Tasting notes

nose

rye spice and black pepper over cedar and cassia bark, with crème brûlée, marzipan, mint, orange rind, pear and apple

palate

clove, mint and molasses with honey and sorghum, then lemon peel, dark chocolate, a grassy herbal edge and light oak

finish

long, sweet and spiced; caramel and barrel char linger with herbs and wildflowers, drying toward tobacco and leather

Mash bill

53% rye, 33% corn, 14% malted barley. Woodford Reserve kept the rye just over the 51% legal minimum as a nod to the ratio of pre-Prohibition ryes, so corn and malted barley still carry weight in the recipe. The distillery says this makes spice and tobacco the lead notes while leaving room for fruit, floral and sweet flavors.

Awards

• Gold — San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2020
• Gold — American Whiskey Masters 2017
• Best in Class Gold — Whiskies of the World 2016
• Gold — San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2016

Why it's craft

Woodford Reserve built this rye on a 53% rye recipe modeled on the ryes made before Prohibition, which keeps corn and malt in play beside the spice. It ages in new charred barrels made to the house's own toast and char specifications, in warehouses the distillery heat-cycles. Woodford Reserve, owned by Brown-Forman, makes its whiskey at a Versailles, Kentucky, site where bourbon was first made in 1812.