Bourbon’s All-American Roar(6)
Mr. Noe moved on to Spiced and Honey Tea and smacked his lips appreciatively with each sip. He said that the cinnamon flavor in Spiced reminded him of Red Hots candies but that the bourbon took over. “It’s the real deal,” he said. “You can taste the bourbon. It’s not like we’re masking it.”
WHEN it comes to innovation, the whiskey business is like the auto industry: it has long product cycles involving trial and error. At any given time, Harlen Wheatley, master distiller at Buffalo Trace, owned by Sazerac, has more than 1,500 experimental barrels aging in the warehouse. It built a micro-distillery within its main distillery just for experimentation.
At Woodford Reserve, itself an innovative brand introduced in 1996, research and development for its long-awaited line extension took about four years. The premium Woodford Reserve Double Oaked will be available in the spring, said its master distiller, Chris Morris.
At the Brown-Forman headquarters, Mr. Morris laid out wood staves like those used to make barrels by hand a few miles away at the company-owned cooperage, where barrels are assembled, charred and finished. Aging the distilled spirit in a second barrel is the secret to the new bourbon, and working with its own cooperage provided a competitive advantage, he said.
For Woodford Reserve Double Oaked, he said, “we take a batch of mature Woodford Reserve, reduce the proof to 110 proof and rebarrel in a second brand-new barrel.” The barrels are stored in the Versailles, Ky., warehouse for a year, batched together and bottled.
He held up a sample and pointed to the rich dark color. “Now you get honey, butterscotch notes,” Mr. Morris said, sampling it. “Woodford has nice citrus notes, the balance of many flavors. This is going to be out of balance on purpose. At 90.4 proof, it will be even smoother, softer than Woodford. Woodford is known for being smooth.”
He adds with a whisper, “This is even quieter — even more elegant.”
Heaven Hill Distilleries in Bardstown, Ky., meanwhile, has also been working on its marketing mix. Just in time for the primary season, it will release special Red State and Blue State bottles of 80-proof straight bourbon.
