Ceci n'est pas un Willett.

Or is it?

This private single barrel bourbon was selected by Flask with Drew Stoddard, owner and CEO of Binder's Stash, after tasting through nearly two dozen barrel samples.

We narrowed it down to two finalists.

One was a beautiful 7 year bourbon: lighter, brighter, more fruit-forward, and very easy to like. If we had picked that barrel, it would have landed somewhere around $200+ on the shelf.

The other was the problem.

An 8 year barrel. Big proof. Big caramel. Deep oak. Dark vanilla. Warm spice. Huge Kentucky bourbon weight. It beat the 7 year, and honestly beat the 9 year barrels we tasted too.

The only hesitation was price. If it was Willett-distilled stock, the 8 year was going to land over $300. We were still ready to do it because the quality was there, but the jump was real.

Then the story went sideways.

The sample bottle said Willett. It was pulled and bottled by Willett for our tasting. We all thought we were tasting Willett stock. Blind, it drank like the older Willett barrels bourbon people still lose their minds over.

Once we picked it, Drew called Bill Binder to pull the barrel and got the full story: it might actually be Kentucky stock that had been aged at Willett, not necessarily distilled there; likely OZ Tyler, now Green River.

And suddenly, the price problem disappeared.

Treated as Tyler stock instead of Willett stock, the 8 year no longer had the massive price jump attached to it. So the barrel we already thought was the best one, the barrel we were ready to sell at $300+, is landing under $200 instead.

So what is it?

It was aged at Willett. It was pulled by Willett. It was bottled by Willett. It tasted like old Willett.

But is it actually Willett if it may not have been distilled there?

That depends on when you became a bourbon nerd. To newer drinkers, Willett is a distillery. Simple enough.

But Willett has been a few different things. It distilled from the 1930s into the early 80s, went quiet, and spent decades as one of the great NDPs, sourcing, selecting, and bottling other people's distillate under the Willett name. Then in 2012 the stills came back on. Some of the most legendary "Willett" bottles ever released came from that middle era, and they were not legendary because Willett distilled a single drop of them. They were legendary because of the barrels, the selection, the bottling, the profile, and the whole strange Willett mythology around them.

Velvet Glove. Wheated Patriot. Red Hook Rye.

Are those "Willett"?

Of course they are.

Is this?

Not really.

But kind of.

And that is exactly the point.

So we named it properly:

Ceci n'est pas un Willett.

This is an 8 year private single barrel bourbon selected by Flask with Drew Stoddard. Rich, sweet, powerful, and exactly the kind of bourbon that made the whole origin story worth telling. Even the label is in on it. Big Willett script up top. Small print: "Distilled in Kentucky. Bottled by Willett Distillery, Bardstown, KY." Make of that what you will.

Details

• Producer: Binder's Stash
• Selection: Flask x Drew Stoddard
• Age: 8 Years (distilled September 2017, bottled May 2026)
• Proof: 124.4
• Mash Bill: 75% corn / 21% rye / 4% malted barley
• Char: #3
• Barrel: 2101: Warehouse C, Floor 3, Rick NR 1
• Bottled by: Willett Distillery for Stoddard Spirits
• Release: 161 bottles

Not a Willett.

Kind of.