Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Single Barrel

In the last couple years, liquor mega-store, Total Wine has come into the Twin Cities market. They offer ok selections and decent prices to a market that has been fairly well dominated by either small chains or municipal liquor stores.

The chains and munis fought hard to keep Total Wine out and when they lost that battle ended up pulling out of some markets. It’s sad to see people forced out of business when a bigger competitor enters the market, but in this case I found it hard to feel too sorry for those local chains as they previously tended to do the same thing to independent stores when they entered a city. 

And while the local chains with the limited sections and higher prices were facing the competition with mixed results, the independents are tending to take a different route. As I travel around the Twin Cities looking for interesting places to spend my liquor budget, I’m noticing that the answer that many stores (both the independents and some of the chain franchises) have come up with is to offer more selection. In the case of one of the small independents in my town, that meant having more facings and differentiating themselves with barrel picks. Right now they offer private selections from Woodford Reserve, Knob Creek and Russel’s Reserve. 

I'd had their Russel’s Reserve Single Barrel. It was quite good. So a few weeks ago, I picked up a bottle of their selection of Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Single Barrel. 

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked Single Barrel

Purchase Info: $57.99 for a 750 mL bottle. Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Details: 45.2% ABV. Sadly Woodford doesn’t add any barrel information to the label.

Nose: Sweet green apple, baking spices, spearmint and oak.

Mouth: Sweet and nicely spicy. Caramel, clove and allspice dominate with a touch of fruitiness showing up a bit later. 

Finish: The oak shows up on the finish with lingering char and tannins. Paired with that is a nice sweet fruitiness that lasts even longer. 

A smile because I like this one.

Thoughts: I liked this enough that after tasting it, I immediately went back and bought another bottle. If they still have some in a few weeks, I will probably grab a third. 

If you like Woodford Reserve Double Oaked and see one of these on a store shelf, I recommend giving it a shot. 

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Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Double Double Oaked

Double Double Oaked. What does that mean? Well, with Woodford Reserve Double Oaked the mature Woodford is put into a second new barrel for six months to a year. This second barrel has been heavily toasted and very lightly charred. In the case of the Distillery Series Double Double Oaked that year in the second barrel has been lengthened to two years. So it was double oaked for double the time.

And since Woodford experiments tend to be hit or miss, I guess the only real question is: is it any good?

Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Double Double Oaked

Purchase info: $50 for a 375mL bottle at the Woodford Reserve Distillery Gift Shop, Versailles, KY

Details: Summer 2015 release, 45.2% ABV

Nose: Brown sugar, caramel, cloves and a hit of latex paint.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy. Butterscotch and baking spices with a hint of fruit and bubble gum.

Finish: Warm and tingly. It starts sweet and transitions to a dry spiciness with a lingering not of “Brown Forman latex paint.”

A smile because I really like this

Thoughts: This is quite tasty. It has good spice and is sweeter than I would have initially expected. This tastes like a Brown Forman bourbon though so if you are not a fan of Old Forester or Woodford Reserve, this is one you might want to pass on. If however you are like me and really tend to like their stuff, then this is a tasty treat and you should grab it if you have the opportunity. Especially if you are a fan of the Double Oaked.

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Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Sweet Mash Redux

Sour mash fermenting is the process of adding a little bit of the leftovers from a previous batch of fermented and distilled mash (called variously: backset, stillage, slop, all that mash that wasn't alcohol, etc) to your current fermentation run. It’s done to adjust the pH so that the little yeasties have a slightly more ideal environment for eating, growing, procreating and excreting precious, precious alcohol. 

But what happens at the beginning of the cycle when there isn’t any leftover sour mash left? Well then you’d do a non-soured, or sweet, mash batch (or you'd just adjust the pH in some other manner). By not adjusting the pH you adjust how both enzymes work during cooking and how yeast does its gobbling, procreating and alcohol production during fermentation. Either of which could very possibly lead to different flavors being produced in the end product.

A few years ago, Woodford Reserve released a Sweet Mash bourbon under their Master’s Collection label. They must have thought enough of the effort that they decided to try it out again and released Sweet Mash Redux as one of their first releases in the gift shop only Distillery Series.

Woodford Reserve Distillery Series: Sweet Mash Redux

Purchase Info: $50 for a 375 mL bottle at Woodford Reserve Gift Shop, Versailles KY.

Details: 45.2% ABV. Uses a non-soured mash. Summer 2015 release.

Nose: Corn flakes, warehouse dust and the usual Woodford/Old Forester latex paint note.

