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Woodford Reserve, the new "craft" distillery?


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At least if you define "craft" as making an unconventional whiskey that is both underaged and overpriced!

 

Woodford Reserve "Five Malt" whiskey

 

This might well make Booker's Rye look like a bargain if you factor the "maturity" of the whiskey into the discussion! $50 for a half bottle so $100 for a 750ml that is aged 6 months or about 1/26th of the age of Booker's Rye.

 

So lets call it $2600 or so...

 

Hell, even Scotland requires three years of age in a used barrel before you can call it whiskey!

 

Perhaps they have just released their April Fools prank 2 1/2 months late? Or they are counting on P.T. Barnum's favorite customers to constitute a large portion of the herds streaming down the Bourbon Trail!

 

Well, at least I believe I have finally found something that even I won't buy...

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THIS is what can certainly be the downside of the current "Golden Age" of American whiskey.

Don't get me wrong.    I'm all for the success of those who labor to bring Bourbon (and other American offerings) to market.

But, JEEEEEEZ!   The price at which Woodford is offering this new spirit is usurious (I'm sure that's the wrong word; but it's as close I can muster in my current inebriated state).

I hope the windfall achieved by this new brand is well invested.    If so, I'll at least be relieved to some extent.

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That's definitely a "try-before-you-buy" bottle. Even if it was good, I would still probably walk away at that price. That's one for the hardcore WR fans.

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I just don't get the whole Woodford experimental/limited release thing.  Novelty alone is supposed to sell really expensive bottles that don't usually get very good reviews?  

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9 hours ago, PaulO said:

I just don't get the whole Woodford experimental/limited release thing.  Novelty alone is supposed to sell really expensive bottles that don't usually get very good reviews?  

 

I am with you Paul.  Their limited releases have been so underwhelming.

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The funny thing is (unlike other brands limited editions) I think anyone that really wants one of these will be able to find it. :lol:

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I remember seeing the two bottle rye set several years ago sit on the shelf at what is now a Big Red store for months.  It went from premium shelf space to an out of the way location behind the counter.  It was originally offered at $95 and came with nice wood box.  The last time I saw it I offered $25 per bottle.  I am glad they didn't accept.  I later saw the bottles for sale individually at a Liquor Barn in Louisville.  They weren't moving them.  Even later, I saw the set on clearance at the liquor store attached to Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati. 

 

A friend of mine visited the distillery last year and brought me a 375 ml bottle of the double double oaked.  He offered it as a gift but I insisted on paying for it.  It was like tossing away $50. He was going to visit several distilleries this weekend.  I told him to not bring me anything from WR.

 

I don't mind WR or WRDO but I have yet to find one of the experimental releases to be worth drinking much less paying for.

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Many of these experiments look like a quick money grab to me and I will not contribute to this madness!  :o  

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Well, they have to do something with those pot stills.

 

I don't know for certain what they actually use them for, but it seems a bit absurd that they would simply supplement the Brown-Forman distillate coming off a column still somewhere else. 

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49 minutes ago, ken_mays said:

Well, they have to do something with those pot stills.

 

I don't know for certain what they actually use them for, but it seems a bit absurd that they would simply supplement the Brown-Forman distillate coming off a column still somewhere else. 

 

Brown-Forman makes a ton of whiskey using at least two large column stills. I expect Woodford could never make enough to keep up and it is only used in the Woodford line anyway as far as I can tell with the B-F distillate being the majority of the whiskey even in the Woodford bottles as I understand it.

 

This young malt is just a weird one which is saying something when it comes to Woodford. Maybe it is a prank and they want to see just what kind of crap* they can convince the public to buy when they tag it as "special and limited".

 

*I haven't tried it so maybe it is great stuff! But I have my doubts...

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I will not be purchasing this whiskey, but I have had 6 month old malt that was quite good and flavorful. I posted about this in the foreign whiskey section of this forum. The whiskey was a private bottling of Ichiro's Malt from the Chichibu distillery that had been aged in hogshead for 6 months. 

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Um, when I finish the 7/8 full 750ml of WR "Classic Malt" bottled circa 2013 and opened Dec 2013 that is sitting in the back of my stash, I'll buy a replacement.  I wonder if it will be replaced by a replacement WR experiment . . . ?  Any bets?

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  • 1 month later...
On 6/16/2016 at 2:55 PM, Richnimrod said:

 

But, JEEEEEEZ!   The price at which Woodford is offering this new spirit is usurious (I'm sure that's the wrong word; but it's as close I can muster in my current inebriated state).

 

That would be charging excessive interest. But I don't think WR will be garnering much interest at that price. Maybe you meant uxorious--excessively devoted to your wife, which many SBers are interested in being. (Especially if she pours the bourbon every afternoon.)

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On 6/16/2016 at 3:55 PM, Richnimrod said:

THIS is what can certainly be the downside of the current "Golden Age" of American whiskey.

Don't get me wrong.    I'm all for the success of those who labor to bring Bourbon (and other American offerings) to market.

But, JEEEEEEZ!   The price at which Woodford is offering this new spirit is usurious (I'm sure that's the wrong word; but it's as close I can muster in my current inebriated state).

I hope the windfall achieved by this new brand is well invested.    If so, I'll at least be relieved to some extent.

It's certainly highway robbery.

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