Building upon the success of Woodford Bourbon, Master Distiller Emeritus, Chris Morris set his sights on developing a whiskey that would redefine the brand and meet an identified need in the market. After some time of refinement, Woodford Double Oaked did just that, offering a new refined range of flavors. Taking it even one step further, would it be possible to focus in on specific flavors? The Personal Selection program has offered brands like ReserveBar the opportunity to share specific Batches that pinpoint certain flavors within the whiskey. With our release of all three of the current Batch release single barrels, we wanted to explore how the Woodford Double Oaked and Personal Selection programs came together and how they enable us to truly explore the depths of the brand. Join us in exploring the history of the Woodford Double Oaked with Master Distiller Emeritus Chris Morris and how the Private Selection Batches celebrate specific flavors of Woodford Reserve.
What was the inspiration for really focusing on these five sources of flavor Woodford as a cornerstone for how you talk about the brand?
The origins of the brand and the distillery project are well documented, certainly with us. What most people don't realize was that for those early years, the language and the concept behind Woodford Reserve were very fragile, because there was another agenda, which was to create a brand that would replace Woodford Reserve. The name “Woodford Reserve”, ironically, was a placeholder for the big idea. And after a few years, we realized Woodford Reserve was the big idea, and that we didn't need to develop a new brand.
So we really didn't have a way of discussing or describing Woodford Reserve or why it even existed. And I felt that I had to come up with something, because at the time, we were just saying the distillery was the oldest and the slowest and the smallest. Is that a reason to exist? Older, slowest, smallest? Now, of course, with all these micro distilleries, we're no longer the smallest, and in fact, we've expanded in the years since then. How am I going to define this brand that we're now going to focus on? I developed a language, the Five Sources of Flavor language and concept as a way of describing what makes Woodford Reserve special. And we changed the product slowly into its current configuration in 2004. The Woodford we launched in 1996 is not the Woodford we make today. Again, it's a complicated story, but I developed all of that as a way of taking the brand from a rather inauspicious start to become an iconic brand.
As you developed the progression for the Bourbon, how did that lead to the inspiration for Double Oaked?
As we were successful in growing Woodford, our entire product line was the Woodford Reserve Bourbon. Now, I had launched the Masters Collection – the Masters collection is very tiny, always different, and comes and goes as one-offs as we call it. So it wasn't really business, but more of an effort to gain some recognition for the five sources of flavor concept. But our bread and butter was the Woodford Reserve Bourbon. That's all we had. And so we get to a point where consumers have now adopted the brand, and we had loyal followers. But there are occasions when I want something bigger, better, more expensive, whatever the frame of reference is. Maybe it’s “my family wants to give me an anniversary present, and they want to give me something really special.” You drink Woodford Reserve every day, so what's there to give? Sure, I can get bottles of bourbon from other companies, I want something from Woodford Reserve that's special, but it has to be available every day. That can't be the Master's collection, because you just can't go out and find the Master Collection. I need something special every day.
So, I started to hear this more and more often, and I began to think, what are we going to do now? This also has to be more of an immediate request. I wanted something now, and I didn't have 10 years to create a new recipe, then 10 years to lay down new whiskey for something different. What am I going to do? That's where I came up with the concept of the double oaking of the existing product. In other words, finishing the existing Woodford Reserve Bourbon in a second barrel. And then, because I thought we had set the bar so high, specifically with the Master's collection, we couldn’t just put Woodford in a barrel that anybody else can use. We have to put Woodford in a unique barrel made specifically for finishing Woodford Reserve. No one had ever done that. And that's where the Double Oaked concept comes from – recognizing a consumer need for something special, something more expensive and available on a moment's notice – it still took two years to perfect and produce Double Oaked. That's a whole lot shorter than 10+ years.
Was there evolution to get to the profile you were looking for in Woodford Double Oaked?
No, I like to say we hit the target dead-on. The target for me was, again in hearing consumers we needed something exceptional for special occasions. What are special occasions? Maybe it’s going out to dinner, going to a party, having people over to the house. So that means a special occasion, a birthday party, an anniversary party. And at the end of the evening, after the drinks or cocktails, glass of wine, and dinner, there's dessert. When dessert is served, there’s typically a pour offered. In the past, you could have a glass Sherry, port, or maybe a cognac. There could be some single malts, or a glass of Grand Marnier, but there was never a bourbon with that dessert. In your favorite fancy restaurant, no bourbon was on the dessert cart.
