Woodford Rye

Brown Forman has a mixed legacy when it comes to rye whiskey.  On the one hand, for years after the 1996 fire that destroyed the Heaven Hill Distillery, Brown Forman made Rittenhouse Rye. Rittenhouse is great rye, and it really became a popular mainstream brand during the period that it was being produced using Brown Forman whiskey.

On the other hand, the only rye under the Woodford label was a pair of ryes released as part of the 2011 Woodford Reserve Master's Collection, one aged in new, charred oak and another aged in used barrels.  Most of the Master's Collection releases range from mediocre to terrible.  The ryes may have been more on the mediocre side, but that's not saying much.

So I was a bit apprehensive when I heard that Brown Forman would release a straight rye whiskey under the Woodford Reserve label.  Would this be similar to the old BF Rittenhouse or would this be like the earlier Woodford ryes?

The new Woodford rye is a non-age statement straight rye made from a mashbill of 53% rye, 33% corn and 14% malted barley.

Woodford Reserve Rye, 45.2% abv ($40)

The nose has a nice rye spice on it, a promising beginning. The palate comes on with nice, sweet rye spice, then the spice starts to fade a bit and it gets very sweet and settles into a candy finish with a touch of spice.

All in all, this is pretty decent.  The nose and early palate are great, but it gets a little too sweet for me by midpalate.  Still, a good rye that offers a slightly different profile from the other standard ryes that are out there. It's certainly worth trying. 

Thanks to John Burlowski for the sample.

Spoiler Alert: Fall Whiskeys Revealed

Fall is the big whiskey season when all the special release whiskeys come out, but because of the TTB label approval process, we get a preview of them in spring and summer.  Here are some of what awaits us this fall (other than Zachory Boone):

• Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch.  Last years Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon was one of the best bourbons of the year.  This year's will be composed of 18 year old OBSV, 13 year old OBSK and 13 year old OESK, the same recipes in last year's edition but at different ages.
• Woodford Reserve Master's Collection.  It looks like this year's Woodford Master's Collection will be a repeat of the Woodford Rye Whiskey experiment of two years ago, except with barley malt.  There will be a single malt whiskey aged in used barrels in the Scotch style and a straight malt with corn as a secondary grain aged in new charred oak in the American style.
• Masterson's.  35 Maple, the bottler of Masterson's Rye will be importing a 12 year old straight wheat whiskey and a ten year old straight barley whiskey from Canada.
• Redbreast 21.  A 21 year old version of Redbreast Single Pot Still Irish Whiskey.

Stay tuned for more new releases as I find them.

Woodford Makes it a Double: Woodford Reserve Double Oaked

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked is the first permanent edition to the regular Woodford lineup. The Double Oaked is made by taking the regular Woodford Reserve bourbon and rebarreling it in a barrel which has been toasted for twice as long as the first barrel prior to being charred. While Woodford has said that it was inspired by the Master's Collection Seasoned Oak Finish, that was a different concept, involving extra seasoning of the barrel (seasoning is a process of exposing the wood to the elements). In addition, while the Master's Collection whiskeys are entirely made on the Woodford distillery pot still, this bourbon starts off as the regular Woodford, meaning it is a blend of pot still whiskey made at the Woodford distillery and column still whiskey made at Brown Forman. Like the regular Woodford, the Double Oaked contains no age statement.

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked, 45.2% abv. ($45)

The nose on this is very Woodford with medicinal pot still notes. The palate starts sweet and then hits mint and quickly transitions into that Woodford medicinal flavor which turns quite bitter; the bitterness lasts into the finish which is also a bit astringent.

I'd say this is slightly better than the regular Woodford (which isn't saying much) but not something I'd recommend and certainly not for the price.

Why Does Brown Forman Suck So Much?

There are many mysteries in the world of whiskey, but this is one of the biggest for me. Brown Forman is a hugely successful company. Why does their whiskey almost universally suck? I'm generally not a fan of Jim Beam, the other huge player in US whiskey, but there are products in their portfolio that I can enjoy, such as Old Grand-Dad 114, and they put out some great Scotch from Laphroaig and Ardmore. But with Brown Forman, their whiskey is just terrible. What's the deal?

