Thirsty Like the Wolf, Comparing the full line of Willett x Wolves Collab. Will-et be any good? Batch 1 vs Batch 2 vs 2025 Batch (3).
Pleased to eat you, Prominent People of the Potato Pack, today we are comparing the full line of Willett x Wolves Collab bottles. I first saw this bottle back in 2021 at a whiskey bar and was drawn to the unusual bottle with the prominent baseball bat -end cork. I ordered a pour and was surprised at how good it was! Since then I've been purchasing every subsequent release which has been released more or less biennially. This never saw too much adoption, likely because it was pricey for an NAS from a relatively unknown producer only collaborating with a known brand. This seemed to be an ongoing release and batches 1 and 2 looked to be settling into a pattern until this year's third batch (which is not actually numbered). For the first time there was an age statement, the label was totally different and the cork was smaller and lacked the metal band and topper. This was a total departure from what I thought was an established product line and I thought I would put together a review comparing then and now.
A bit of background here, Wolves Whiskey is a distillery out of CA started by lifestyle and fashion brand owners who came up with Truff hot sauce and the Undefeated clothing brand. One of them is actually named James Bond (seriously). Anyways, instead of being inconspicuous, James Bond and crew spied an opportunity to capitalize on two craft drinks that are all the rage, combining craft brewing with craft whiskey and so Wolves mostly is known for making beer distillate whiskey. I have had a bottle of the regular Wolves Whiskey made from hoppy beer distillate and can't really say too many nice things about it. The bottles reviewed today do not contain ANY native Wolves distillate thankfully and instead feature a blending collaboration with Willett which is very well known and does not need any background exposition. This collaboration was originally known as the Wolves Rye Project and featured volume 1 and volume 2 and had a small Wolves "W" above the very prominent Willett Family Crest. I'll admit, the first time I saw this bottle, I thought it was a Willett release. The current 2025 batch that looks totally different is just called Wolves x Willett. Maybe their collaboration contract changed and they could no longer use the full Willett crest and instead only have permission to use an image of the little birdy standing on the crown from the top of the crest. Who knows. All I know is that like Pavlov's canines, when the Wolves x Willett bottles get poured, I get salivating. Let's get into it!
Methodology
First up is the Wolves Rye Project Volume 1 Batch 1 (Wolves x Willett Batch 1)
The Deets:
Age: NAS
Source: Willett and an undisclosed IN distillery (many sources point to MGP)
Proof: 103
Mashbill: The Willett Component is a blend of 6 year old 51% rye and 6 and 7 year old 74% rye whiskey from warehouse A, South Rick 14, and Warehouse H South Rick 6. This is blended with an unknown IN whiskey and transported back to CA for extra agining (no timeframe given)
Appearance: Golden brown with brassy tones. Looks really nice.
Nose: Light rye spice with smooth light woody smoke
Mouthfeel: Light and playful mouthfeel. Not very heavy at all, but good mouth coating and viscosity. This is not a big, dark purple top whiskey, but does get good mouth coating and feels rich and luxurious.
Palate: There is a soft woody opening with a warm and sweet oaky caramel flavor with light floral tones that gives way to a wave of light rye spice and brown sugar gingersnaps. Again, the wood comes back to dry things out and leaves with a waft of sugar and smoke. This is really pleasant and reminds me of a campfire on a warm summer night. There is not much herbaceousness and tannic bitter notes in this at all.
Finish: Floral woody and sweet. It does not linger around for too long which is too bad. I would have liked to savor each sip longer.
