Woodford Reserve is one of Kentucky’s oldest (and smallest) distilleries.
When we visited it a couple of years ago, the place had a lot of similarities to a Scotch distillery, including large pot stills instead of the continuous stills found in other distilleries.
Woodford Reserve Bourbon is produced in small batches, and the mash bill used is 72% Corn, 18% Rye, 10% Malted Barley.
The UK version is bottled at 43.2%; our notes are below.
Nose
Light brown sugar with hints of dried fruit. Perfumed wooded notes like Cedar but also some orange citrus and mint.
A little creamy vanilla also detected.
Palate
Lovely rich silky mouthfeel. Brown sugar, vanilla and apples.
Oaty sweetness appears and gets sweeter with desiccated coconut and milky chocolate notes.
Finish
Wooded dryness catches the back of the throat and vanilla coconut sweetness into a medium finish.
Overall
Woodford Reserve has become one of my ‘go to’ bourbons as it’s so pleasant to drink neat or with ice. Rich, with lots of flavour
Based on my tasting, I’d assumed that wheat formed part of the mash bill as there is so much balanced sweetness and the only clear hints of the rye content come in the dryness at the finish.
If you haven’t tried bourbon before, you could do a lot worse than starting with this; it’s lovely.
Braw Spirit 