If you're not familiar with the company, Brown Forman is one of the biggest selling whiskey producers in the United States. They own three whiskey distilleries (Brown Forman, Woodford Reserve and Jack Daniel's). They also own Canadian Mist, Finlandia Vodka, El Jimador and Herradura Tequila and Southern Comfort.

They clearly know spirits and marketing, so why does their whiskey suck so much? It's easy to reflexively answer that they are just too big, but Diageo is an even bigger company, and it owns some distilleries that are making excellent whiskey.

The three Brown Forman whiskey distilleries are very different. Jack Daniel's is their cash cow. I can understand it sucking, and I don't complain about it. It doesn't need to taste good because it sells on its well crafted mystique. Rock stars, bikers and hipsters all agree that the black bottle of Old No. 7 is cool, and they'd like a t-shirt and some barbecue sauce to go with it. I've never met a Jack product I liked, but given the role the brand plays, that's okay.

Woodford Reserve is the polar opposite of Jack. It's a small distillery making pot still whiskey which does a limited experimental release each year. It's essentially a corporate owned microdistillery. The only problem is, their whiskey runs from mediocre to terrible. Experimentation is all well and good but if you don't start with good whiskey, you aren't going to end up with good whiskey. Garbage in, garbage out.

The eponymously named Brown Forman distillery is mid-way between Jack and Woodford, an industrial distillery but not one that produces on anywhere near the scale of Jack Daniel's. This is where they make Old Forester, a mediocre mid-range bourbon and Early Times, a lower end American Whiskey (bourbon stored in used barrels) which now also has a bourbon label. These whiskeys are boring, boring, boring. Some whiskey fans do like the annual Old Forester Birthday Bourbon. While that is undoubtedly the best bourbon that comes out of Brown Forman, I've never been as excited about it as some others. It just never seems that distinctive.

While Brown Forman has some special releases, one notable thing is that they never seem to release anything at barrel strength. In fact, their only regular higher proof offering is the Old Forester Signature at 50% abv (last year saw a Jack Daniel's special release, the Holiday Select, also at 50%). I'm not one of those people who thinks nothing under cask strength is worthwhile, but I am suspicious about a distillery that never releases anything at cask strength. It's as if they don't believe in the quality of their whiskey in its purest form.

The tragic thing is that Old Forester used to be lovely stuff. For last week's Dusty Thursday, I tasted a bottle from the 1970s that was just wonderful, with more complexity than anything they are doing today. I've had bottles from the 1950s that have an intense, chewy, cigar butt note that reminds me of a well aged Zinfandel. It saddens me that this once great bourbon is a shadow of its former self.

I suppose there is no use in encouraging one of the most successful whiskey companies in the country to change its game, but success is more than balance sheets. I want to see Brown Forman do more than succeed. I want to see them make whiskey worth drinking.

Woodford Reserve Goes Rye

You'd think I'd have had my fill of the Woodford Reserve Master's Collection this year, what with this almost comprehensive tasting and this follow up. In fact, I fully planned to ignore the release this year, then they went and made rye, and not just one rye, but two. As a rye whiskey lover, I had an obligation, to both myself and my loyal readers, to check these out.

The 2011 rye release is Woodford's first rye and their first time issuing two whiskeys as part of the Master's Collection. They are sold as a set of two 375 ml bottles, so it's the same amount of whiskey as a full bottle, but you get two whiskeys for your $90.

The concept here is similar to the Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project but on a much smaller scale. The ryes are the same except that one is aged in a new, charred oak cask and one is aged in a used cask (they also have different entry proofs). Both are triple distilled in pot stills and made from a mash of 100% rye. There are no age statements.


Woodford Reserve Master's Collection New Cask Rye, 46.2% abv. This one is straight rye whiskey aged in new, charred oak barrels. The distillate went into the barrels at 100 proof. The nose on this actually has some bourbony sweetness which is followed by a big hit of rye spice. The palate has a lot of rye but is a bit tinny as well (a common Woodford note). The finish is fairly bitter with medicinal notes. This reminds me of some of the craft ryes I've had.

Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Aged Cask Rye, 46.2% abv. Since this wasn't aged in new, charred oak barrels, it's not technically "rye whiskey" but instead "whiskey distilled from rye mash." These were aged in used barrels that previously held Woodford Reserve bourbon ("aged barrels" sounds a bit better than "used barrels" doesn't it?). The distillate went into the barrels at 86 proof. According to Woodford Master Distiller Chris Morris on WhiskyCast (episode 341), they lowered the proof in order to "coax as much subtle barrel character out as possible."

The color on this rye is much lighter than the straight rye, more of a white wine versus the more typical amber/copper color of the straight rye. The nose is fruity with some white wine notes. The palate has a little bit of that trademark Woodford pot still tang, then some fruit and toward the end some medicinal minty flavors (a little bit of Vicks VapoRub). The rye spice finally comes to the fore in the finish. Overall, there is not a lot of rye character in this rye. Tasting blind, I might have guessed an American malt whiskey.


Conclusion

Point taken. The difference between new and used barrels is huge. I actually like the aged barrel, which had an interesting fruit/rye interplay, more than the straight rye which was a bit harsh.

Should you buy this set? If you like experiments of this type, you might enjoy the comparison, as I did. As with many such experiments, though, the end project is interesting but not particularly good. These weren't bad whiskeys but they weren't particularly good either, and neither was anywhere near what I'd be willing to pay $90 per bottle for. So in the end, I'd recommend this the same way I would the Buffalo Trace Single Oak Collection. If you are a whiskey geek with whiskey geek friends who might split it with you, it will be fun. If you're just looking for a good bottle of rye, look elsewhere.

Whiskey Wednesday: Woodford Reserve Four Grain

A couple of months ago, I posted about my Woodford Reserve tasting in which I sampled the entire Woodford catalogue except for the first edition of the Woodford Master's Collection: Four Grain. Well, a sympathetic reader shared a sample of the Four Grain with me.

Just to review, the Four Grain is a bourbon made from four grains: corn, wheat, rye and barley. Most bourbons use rye or wheat as the secondary grain, but this bourbon uses both. The sample I'm tasting is from the first batch of Four Grain, a smaller release of 3,404 bottles which stayed in Kentucky. A second, wider release would go national.


Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Four Grain, Batch 1, 46.2% abv

The nose on this has what I've come to know as that distinctive Woodford, pot-stilled aroma. It's less medicinal than some of the other Woodfords and more metallic with some plastic notes. Not much bourbon sweetness on the nose but there is some rye spice. If the sweetness is missing on the nose, it comes out prominently on the palate, though it's more a generic sweetness than a corn sweetness. Next comes the rye and some of the metal, and then more rye with a bit of sourness and some pine. It tastes hot for the abv. The finish has a pleasant balance to it without any of the harsher notes.

I'd definitely place this as one of the better Master's Collection expressions, though that isn't saying much, and I should include the caveat that I don't know how this compares to the later batches of the Four Grain that saw wider release.

Whiskey Wednesday: Woodford Reserve Bourbons

Woodford Reserve is a relatively recent entry into the world of bourbon. Brown Forman, owners of the Kentucky distillery that produces Old Forester and Early Times as well as the Jack Daniels distillery in Tennessee, bought the old, shuttered Labrot & Graham distillery in 1993 and began selling Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select in 1996. Unlike most bourbon distilleries, which use column stills, the Woodford distillery uses pot stills, though the bourbon in the Distiller's Select is a blend of the pot still whiskey and whiskey distilled by column still at Brown Forman's other Kentucky distillery.

In addition to their regular Distiller's Select bourbon, each year since 2005, Woodford has released a new whiskey as part of its Master's Collection. The Master's Collection bottlings are experimental whiskeys distilled entirely in pot stills at the Labrot & Graham distillery. They retail for about $90. The releases so far have been as follows:

2005/2006 - Four Grain, a bourbon made with both wheat and rye (most bourbons have only one of the two) along with the usual corn and barley.

