Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Chocolate Malted Rye Bourbon

Nose: it seems to drink a coffee made with mocha! By continuing to savor its aroma, you discover caramel, but also a lighter note of fresh cucumber and apples. Palate: the classic vanilla is missing and, as I call it, the bourbon crystal ball: here we witness a triumph of coffee made with mocha and dark chocolate. Then wonderful cherries in alcohol appear very noticeable. Final: triumph of chocolate and cherries in alcohol. A product that thrilled me, in my opinion innovative (read how it is produced) and that undoubtedly enters my top five ever, in first place among bourbons (this one at 14.2.2022). Rating 5.00 _________________________________________________________ Naso: sembra di bere un caffè fatto con la moka! Continuando ad assaporarne l’aroma si scoprono caramello, ma anche una nota più leggera di cetriolo fresco e mele. Palato: manca la classica vaniglia e, come lo chiamo io, crystal ball dei bourbon: qui si assiste ad un trionfo di caffè fatto con la moka e cioccolato fondente. Poi compaiono meravigliose ciliegie sotto spirito molto avvertibili. Finale: trionfo di cioccolato e ciliegie sotto spirito. Un prodotto che mi ha entusiasmato, secondo me innovativo (leggete come viene prodotto) e che entra senza dubbio nella mia top five di sempre, al primo posto tra i bourbon (questo al 14.2.2022). Voto 5,00

Rating: 15/23 This is a blind tasting. N: This has sort of a musty dustiness that suggests mellowness and age. It's earthy with a peppery spiciness. There's a bit of green apple and a waft of vanilla. Maybe faint mint too. P: Indeed it does taste musty-dusty. It's smooth. Perhaps a tad light in rye character, but fairly mature with some nice herbs that aren't punchy but go well with that wood. There's a vegetal layer that melds into buckwheat. I get some clove, but not the usual bright herbs and spiciness that I expect from a rye. Jalapeños - I think that's where I'm getting some of the earthy, vegetal character. There's also sort of a milk chocolate flavor. Have you ever tried using milk chocolate to flavor bourbon and been surprised by the funky flavor it imparted? OK, I'm probably the only one who's tried that, but this has precisely that flavor. It's a variation on buckwheat with more vegetal funkiness. It's certainly more challenging that buckwheat. There's a lot of depth to this particular flavor, but I'm not sure whether I like it. The complexity is solid, but some of the flavor strikes me as the type of thing that distillers usually try to keep out of their distillate. Still, I appreciate the a funky whiskey now and then. F: The musty-dusty wood with some mellow, faintly sweet herbs including mint and dill. Quite a bit of that vegetal buckwheat milk chocolate weird thing. The jalapeño largely recedes, but there's a bit of pepper still present. - Conclusion - The maturity (or perhaps mellowness with clever aging) and complexity are good, but the funkiness to this flavor profile doesn't land for me. I'm not really sure whether I like this or not. I'm so torn that I'm considering anything from a 13 to a 21. I guess I kind of need to pick a rating. I find Rittenhouse (14) to have a bit too much alcohol, so I place it a bit below this. Pikesville (16) is less complex, but it's more coherent, so I like it more. Old Forester Rye (15-16) is a tad better than this with its complexity, even though it strays a bit from a typical rye profile and is fairly sweet. I really get the impression that this is an older rye than anything else I have open on my shelf and I appreciate the complexity a lot. But the flavors are just weird. I think this is going to be a 15. I can imagine upping this score as I drank through a bottle and got to appreciate the nuances more though. This seems like an acquired taste, but one while I have not gotten the opportunity to acquire yet. Out of everything on my shelf, what this reminds me the most of is Willett 4 with its chocolate flavor and musty backing. The Willett 4 has way more tropical notes instead of the earthy funk though. I could believe that this is an older Willett and that I'd love it if I tried more, but right now it just strikes me as too weird. Thank you @Bourbon_Obsessed_Lexington for sharing this fascinating whiskey! I always love trying something this unusual.

Nose - cherry, earthy mint, anise, clove, caramel, dry vanilla, coffee, apple skin, hay, rye spice, cola, cocoa, orange blossom, powdered sugar, mild to moderate ethanol burn. Taste - spearmint, anise, bitter herbal notes, lemon pith, baking chocolate, caramel, tannic oak, coffee, black tea, sour apple, clove, dry vanilla, black pepper, cough syrup, apple skin, moderate alcohol bite, finishing medium length with mint, anise, and dark chocolate flavors. The eighth of nine blind tastings opens with minty, herbal aromas, accompanied by cherry cola and dry rye spices. The palate arrives strongly bitter and slightly sour. There’s very little sweetness. Instead bitter, unsweetened chocolate, apple skin tannins, and mint are the dominant qualities I’m tasting. The mouthfeel is slightly thin and the finish is notably drying. If I had to guess, I’d say this is mature, underproofed rye. The oak is strong and, in my experience, those deeply herbal, black tea notes usually accompany age. This isn’t my favorite whiskey profile. It’s austere and leans slightly too far into bitter, herbal, and sour territory. Overall, it’s better than average for me. So what am I drinking tonight? Woodford Reserve Chocolate Malted Rye Bourbon. Well, I’m not surprised I picked up on all those chocolate notes. I just wish it were more well balanced. Many thanks to @Bourbon_Obsessed_Lexington for the generous sample!

To change things up, @Bourbon_Obsessed_Lexington sent me a series of samples that have either shapes or some code on them to prevent me from being able to know what they are until after I’ve tasted them. Will I mistake a rye for bourbon or completely miss a finish, who knows, but I’m dying to find out so let’s continue this blind challenge with the vial that has an R2 on it. The nose starts with a malted chocolate candy followed by fruits of charcoal grilled brown sugar coated peaches and sautéed cherries that transitions to an earthy notes of espresso beans and clay before fading to freshly baked pumpernickel bread, dill, cloves, leather and light oak with medium ethanol burn. The taste is a medium mouthfeel starting with fruits of charcoal grilled brown sugar coated peaches and sautéed cherries that transitions to a dark chocolate mocha and toasted marshmallow with light spice before a bitterness of burnt caraway seeds and clay minerality that slowly fades to reveal dill, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, leather and light oak with medium ethanol burn. Finish is medium length with Cocoa Puffs cereal, toasted marshmallow, espresso, vanilla seeds, cinnamon, leather and light oak. So I believe this is a rye and a bizarre sweet and funky rye that has this mix of chocolate, espresso, fruits, and earthy minerality that isn’t very balanced with a weird bitterness on the mid-palate that faded away before the finish to leave me with a delicious childhood breakfast of Cocoa Puffs that brought me back until the glass was finished. Whatever this was, it was interesting and fun to drink but I don’t think I would want more than a glass of this. So what is this funky rye…… Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Chocolate Malted Rye Bourbon.