Mouth: Strong perfumed grain presence with spearmint, citrus, raisins and a hint of baking spices.

Finish: Baking spices, raisins, citrus and a nice tingle that hangs around a while.

A frowny face becasue I don't like this one

Thoughts: I’m not a huge fan of this one. It is fairly similar to regular Woodford, but with a much stronger perfumed grain and raisin presence that I am finding more than a bit off-putting. The difference is interesting and if you are more interested in being interested by a bourbon than in keeping your $50 for something tasty, feel free to grab it. But otherwise I have a hard time recommending this one on taste alone.

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Wild Turkey Diamond Anniversary

Ever pay money for an expensive bourbon only to find out that it’s…not bad? I mean one that is fine, but for the price you were kind of expecting…better? The it’s a decent bourbon, but not for it’s price range sort of thing?

I honestly hope you haven’t. Unfortunately, I have. Numerous times. And I’ve shared them with you. Numerous times. And it saddens me to say that tonight I’m going to be doing it again.

Wild Turkey Diamond Anniversary is a bourbon that I think people were excited about trying before it came out. It was an Wild Turkey expression made up of 13 and 16 year old bourbons. It was put out honor a legend’s 60th anniversary in the business. Everything was set up for this to be a special release. 

Then it came out. The reviews were nice, but less than stellar with most of them being something along the lines of what I described above. I decided early on that I wasn’t going to be purchasing it. The MSRP was out of my price range and though I love almost everything Wild Turkey has put out, I had to pass.

Then my wife got auction fever. We were at the Oscar Getz Museum Master Distillers Auction during BourbonFest 2015 when this bottle came up for bid. It came with a set of four nice tumblers. No one was bidding on it and she felt bad. She ended up getting the bottle and the tumblers for $140. A little below MSRP once you toss in the price of four glasses. We figured that it was for charity and any bottle that wasn’t sold wouldn’t help the museum. So she waited until it fell below MSRP and pounced. She was the only bidder.

Wild Turkey Diamond Anniversary

Purchase Info: $140 at BourbonFest Master Distillers Auction (with 4 glasses included), Bardstown, KY

Details: 45.5% ABV. A blend of 13 and 16 year old whiskeys. 

Nose: Kind of flat on the nose with sweet fruit and oak.

Mouth: Sweet. Brown sugar, oak and baking spice.

Finish: Lingering oak and caramel flavors. Slight heat and spiciness.

For the price I find this to be just...meh.

Thoughts: This is a whiskey that either fits your palate or doesn’t. I find it flat and uninspiring while my wife really likes it. Neither of us are looking to buy a second bottle though, not even when Total Wine put it on sale for $89. 

To be honest, if I’m going to spend a lot on Wild Turkey, I’d go with Master’s Keep. I actually picked up a second bottle of that when I saw it for $130 (I also saw it all over the place for around $150). If I’m not trying to spend a lot, I like the Rare Breed better than the Diamond and it is less than one third the price. Both of them tend to be more energetic in the mouth than Diamond, which is something I like about Wild Turkey normally. 

Diamond is not a bad bourbon. It’s actually quite good. It’s just not $90 to $130 good. For the price and the pedigree, I expected a lot more. 

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If You've Had... Heaven Hill Bonded Bourbons edition

Tonight I finally get around to presenting the If You’ve Had… that inspired the whole idea, Heaven Hill’s line of bonded bourbons. Heaven Hill has a lot of bourbons in their bonded stable. I believe I got all of the readily available ones (even if only in Kentucky). But in any case, there are enough that these were compared to one another over the course of a few days. 

As a refresher, the setup is like this: "If you've had Whiskey A then Whiskey B is..." hotter, spicier, sweeter, more floral, etc. Each section is written as compared to one of the whiskeys. So if you've had that one, but not the others then that section will be of the most use to you. Remember there are no value judgments here. You get to decide based on what you know of Whiskey A if Whiskey B sounds like something you'd want to try.

Up tonight are the ones I had on hand, or could buy locally, including: Evan Williams Bottled in Bond, JTS Brown Bottled in Bond, JW Dant Bottled in Bond, Heaven Hill (6 year old) Bottled in Bond, Old Fitzgerald (wheated) Bottled in Bond and Henry McKenna (10 year old, single barrel) Bottled in Bond. Your mileage may vary on that last one being a single barrel product.

If you’ve had Evan Williams Bottled in Bond then…

JTS Brown is: more grain forward on the nose, mouth and finish. The finish is more bitter. 

JW Dant is: more caramel forward on the nose. It shows more caramel and floral notes in the mouth and the finish is more tannic.