2007 - Sonoma-Cutrer Finish, the bourbon was finished in Chardonnay barrels from the Brown Forman owned Sonoma-Cutrer winery.

2008 - 1838 Sweet Mash, a bourbon distilled from a sweet mash rather than a sour mash, meaning that instead of transferring some spent mash from previous distillations, to maintain a consistent environment for the yeast, the mash was created from scratch, allegedly based on an 1838 recipe.

2009 - Seasoned Oak Finish, a bourbon finished in barrels made from wood which had been seasoned (essentially left outside) for 3 to 4 years instead of the usual 3 to 4 months.

2010 - Maple Wood Finish. The bourbon was finished in barrels made from sugar maple wood.

Thanks to some samples from Regular Chumpington, a frequent commenter here on Recent Eats, combined with some shopping luck, I was able to amass a set of all of the Woodford products except for the Four Grain Master's Collection. So here they are, the almost complete Woodford Reserve.


Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select, 45.2% abv

This is the standard Woodford Reserve. The nose on this is light and sweet with some banana notes; the palate starts sort of generically sweet but quickly turns a bit astringent with some acidic notes at the tail end and a bit of a chemical flavor with some earthy notes as well which continue into the finish. I started drinking Woodford early in my bourbon career, and it was one of the bourbons that I really took a liking to early on. It was once my go to bourbon for cocktails and sipping. I haven't had any in years, and it's either changed character quite a bit since then or it's just not as good as I remember. It's not offensive, but it has some off flavors and is overall, a bit flat.


Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Sonoma-Cutrer Finish, 43.2%

The nose on this a bit sour. You can sense the wine influence in that it smells a bit like a winery, with the damp, musty old barrels, but not as pleasant. The flavor is sweet with a definite wine influence, but more like a cheap jug wine than a good California Chardonnay; the way the sweetness is integrated with the corn also gives it some Canadian Whisky notes. The jug wine notes really come out in the finish. The label says Sonoma-Cutrer, but the finish shouts Paul Masson.


Woodford Reserve Master's Collection 1838 Sweet Mash, 43.2% abv

This is probably the Woodford I'm most interested to try. The whole concept of doing a sweet mash is highly innovative, and I was excited to see what the result was. The nose on this is dry, oaky and maybe a little soapy. It almost reminds me of the nose on Wasmund's Single Malt (which is also distilled in a pot still). The palate is quite medicinal and woody, maybe even a little bit briny with some orchard fruit in the background. The finish is medicinal with a bitterness that grows. This version seems to have magnified some of the harsher characteristics of the regular Woodford, not one I would rush back to try. Maybe they should have left it in 1838.


Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Seasoned Oak Finish, 50.2% abv

Unsurprisingly, the nose on this is distinctively woody with some nice butterscotch notes. The palate starts sweet, has some woody astringency and finishes with the medicinal qualities that seem to be characteristic of Woodford. The woody astringency complements the medicinal notes making this pretty decent, with a dry, woody finish.


Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Maple Wood Finish, 47.2% abv

The nose on this is similar to the basic Woodford but with a bit more sweetness to it. The palate has a combination of briny and sweet notes. Those medicinal notes are there but are lightened up a bit by some sweetness. I don't detect any real maple character, other than the general sweetness; it's more Log Cabin than pure maple syrup. It's a decent combination, though there is still a bit of lingering bitterness in the finish.


The Woodford Reserve Master's Collection has a generally poor reputation, and I'd have to say it is deservedly so. I wasn't very impressed with any of these whiskeys. If you have a thing for astringency and medicinal flavors, you might appreciate them, and while I like some medicinal flavors in peated Scotch, this was a different sort of medicine. The maple finish and the seasoned oak were my favorites of the lot, though I wouldn't rush to buy either of them, especially at the going price. Given that I was an early fan of the regular Woodford, I must say that while I admire their experimental spirit, I'm disappointed in the outcome.