting degree.

We’re left with a medium length, fruity finish that once again incorporates a minty layer (I’d liken it to cooling wintergreen) as well as a final kick of nut butter.

Widow Jane Black Opal presents drinkers with a 20 year old bourbon that simply refuses to hit us over the head with oak and barrel char. Instead, it showcases a more floral, fruity side to older American whiskey, though not without a tiny hiccup here and there. I’m not fully convinced 45.5 percent abv is the ideal proof for this to sit, but frankly, that’s a small gripe. It’s good whiskey, and certainly one of the brand’s better releases to date.

99 proof.

A- / $500 / widowjane.com

The post Review: Widow Jane Black Opal Bourbon appeared first on Drinkhacker: The Insider’s Guide to Good Drinking.