Willett Pot Still Reserve Bourbon is brand of a bourbon whiskey produced in Bardstown, Kentucky by the Willett Distillery. It is a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey brand introduced in 2008 and bottled at 47% abv, with 8–10 year aging. It is sold in glass 750 ml and 1.75 liter bottles. The company is identified on the product label as the Willett Distilling Company, which was the original name of the company until its name was changed in 1984 to Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, Ltd. (KBD). In October 2012, the company announced that it would return to using the Willett name as its primary business name. Recent bottlings are identified on the labels as a small batch bourbon, whereas it was originally released as a single barrel bourbon.
Willett Pot Still Reserve is bottled in a decorative decanter that received a "double gold" award for packaging design at the 2008 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. In addition to the double gold medal for packaging, the product was also awarded a gold medal for taste at the event.
Malt Advocate Magazine rated Willett Pot Still Reserve at 90 ("outstanding") on a 100-point rating scale in January 2008. It also included the brand in its 2008 Whisky Awards as one of the top ten new whiskies for 2008.
Although the company has had the word distillery or distillers in its name (and similarly uses "distilling company" in the various company names that it prints on labels), it did not actually operate as a distillery in the period between the early 1980s and January 2012. The company has been refurbishing and enhancing its prior distillery plant, and resumed limited test distilling on January 21, 2012 – with plans to support both column still and pot still distillation processes. However, since multi-year aging is required, their products will continue to use whiskey distilled elsewhere for some time to come. The company generally does not identify where in Kentucky its products are actually distilled, although it has been reported that most of their products have been distilled by the Heaven Hill Distillery, which has its company headquarters located close to the Willett Distillery Company. The two companies are located about a half mile from each other along the same road in Bardstown, Kentucky.
Product name and history
Although the product has the term pot still in its name, it has been reported that the initial distillation process for the product was performed using the more common column still distillation method with a pot still used only for the doubler stage.
The product is named after the Willett family which founded the company that produces it. The company began as the Willett Distilling Company. John David Willett (born in 1841) had been the master distiller for the Moore, Willett & Frenke Distillery, which he had formed with his brother-in-law Thomas S. Moore of Bardstown, and a Mr. Frenke of Louisville. In 1876, Willett fell ill and sold his interest in the company. The resulting company became the Mattingly Moore Distillery. John David Willett would, however, live on for another 38 years after this transaction. He died in 1914.
Starting at the age of 15 with a five-year stint at the Mattingly Moore Distillery, his son A. Lambert Willett (born in 1883) picked up his father's profession. Lambert Willett then worked for the Max Selliger & Co. Distillery for twenty years – eventually becoming one-third owner and superintendent of the plant. A. L. "Thompson" Willett, Lambert's son (born in 1909), also joined him at the plant as assistant superintendent. Lambert Willett later purchased a farm and, together with his sons and especially led by Thompson Willett, founded the Willett Distilling Company on the site. Thompson and Lambert Willett used John David Willett's bourbon recipes as the basis of the whiskey that they would distill there and brand as "Old Bardstown".
The construction of the Willett Distilling Company began in the spring of 1935 (just after the 1933 repeal of alcohol prohibition in the United States), and the company produced its first batch of 300 bushels (about 30 barrels) on March 17, 1936. Five years after founding the Willett Distilling Company, Lambert Willett left Max Selliger & Co. to pursue the family business full-time. Lambert Willett and at least four of his sons held substantial positions of responsibility at the company. Lambert Willett died in 1970.