Review: Widow Jane The Vaults 15 Years Old 2025

Brooklyn-based (and Heaven Hill-owned) Widow Jane is back with its seventh iteration of The Vaults, a 15 year blend of straight bourbon whiskeys finished in a changing lineup of secondary casks.

As usual, the base liquid is a mix of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana-distilled bourbons. No surprise there, but when it comes to secondary maturation, Widow Jane is taking a fabled turn. For 2025, Head Distiller Sienna Jevremov and her team have turned to finishing vessels constructed from “Mythological Oak.” From the brand:

This year’s finishing casks are made from oak harvested from the ancient forests surrounding Amfilochia, a mountainous city on the Mediterranean coast of Greece. Oak trees in the region are also prone to lightning strikes, adding a layer of mythology and, perhaps, a celestial char to the wood foreshadowing their future as whiskey barrels…. The wood used in barrel assembly is air-seasoned for 1-2 years and imparts notes of wild honey, mountain sage, and dried fig, enriching The Vaults’ intensity, structure and length.

There’s no specific indication the barrel staves actually underwent lightning-induced charring, so we’ll have to take “perhaps” at face value. The whiskey was bottled at 99 proof, and the total release size is 15,672 bottles. Let’s see how it tastes.

Widow Jane The Vaults 15 Years Old 2025 Review

The first aromas are a downright fascinating intersection of fruity and savory. Cranberry juice, mulled apple cider, fresh plums, and dried figs lead, alongside some sweetened black tea. But the real curveball comes with the savory component, like a rich, oily tapenade. A bit of caper and olive-laden salinity lags just behind that fruit in intensity, but nevertheless remains accounted for through each sniff. A little dark (borderline burnt) chocolate brings up the back end and accumulates with more time in the glass.

Early flavors are more pastry-like than expected, with a big hit of glazed honeybuns on the first few sips. It’s sweet and not terribly strong in oak character, at least to start, though tannins and texture both build with more tastes. Fruit comes in closer to the midpalate. It’s predominantly cherry with a little pear and persimmon, and the latter two fruits coupled with more than a dash of cinnamon sugar. Minerality carries over from the nose, less saline and more of a calcium/magnesium split; it may be going out on a limb, but I suspect at least some of that comes from highly-aged Cascade Hollow distillate.

Artificial vanilla extract and black walnut highlights the transition from back palate to finish, which is of a good length but a little more straightforward than I might have liked given the whiskey’s blending and finishing pedigree. It’s certainly satisfying, and from my perspective, in line with the brand’s general flavor narrative. Yet it’s altogether less punchy and composed than last year’s surprisingly balanced amburana-finished version — a small step back, especially at this price point. And I’d be remiss to not mention 2024’s very enjoyable Black Opal release, which signals the company’s ability to push its profile a run or two higher.

99 proof.

B+ / $250 [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT]

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