I said, that’s where we go. I'm going to make a bourbon for the dessert course of the evening. I want a sweet, rich expression of Woodford Reserve, and that's what Double Oaked was designed to be. And of course, with that there is butterscotch, maple syrup, and honey. It hit the proverbial nail on the head. Perfect. Then, lo and behold, people start mixing it in cocktails.
In the Double Oaked Personal Selection Program, what was the inspiration behind focusing on three specific flavor directions as Batches?
As we just discussed, Woodford Reserve Double Oaked was a “dessert bourbon.” We know it's not, but that was the initial concept to be with dessert. And it’s so famous for its sweet, aromatic notes, caramels, butterscotch, maple syrup, just amazing. What most people don't recognize is that underneath all that second barrel oak, toasted oak character, there's a really complex whiskey, because it starts as Woodford Reserve. And one of the things that we had made so important in the development of Woodford Reserve after 2004 was its fruit character, because we are trying to attract wine drinkers, craft beer drinkers, cognac drinkers, and people who like those fruity characteristics. Of course, we have other flavors that are attracting other palettes, but we have so much fruit character because of our long fermentation with our unique strain of yeast.
So that's why we have these three styles of Double Oaked for our Personal Selection Single Barrels. It's to emphasize the wide range of fruit character. We have tree fruit, we have apples and pears, we have citrus fruit, we have stone fruit, we have different fruit families in Woodford. And by this careful barrel selection you really get to peer into that fruit character that is across the range of our barrels.
Could you break down each of the batches and the kind of flavors in each that are strongest for you?
Again, these are Double Oaked releases, so you're going to get the caramel, vanilla, chocolate, maple syrup, and butterscotch. That's going to be there, so what we're going to look for is getting into that sub-layer of flavor, which in this case, are fruits. Now we don't have all the fruit character, because to do that we would need to have eight or ten selections. Three selections is just a nice number to offer, and that's pretty standard across all single barrel programs – you're going to have three barrel options – You taste all three barrels and choose one. Now, of course, the ReserveBar has chosen all three, which is fun.
That's the science behind the three; it's simply a good range of barrel selections, but it's not too much. When you start getting 4, 5, 6 or 7 barrels to taste, you can get overwhelmed and your palette gets overworked. This is based on just good sensory experience that we have these three. But these are not locked in stone forever, making each barrel you are lucky enough to find very unique.
Batch Release #1 is a real classic with the tree fruit, which is apples and pears, but they have been dried, and by drying, that's just how we say, spiced. So they're not crisp or fresh, like biting into an apple or pear – they've been dried, and that brings in the cinnamon and the clove and the dry spices. You also get that little touch of honey that is actually a fruit note. Yes, honey is a fruit note. Because where does honey come from? Plants. You know, the bees make honey from apple trees, pear trees, flowers, etc. So, honey is also a fruit note. I think that’s what's really fun is that you get that nice tree fruit character. Of course, not overpowering. I mean, you'll get a super ripe apple or pear or tart pear, but by and large, it's sort of an even flavor. And I say that because Batch #2 has citrus, and it's a sharp citrus.
Batch Release #2 is about that citrus. If you really get into that barrel, you're going to find some grapefruit, lemon, which is really incredible, some lime notes and, of course, orange notes. And you can kind of get blood orange, tangerine, and it goes on. Citrus is a very complex family of flavors. You might just say, “oh, that's citrusy”, or you can really spend time with that ReserveBar selection and explore all of those different citrus notes and a little bit of stone fruit. The peach seems to follow along with the citrus notes. There’s a lot of fun there. Of course, there are also those sweet aromatics that are a part of Woodford Reserve Double Oaked. All of our whiskeys have sweet aromatics, which are common across the Brown-Forman Family.
