The 2011 edition of Woodford Reserve’s Master’s Collection, a Rare Rye Selection, is starting to hit stores. For this edition, Woodford Reserve first created a 100 percent rye whiskey. That in itself is unusual, master distiller Chris Morris told me; very few craft distillers are making 100 percent rye, and no other large distillers.
Half of the rye whiskey was then aged in new, charred white-oak barrels; the other half in used Woodford barrels. The purpose, Chris says, was to showcase the barrel conditioning. The two expressions are packaged together in 375ml bottles fashioned to evoke Woodford Reserve’s iconic copper-pot stills. This Master’s Collection retails for right around $100.
Have you tried the Rare Rye Selection? Tell me what you think.
