BOTM, 7/06: Woodford Reserve

[tmas]

[QUOTE=TNbourbon]

[[*]Summer 2006: Brown-Forman master distiller Chris Morris' signature replaces retired MD Lincoln Henderson's on WR bottles, which are renumbered back to Batch 1.[/LIST]



They must be pumping this stuff out like crazy! I was in a store today and saw liter bottles of batch # 54 with Morris's signature, or is it that the batches are just very small I wonder? Tom V

[tritioch]

I wouldn't mind this at say $10/750ml, but at the $30 it runs around here, it is terrible. Mild to the point of being boring, name brand over-hyped trash.

[Ambernecter]

The main thing Brown-Forman's marketing muscle accomplishes is distribution. They can get a product like Woodford Reserve into every liquor store and every bar or restaurant that they want to be in, and get it placed in the exact location they want. So, like Joel says, every time you go to the store and you look longingly at that top shelf, there it is.

Look at how good their distribution is even on Old Forester and Early Times.

Just watched the documentary "Wal-Mart The High Cost Of Low Cost."

Brown-Forman strikes me as the Wal-Mart of the wines and spirits industry. If I am found dead in a parking lot for making this comment then you'll know they've got to me!

[cowdery]

If by "the Wal-Mart of..." you mean the 900 pound gorilla throwing its weight around, that's not Brown-Forman in the spirits biz, that's Diageo. Jim Beam (now Beam Global) and Pernod Ricard are much bigger and more powerful too. Brown-Forman is more like LVMH, in that it isn't the biggest company but its portfolio is all blue chip.

[miller542]

I wouldn't mind this at say $10/750ml, but at the $30 it runs around here, it is terrible. Mild to the point of being boring, name brand over-hyped trash.

Gotta disagree here. I too have been turned off by the price tag of WR. Luckly, a kind friend just bestowed upon me my first bottle as a gift.

I like it. My bottle was smooth, well-balanced, no bite, sublte lingering aftertaste, no real burn to speak of, just bourbon. All in all, a nice experiece. Boring, hardly. It just doesn't smack your tongue up with certain flavors or characters. Blanced and very smooth. I am curious to try this next to some Four Roses SB to see how it really stacks up, but I was plesantly suprised to see that it lived up to the hype.

On a similar note, my first taste of Ridgemont 1792 made me feel like it was all hype, but I really began to appreciate the rest of the bottle. Have you revisited WR lately? Maybe you got a bad bottle or experienced the "new bottle effect"

[Gillman]

I just picked up a bottle and chose the Derby version (oversize bottle) made available for the 132nd Kentucky Derby.

I always assume something special goes into special bottlings (just as I assume a different or special selection went into the new OF Signature (preliminary taste reports on another board suggest this is so - uninspiring name though)).

I think B-F did select before filling these big Derby bottles. The whiskey smells of char and the taste seems to denote whiskey older than I recall from all other iterations.

I can't say it is special, though. It has the typical traits of WR (e.g. "coppery", aromatic smell, good body) but on an older frame. I'd estimate there is whiskey 8-10 years old in this. It is good whiskey and while different to a degree than the norm I did not have a eureka moment.

Gary

[NorCalBoozer]

If by "the Wal-Mart of..." you mean the 900 pound gorilla throwing its weight around, that's not Brown-Forman in the spirits biz, that's Diageo. Jim Beam (now Beam Global) and Pernod Ricard are much bigger and more powerful too. Brown-Forman is more like LVMH, in that it isn't the biggest company but its portfolio is all blue chip.

here is an interesting article talking about the explosive growth that Beam Global has had.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...ck=1&cset=true

[MGades]

I'm quite disappointed with this one. Clever packaging but I don't like the product.

On pouring I get a very heavy acetone (nail polish remover) smell. Maybe this is the Listerine aspect that others have commented on. I know a little bit about chemistry and I can tell you that if you're getting acetone-like components in the distillate, the distillation process needs to be adjusted. Maybe the pot-still contributes that component.
Aside from that, the bourbon does not have much richness of flavor or depth (less than a Beam Black). I did not detect unusual amounts of char as others commented.

I've been mixing it to get rid of the remainder but I must say that even then I go 1/2 and 1/2 with a better bourbon because I don't like the sour piercing flavor of the WR. Bad value and bad product. Old Grandad was on sale here for $7 and that is a far superior product, at 1/3 to 1/4 the price. I'd gladly take Evan Williams too over this, at a steep savings.

I should add that I detect some similarity to Maker's Mark, which I also don't think is a good value.

[jwrussell]

I have a bottle of this sitting in my cabinet. Being new to bourbon I got caught up in the hype of the advertising. Have to say I was disappointed. I honestly thought that was just my taste though. I much prefer Knob Creek for instance over Makers Mark. I like the heavier, darker tastes over the lighter ones so I figured it was just that. But, and I need to try them side by side, but I think I'd take Makers over WR.

[Martian]

I didn't care for it either. I am not educated on taste subtleties yet, but I definitely got the coppery taste. Not to my liking.