Batch Release #3 is focused on the dry dark fruit – dates, figs, really nice, rich caramelized fruit. And we have the floral spice; the really bright spices, and you know, you have the heavy spice, you have green savory spice and floral spice, which are very light. They are sourced from flowers, largely to help balance out that dark, rich, caramelized fruit note, because you want, you want some energy, and some give and take between these flavors. For example, in Batch #2 you have the sharp citrus, sharp blanched with more sweet aromatics. You have that counter to one of the other flavors, which I think makes it really intriguing on the palate. If it was just monotone, it's boring. We build the energy between the fruit and the other characteristics we have to be dynamic.
What do you think about this opportunity ReserveBar is offering to get all three Batches?
Well, I think it's a great idea. A whiskey lover, given the option to see variation in a product, should embrace that, because you want to have that sensory experience. If you buy a bottle of standard Double Oaked, it's going to taste the same all the time. That's great; it's delicious. But to taste these Batch expressions is educational. And as our mom and dad and all of your teachers used to say, it’s fun to learn. In this case, it is!
Of course, Double Oaked is lots of barrels put together to give you that consistent flavor of whiskey. And these are individual barrels that are a part of Double Oaked, pulled aside for their specific character, and that's why we taste the differences that barrels bring. As a whiskey fan, you should want to do that -- find out how Woodford Reserve Double Oaked is made by seeing its individual components and see how different they are.
What has it been like for you to be such a big part of the evolution of Woodford as a distillery and brand?
Well, that's a very good question, and I just haven't really thought about it that much. It might seem silly, because it's just what I've done for 30 years, so I really haven't done a lot of reflection about that past, because it was just what you do on a day-to-day basis. I'm very proud of it, obviously – it's been a lot of fun, with great challenges, and I’ve met a lot of great people – so I could just say it's been a very rich life. I guess that is the best way to say it.
Aside from Double Oaked, do you have any favorite moments or innovations that you have worked on?
There's a lot to think about. Obviously, there are loads that I'm very proud of. A big battle that I had goes back many years now, before rye whiskey became popular again, I wanted to make rye whiskey. And I had to fight for that – not a physical fight – but I had to work within the company, lobby, call on executives, and things like that. And finally I won the right, the ability, the privilege, of making rye whiskey – I'm really proud of our Rye whiskey.
I made the American first Single Malt in the history of Kentucky as a part of the Master's Collection. No one really knows that. Now, American Single Malt is a new category, but we made one 20 years ago. I'm also very proud of introducing finishing to American whiskey with the Chardonnay finish, and the Pinot Noir finish. I'm very proud of taking that risk. We could spend all day talking, but I'm proud of the overall body of our work.
What was it like transitioning a new flavor profile for Woodford Reserve Bourbon in 2004?
At that time, I was starting to really work the flavor profile. It was all about barrel selection, and how barrels work together. Just slowly, re-batching and re-blending a flavor profile to be more complex. The original Woodford Reserve would have been more wood and sweet aromatic forward. Now, we have the balance of wood, sweet aromatics, fruit, spice and grain character. So again, it was more of a traditional bourbon, wood and sweet, and now we have a unique Woodford profile with the balance of the five areas of flavor
Now in your role as Master Distiller Emeritus, what are you enjoying most?
Well, I like sometimes sleeping in later, and going home a little earlier in the evening. But no, I love sharing stories, sharing experience with Elizabeth and her team, and helping out where I can. It's a lot of authority, but no responsibility. And your authority is just your career and experience. People like to listen to you, but again, no responsibility.
What is your favorite way to enjoy Woodford Reserve now?
Well, I have two ways. I have a Manhattan on the rocks. I'll drink one straight up in a coupe if I have to, but I like it on the rocks. That or our Bourbon on the rocks – that's just core Woodford Reserve. It hasn’t changed; I’m too old to change.
In Closing
The release of all three current Batches of the Woodford Double Oaked Personal Selection program is an exclusive exploration of the range of fruit flavors that are developed in this bourbon only available at ReserveBar, carefully selected in collaboration with Chris. It is a celebration and toast to the legacy of groundbreaking work and stewardship of him and the Woodford Reserve team over the past decades, and their intentional focus on exploring flavor. And it’s likely the only time you will have access to all three batches at the some time. As you prepare to enjoy any one of these Batch releases, or ideally all three as an educational journey through a magnificent flight, be sure to raise a glass in honor of Woodford Reserve’s Master Distiller Emeritus and his vision for that bourbon you’re about to sip.
