First, let's be clear, I'm not gonna talk about the bourbon because if you haven't tasted it, what ARE you waiting for?? Pick one. You can't go wrong though I admit the Rye is my favorite. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that it is a pre-prohibition recipe which is much more balanced in my opinion. I do get tired of people focusing solely on the proof when they talk about Bourbon because it is so much more than that. If you are just looking to get drunk, go buy a cheap vodka. It'll happen faster and you'll save the good stuff for those of us who value it. Okay, off the soapbox and on to what I can only describe as heaven has landed and it landed in Kentucky!
I came to Woodford Reserve on the recommendation of a tour guide from a different distillery in Louisville. He told me it was the most beautiful place on earth he had ever been to. I was a skeptic and I was wrong. The drive over along the Bluegrass Parkway was breathtaking. I left Bardstown, KY around 7:30 am and headed to Versailles. The mist was still heavy on the ground rising up to meet the new day. The trees were alive with color. The maples were vibrant in their foliage of red and amber, the birch was golden and stretching to the sky. Seeing the cattle and horses frolicking on the hills as they inhaled the morning dew was just stunning. My struggle was honestly, to keep my eyes on the road. It would have been easy to pull over and simply lose myself in the beauty of nature in front of me. There is one particular space where you come around the bend and the limestone juts out from the earth revealing a deep ravine with a beautifully blended bridge that spans across the Kentucky river and opens up to show you the majesty of mountains and the mist hung in the air stealing your breath from all that is revealed before you. My only regret is there was nowhere to pull off and take photos. They really need to put a place just before the bridge for photos and viewing. It is the epitome of all that is glorious and wondrous in nature.
So on to Woodford, I journeyed dutifully following my GPS then I found it. Now brace yourselves because this is one of those places you only read about in novels. It is nestled in amongst horse farms and rolling meadows down in a holler that creates almost ethereal pictures the way it reflects the sun. The new Visitor Center is an old house on the property that Brown-Forman refurbished. It is masterfully refurbished and a beautiful homage to the history of not only the distillery but life in the area. They do not try to hide or deny the history of the land or the people. They acknowledge and do their best to honor those lives of people who were wrongly enslaved during the time of the Pepper family. This impressed me for several reasons, one being that as a person who grew up in the south I saw too often the remnants of pain, bitterness, and hate that festered from the denials of the existence of slavery. In my own life, as a white woman born in Mississippi, I have struggled with what my husband refers to as white guilt. I hate my heritage and the things that my ancestors did. I am ashamed of it and have struggled my whole life with it. I will never understand how one person could ever think that it is okay to take away the freedom of another based on the color of their skin or treat them as if they are lesser. Who we are, where we are born, or our physical exterior should never have any bearing on how one human treats another.
Woodford Reserve seems to understand this and seeks to, at the very least acknowledge this. They have photos from those periods of the people who were enslaved and will gladly sit and speak with you about them because they want those people to live on in memory and their value not to be forgotten. It is special and respectful in how they incorporate their memory.
So I took the tour, as I always do and it was a step back in time because they still use the original buildings built back in Doc Crow's (also known as James Crow, Scottish Chemist) time. I'll post a link to some info on him below. There are three clay tile warehouses still standing on the property though only one is in use anymore (hopefully they don't tear them down). Maturation is still performed in the original 1892 stone building. Currently, there are six cypress wood fermentation tanks with construction underway on a further two. The fermentation process here runs between six to eight days. We sampled from an eight-day-old tank that they were getting ready to empty. The mash was strong, stronger than any I have tasted before. Woodford has four mash bills that they use for their products, one of which produces two different bourbons. They triple distill their products in the original stills which is still very much a manual process, no computer systems involved. Staring up at the stills was liking staring at a piece of art hundreds of years old. They are breathtaking and feel as ancient as time itself.
The physical location itself has changed hands over the years passing in and out of control of the Brown family over the course of roughly sixty years and during that time only one building on the property was lost. All other original buildings have been maintained and any new ones were built to blend seamlessly in with the existing ones and the surrounding landscape. The sweetest moment was seeing a plaque that had been erected to honor the distillery cat who passed away. It hangs over his favorite spot where he would sit all day watching over the workers.
The barrel houses are all heat-cycled throughout the year to force the whiskey in and out of the barrels as much as possible trying to achieve maximum flavor. I know this practice is controversial amongst many but, we won't go there. Their barrel management philosophy is simple, put them in and let them be allowing the temperature and time to do all the work. Barrels are never rotated and when they pull barrels there is no calendar to look to for guidance. It is simply, Chris the master Distiller going through different warehouses and different areas of the warehouse pulling, tasting and choosing his barrels to create the best blends. They choose their wood for their barrels in much the same way, selecting from multiple growing areas in several different regions so as to add in another layer of complexity which allows them to build into the goal of 212 possible flavors per batch.
At the end of the tour, we did do a tasting. It included the Distiller's Select, Double Oaked and their Rye Whiskey along with a dark chocolate bourbon ball with a pecan on top. I'll give you a few notes.
Distiller's Select - my only thoughts were the woodsy feel that took a step back when tasted with the dark chocolate. The bourbon ball brought forth notes of warm tobacco and a very soft warmth in the back of your throat.
Double Oaked is again very wood forward with strong notes of pecan, including the mouthfeel of eating freshly fallen pecans straight out of the shell. When paired with the bourbon ball it loses all flavor and leaves only the tingle on your lips.
Rye Whiskey tastes straight up like unsweetened, warm earl grey tea. It is semi-soft pairs well with the bourbon ball which enhances the tea flavors and tingles all the way down to your belly.
When you are finished with the tour, go outside and have a cocktail on the deck overlooking the distillery or if a cocktail isn't your thing stop by the café for a light lunch, coffee or ice cream. It's a wonderful way to while away the day.
One last note about this distillery that sets them apart. They care about the environment and any space where they can swap out a non-compostable product for a compostable or recyclable one they will. From the lids on their coffee cups to paper straws to using wooden bowls and everything in between, they do it.
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