Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Batch Proof 123.2

Color: Dark amber. Aroma: Toasted oak and nuttiness with hints of vanilla and caramel. Taste: Batch proof make itself known as soon as it hits your tongue. The charred oak carries over to the palate and gets hits of cinnamon and peppery spice. Finish: There is a good amount of warm cinnamon and toasted nuttiness on the back end. Not sweet, but not too powerful for a batch proof. Can be consumed neat. A little water opens up sweeter notes of honey and vanilla ice cream. There is a tiny amount of sweetness that carries over to the palate but that cinnamon spice is still prominent. The long finish is accentuated with water and becomes more complex.

Smooth. That is what immediately comes to mind on the nose of brown sugar. First sip is almost syrupy as the flavors seem stronger than the liquid can handle. Vanilla, butter, and brown sugar wash over as a long lasting burn builds and simmers on your tongue. This is fairly spectacular stuff.

Just not as good as the Old Carter, deeper chocolate notes on the mouth. That said, it was still a great taste despite being 120+ proof. (Drug City Tasting Room)

A sample from dthom as part of the "whiskey transfer program". Nose: Quite a bit of ethanol punch, heavy vanilla, apple, and raisin. Some background oak and mint. Flavor: Very sweet but a lot of barrel bitter up front which I found a little off putting. Otherwise vanilla and brown sugar and nothing else seemed to come through the bitter notes. Finish: Heavy leather and tobacco with rye spice. A ton of barrel bitter that overwhelms everything else. I don't think that Woodford made a good choice making this such a high proof as some gnarly flavors are coming to the forefront. Kind of disappointing.