Woodford Reserve Bourbon
Woodford Reserve Bourbon is another one of those iconic bourbon brands and a great distillery to visit if you are visiting the Lexington, Kentucky area. The distillery itself is a national historic landmark, which is apparent once you step inside the beautiful gray stone buildings surrounded by horse country. As the official sponsor of the Kentucky Derby, I thought it was fitting to take the Woodford pictures with a horse, albeit one in the New England area, not Kentucky. Everyone, please meet Joey, my mother-in-law’s horse. Joey’s a bit of a diva and his participation was contingent upon him getting maximum exposure on social media, so that is why you are getting some extra pictures this go-around.
Mash bill: 72% corn, 18% rye, 10% malted barley.
Batch # 6940, Bottle # 1270
ABV: 45.2%
How it smells….traditional bourbon aromas including vanilla, oak and maraschino cherries.
How it tastes….honey up front followed by some nuttiness and toffee. The end is lightly cinnamon, but just the flavor not the spice, with an oaky and vanilla syrupy finish.
Price…I paid $39.99, but you can get it for the low $30’s in some areas.
Rating….🥃🥃🥃
Final thoughts….This is a perfectly serviceable bourbon. I like it, but it’s not my favorite profile for this price category. I find that it lacks a bit of the rye spiciness that I prefer and it tends to be heavily oaked. Not overly-oaked, mind you, but at the far end of my own personal scale of how much oak I want in my bourbon. I tried the Double Oak once and once was enough as that second oak barreling pushed it off the proverbial cliff.
With one small ice cube, I found it much better tasting. It still lacks that zesty or peppery spiciness but the ice opened it up a bit and brought out more of the vanilla and baking spice flavors. 3x 🥃 is probably right given the price.
Below are some additional pictures that I took at the distillery 5 years ago or so when I visited with a friend. Back then, camera phones weren’t as good as they are today, but you’ll get a glimpse of the three pot stills, the open-air fermentation tanks as well as the rickhouse where oh so many delicious gallons are aged.
