Notes: An experimental whisky of four grains. Usually, distillers use corn (51%+) malted barley, then rye or wheat not both- bourbon to come on the market (relatively speaking anyway). The distillery site was home to a number of previous distilleries (Oscar Pepper and James Crow of Old Crow to name a few.)The current incarnation was reopened in 1996. One of the few pot distilled whiskies and only triple distilled whiskey in America today. An admixture of pot distilled and column distilled whiskey. See our Adventure section for the Woodford Reserve tour pictures and commentaries.

Appearance: Amber gold color, very clear. Peppermint with fruit and some cocoa notes on nosing. Cereal or gain notesThick edge line and strong legs develop on the glass when you swirl it, smooth layer of whisky on swirling.

First Impression: Rye, corn, and oak, peppery mint again with alkali tastes of tobacco and some fruitiness to it. Thicker bodied than their other products.

Taste: Rye, sweet/sour taste, spicy with mint some sweetness to it. Granola/grain taste continues to come through vanilla and cocoa notes again with honey at the end. Wheat comes through also as a high note, slightly off-putting at first but settles down. Finish is long, rather spicy, and a touch hot. Almost seems more like a breakfast cereal series of tastes (if you removed the alcohol notes).

Drinks: We tried it in a Manhattan and found it made a rather nice one. Works well with other ingredients for your usual bourbon based drinks- although at $80 a bottle, it does not make a lot of sense to do this!

Cigars: Works well with a spicy dark cigar.

Final Thoughts: An interesting experiment in whiskey making. Frankly, it starts off as a touch odd to people who are expecting a standard bourbon profile.

Bottle: The bottle is a flask shape with more or less flat front and back and squared off sides to it. It has a pommel mark LG below the neck of the bottle There is a combination of silk screened script in front with a small rectangular plain paper label at bottom and another paper label on back. Cork with wood top gives it a more elegant (read premium) touch to finish it off. Cork always gives a nice sound when you open the bottle and lends a antique feel.

Web site: http://www.woodfordreserve.com

Fast loading after getting past the annoying Date-of-Birth screen. OK it helps them gather some demographics, but I always wonder those sites do with the information. Decent information, and good pictures and some basic recipes.