Overall: This is a really pretty blend. I can see the California new wave influence and it's a welcome departure from big spice ryes. Could this use a bit more oomph? sure, but I think this first iteration bottle was more to set the stage as to what a Willett collab with a new brand could look like and boy does it look good! This got me hooked and ready to pounce on batch 2! I give this a 7/10
Next up is the he Wolves Rye Project Volume 1 Batch 2 (Wolves x Willett Batch 2)
The Deets:
Age: NAS
Proof: 114.7 (Bottle states Cask Strength unlike the prior batch)
Source: Willett and an undisclosed IN distillery (probably MGP)
Mashbill: The Willett Component is a blend of 6 year old 51% rye and 6 and 7 year old 74% rye whiskey from warehouse A, South Rick 14, and Warehouse H South Rick 6. This is blended with an unknown IN whiskey and transported back to CA for extra agining (no timeframe given)
Appearance: Dark rich golden honey brown with chestnut leather hues. This stuff looks like it means business
Nose: A bright oaky wood and raisin/ plum aroma on the nose, but a bit more lively. This smells vivacious.
Mouthfeel: Rich and syrupy. There is a bit of oiliness to this but overall, this has a lot more heft than the batch 1.
Palate: Rich apricot, plum and rum raisin to open and closely followed by rye baking spice that packs a very nice punch! This tastes like a fruit panettone baked in a wood-fired oven. The finish is pure brown sugar molasses and smoky oak.
Finish: long, rich and oaky. This is excellent. Definitely makes me want to come back for another sip.
Overall: From what I can tell in my research, the whiskey in this bottles is the same as from batch 1, but stands head and haunches above. I believe it's likely that once this blend was made, it was aged for a couple of years on site at Wolves in CA and when it was ready was bottled at cask strength which has made all the difference. There are a lot of similarities between batches 1 and 2 and they both have their strong points, but as a rye, the batch 2 is stellar! So far this is the leader of the pack and I give it an enthusiastic 8/10.
Next up is the Wolves x Willett 2025 Release (Batch 3)
Proof: 103
Age: 10 years
Mashbill: Willett selected 10 year old Willett Rye (51% rye, 34% corn, 15% Malted Barley) and Wolves selected 7 year old Indiana rye (95% rye. 5% malted barley- look familiar?) and aged it for 3 years in NorCal.
Source: Willett and MGP (I mean, come on)
Appearance: Light bronze and straw honey gold with orange hues.
Nose: sugary, light and candy-like. This could be the caramel inside a twix
Mouthfeel: Thin, but with a bit of a syrupy elixir quality. decent mouth coating but the thinnest of the pack- surprising for being the oldest
Palate: peach iced tea to start with then transitioning to a bit of toasted brown sugar and finally very light hints of oak. The finish starts to let subtle inklings of rye spice peek through but before you really get any spicy rye notes, the palate settles back into sweet light caramel.
Finish: short and sweet. more peach iced tea. This is a sugary sipper for sure.
Overall: Perhaps this new direction the Wolves x Willett is taking is one to be even more of a niche bottle and to appeal to a sweeter drinking crowd? This definitely eschews more of the traditional flavors that the first two releases exemplified in favor of a completely different fruity, candy and light quality. I hesitate to call this a dessert sipper because to me, a dessert whiskey should be a bit of a palate cleanser and have something of a distinct flavor (albeit sweet) to counteract the myriad of flavors of a meal, and honestly, this would just be like adding a bit of sugar, and would almost be more of an aperitif whiskey with how light and sweet it is. I give this a 6.5/10
Seeing that I'm something of a scientist myself, I blended these three all together in equal parts and wow! This blend is great! so much sweetness and fruitiness up front from the batch 3 followed with the body and proof of batches 1 and 2. this is the alpha of the pack for sure and I give the blend an 8.5/10.
Closing thoughts: I'm seeing something of a pattern. It seems the first batch of a Volume is the lower proof lower age offering and the second batch in the Volume is the higher aged cask strength offering as seen with batches 1 and 2 of Volume 1. If this pattern persists, I have no doubt the second bottle of batch 3 will be stellar. I imagine it being something reminiscent of a cask strength wheated rye with how confectionery it is like a Kozuba 7 year wheated rye.
Well there you have if folks, do these Wolves x Willett Collab bottles get your howling at the moon or has my review gone to the dogs? Let's discuss!
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