Woodford Reserve is made at one of the most beautiful distilleries in Kentucky — the National Historic Landmark Labrot & Graham site in Versailles, where bourbon has been distilled since 1812. Reopened by Brown-Forman in 1996 as the home of a new premium brand, Woodford Reserve is unusual among Kentucky bourbons for being triple-distilled in copper pot stills (alongside column-distilled spirit from Brown-Forman's Shively plant), giving the final blend an exceptionally smooth, fruit-forward character.
The Distiller's Select is the flagship — a small-batch bourbon built on a mash bill of 72% corn, 18% rye and 10% malted barley, matured in heavily charred new American oak barrels in the distillery's stone-walled rickhouses. Master Distiller Chris Morris (and now Elizabeth McCall) has long described the brand around five flavour notes: grain, wood, fruit/floral, sweet aromatic and spice.
You can taste all five in the glass. The nose layers dried fruit, vanilla and toasted oak with a brightening lift of mint and orange zest, while the palate is smooth and balanced — caramel and dark chocolate giving way to baked apple, cinnamon and a thread of tobacco. The finish is medium-long and creamy, warming without ever getting hot.
It's a bourbon built for sipping but happy in cocktails, and remains one of the most reliable mid-shelf bottles in the category.