Heaven Hill 6 year Bottled in Bond is: fruitier on the nose. It’s sweeter, warmer and more complex in the mouth. And has a longer and warmer finish.

Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond is: more floral on the nose. It is softer and sweeter on entry, but hotter and rougher on the finish.

Henry McKenna 10 year Bottled in Bond is: hotter and shows more oak on the nose. It is sweeter, hotter, fruitier and shows more oak in the mouth and has more oak on the finish.

If you’ve had JTS Brown Bottled in Bond then…

Evan Williams Bottled in Bond is: oakier on the nose. It’s breadier and sweeter, showing more vanilla and caramel in the mouth and shows more oak on the finish.

JW Dant is: very caramel forward by comparison. It is sweeter, more caramel/toffee forward and hotter in the mouth. 

Heaven Hill 6 year Bottled in Bond is: softer and sweeter, showing more caramel and oak. The finish is warmer and longer

Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond is: softer and more flavorful on entry, transitioning to a hotter and sweeter experience as it moves back. It has a much longer and warmer finish.

Henry McKenna 10 year Bottled in Bond is: Spicier and fruitier on the nose. Sweeter and spicier in the mouth with a warmer finish.

If you’ve had Heaven Hill 6 Year Bottled in Bond then…

JTS Brown is: much more grain forward on the nose. More vegetal and grain forward, showing more ethanol on both the mouth and finish. 

Evan Williams Bottled in Bond is: very similar on the nose. It shows more mint and baking spice in the mouth and has a shorter finish.

JW Dant is: sweeter on the nose. It shows more butterscotch pudding and baking spice in the mouth and has a more tannic finish.

Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond is: sweeter in the nose. It shows more mint and is more grain forward on the mouth. The finish is much hotter.

Henry McKenna 10 year Bottled in Bond is: sweeter and a little more complex on the nose, showing more oak. It’s hotter with more oak flavors in the mouth and is hotter and longer on the finish.

If you’ve had JW Dant Bottled in Bond then…

JTS Brown is: more vegetal and rougher on both the mouth and finish. 

Evan Williams Bottled in Bond is: less sweet on the nose. It’s maltier and shows more baking spices in the mouth. It’s less tannic on the finish.

Heaven Hill 6 year Bottled in Bond is: sweeter and fruitier with more caramel and oak in the mouth with a less tannic finish.

Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond is: softer and sweeter on the nose. It is softer and less flavorful in the mouth and more vegetal on the finish.

Henry McKenna 10 year Bottled in Bond is: spicier and less sweet on the nose. Sweeter in the mouth and shows more oak. It’s hotter and oakier on the finish.

If you’ve had Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond then…

JTS Brown is: mintier, showing less caramel on the nose. It’s hotter and rougher on entry and shows more grain and baking spice in the mouth. The finish is more bitter. 

Evan Williams Bottled in Bond is: less floral on the nose and shows more brown sugar and baking spice in the mouth. The mouth is hotter on entry but softer on the finish.

JW Dant is: much more butterscotch forward on the nose. It is sweeter and shows more butterscotch and baking spices in the mouth. The finish is longer with a lingering baking spice.

Heaven Hill 6 year Bottled in Bond is: softer on the nose. It is sweeter on the mouth showing more baking spice. The finish is less hot and harsh.

Henry McKenna 10 year Bottled in Bond is: fruitier with more oak on the nose. The mouth is sweeter, fruitier and shows more oak and baking spice. The finish is richer showing more oak and baking spice.

If you’ve had Henry McKenna 10 year Bottled in Bond then…

JTS Brown is: more grain forward on the nose, shows more grain and ethanol on the mouth and has a finish that shows more bitter grain flavors. 

Evan Williams Bottled in Bond is: similar on the nose but shows less oak. The mouth isn’t as sweet and shows more grain and baking spices. The finish is shorter.

JW Dant is: sweeter on the nose showing butterscotch and a touch of campfire smoke. It is less sweet on the mouth, even though Dant’s primary point of difference on flavor is more butterscotch. Dant has a softer, but more tannic finish.

Heaven Hill 6 year Bottled in Bond is: less sweet on the nose. It shows more sweet grains and less oak on the mouth and has a softer and less oak forward finish.

Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond is: less spicy and more sugar sweet on the nose. It is softer and more grain forward on the mouth. It is hotter and more grain forward on the finish.

