Willett Pot Still Reserve - Batch 19A14 - 1.75 Litres

Willett Distillery Company was founded in 1936 by A. Lambert Willett and his sons Thompson and John Willett just outside Bardstown in Kentucky. The Willetts were a bourbon distilling dynasty - Lambert Willett’s father John David Willett was a master distiller who had co-founded the Moore, Willett and Frenke distillery in Bardstown (later Barton distillery) and both Lambert and his son Thompson worked at Max Selliger Distillery Co. before building their own distillery.

In the 1970s, with bourbon out of fashion, the family pivoted to making ethanol. Sadly this strategy failed, and in 1984, with distilling operations having ceased, the Willetts were bought out by Thompson Willett’s daughter Martha and her husband Even Kulsveen. The Kulsveens renamed the company Kentucky Bourbon Distillers and relaunched the business as an independent bottler with great success. Distilling began again in 2012, with the company renamed Willett Distillery and Martha & Even’s son Drew as Master Distiller.

Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.

This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.