Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

Old George Brown himself would be proud.

There has been distilling on the Woodford Reserve Distillery site for more than 235 years, making it the oldest Bourbon distillery in Kentucky. Now owned by Brown-Forman — one of America’s largest wine and spirits companies — it has been refitted and set to expand. Since the beginning, the folks at Woodford have been influential in the development and codifying of Bourbon production. In short, they helped invent the spirit as we know and love it today.

Smooth, pleasantly spiced, and bursting with flavor, Woodford Rye is a Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey that is at least four years old. The mash bill comes in at 53% rye, 33% corn, and 14% malt. Why 53%? Because that what it needs to be. And it’s bottled at an interesting 45.2% ABV. It wasn’t until 2015 that Woodford even made a Rye Whiskey, and the oddly precise numbers in the grain mix and ABV are evidence that they were focused more on taste and less on the math. And we think that they got the taste spot-on.

SmartAss Corner:
Woodford Reserve Distillery is named after the county where it’s located. But two-hundred odd years ago, founder Elijah Pepper named the distillery after his son, calling it the Oscar Pepper Distillery.