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Woodford Reserve Master's Collection 1838 Style White Corn

Once a year, Woodford Reserve releases a new whiskey in its Master’s Collection Line. Each release is a an expression of curiosity and experimentation. Woodford likes to tout its “five sources of flavor: (water, grain, fermentation, distillation and maturation).” In each release of the Master’s Collection they change one of those five things. Previous years have mostly included changing either the grain or the maturation, though there was one year where they did a sweet mash fermentation instead of the typical sour mash. 

I’d love to see them come out with a version where they change out the water. Not because I’d want to buy it, necessarily. But I’d love to see every pundit on the internet explode when they release the Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection: Bardstown Water edition for $100. 

After changing the maturation last year with a Pinot Noir finish, this year they are continuing the Tick-Tock of changing grain and maturation by changing the grain from yellow corn to white corn. This is exactly the type of experimentation I like. It is a seemingly minor change that may or may not make a huge difference.

Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection: 1838 Style White Corn

Purchase Info: $89.99 for 750mL bottle at McDonald’s Liquors, Minneapolis, MN.

Details: 45.2% ABV

Nose: Juicy tropical fruits which transition to dusty, earthy corn and oak.

Mouth: Dusty corn and oak, cayenne, tropical fruits and baking spices.

Finish: More tropical fruits and then a slightly bitter dusty corn along with a lingering gentle heat. 

Not good, not bad...just kinda meh.

Thoughts: This isn’t terribly different than the normal release of Woodford Reserve. It’s a little rougher around the edges. It has a bit more earthiness and funk to it. It is certainly more interesting, though in this case that isn’t exactly a good thing since I find the regular release tastier in its understated way. 

This is a whiskey where I find my opinion changing as the conditions I’m drinking it in change. I liked it the first time I had it in a normal rocks glass. When I did the tasting notes, I hated it. I wrote things in my notes like: “it’s hard to pay $100 for interesting when you realize you need to choke down the rest of the bottle.” As I normally do, I’m having a little more as I write about it (drinking not tasting) and my opinion has swung back toward my initial reaction. 

It’s ok. It’s interesting. It’s also overpriced since it tastes like a rougher and less refined version of the regular release. But for all of that, it is mildly recommended if you like seeing the results of experimentation. Because I think this will tend to be a like it or hate it sort of whiskey, I’d try it in a bar first. It’s too pricey to just flat out recommend.

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J.T.S. Brown Bottled in Bond

So there I am. I’m in Bardstown for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and I get a the idea to go bourbon shopping. 

I know, shocker! Right?

Anyway I tend to like Heaven Hill Bonded products. Evan Williams Bonded might be one of my top 3 favorite inexpensive (sub $20) bourbons. JW Dant won the Bottom-Shelf Brackets a few years back and I remembered liking both Old Fitzgerald and Heaven Hill Gold Label (when it was still a thing). So I thought it might be fun to see what else they were putting out that I hadn’t seen up in the great white north. 

I was at Keystone Liquors in Bardstown when I got my eye on a 750 of JTS Brown. Knowing it met the above criteria, I grabbed it and made my way to the checkout counter. 

“Oooh really going for the good stuff there, huh?” the young man behind the counter asked me as I paid the bill. All of a sudden I had a bad feeling about this. But compared to most of the things I brought back from Kentucky, the price was right for experimentation.

Today JTS Brown is a bourbon put out by Heaven Hill. But like so many items that live on the bottom shelf these days, JTS Brown is an old name. It is named after John Thompson Street Brown (the older half-brother of George Garvin Brown of Brown-Forman fame) who created the brand sometime in the latter half of the 19th century.

JTS Brown Bottled in Bond

Purchase Info: I lost the receipt but seem to recall it being in the lower teens for a 750 mL bottle at Keystone Liquors, Bardstown, KY.

Details: 50% ABV. Distilled at D.S.P-KY-1, Louisville, KY. Bottle at D.S.P-KY-31, Bardstown, KY.

Nose: Delicate fruitiness, dried corn and hints of mint.

Mouth: Caramel, dried corn and mint.

Finish: Quickly transforms to a bitter mess upon swallowing with dried corn, mint and cloves.

frowny face because I dislike this one

Thoughts: This bourbon starts out quite nice. I like the nose. The mouth is pleasant, though uninspiring. But I’m having a hard time getting over the dusty bitter grain finish. This is where it falls apart for me. Let’s just say that, unlike most of the Heaven Hill bonded bourbons I’ve had, this bourbon lives solidly in the “you get what you pay for” camp. And it isn’t one that will be returning home with me again.

UPDATE!!!!!!!
By popular demand, I have relented and now—almost two years later—I have revisited my review of this. Guess what? Ya'll were right. I liked it.  😉

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