Why Woodford Reserve’s Chocolate Malted Rye Is The Perfect Bourbon Lover’s Gift

It’s that time of year again, time for the annual release of Woodford Reserve’s Master’s Collection expression and, as Master Distiller Chris Morris notes, “act fast, because once this is gone, it’s gone. We will never make another one like it.” This year marks the 16^th iteration from the Master’s Collection and while one never knows what each year will bring, two things you can be sure of: each bottling is historic and each is the first of its kind from Kentucky. This year Morris and Assistant Master Distiller, Elizabeth McCall tasted and analyzed their inventory of aging bourbons and decided it was the optimum time to release the Chocolate Malted Rye. Says Morris, “People are going to absolutely love this one. I sampled it throughout its maturity; it has such a great chocolate-y perfume. The nose is like opening a can of rich, dark chocolate frosting but the palate shows more cocoa nib, nuttiness, mint and dark dried fruit character.” I asked Morris and McCall several questions about the new expression (what exactly is chocolate malt anyway?) and life as a distiller.

Describe the Chocolate Malted Rye:

Morris: I think of dark chocolate truffle, and I really encourage people to sip this one neat in a great tulip-shaped glass. It’s not overly sweet; it is robust and bold like a dark chocolate.

What is a Chocolate Malted Rye?

Morris: The Masters Collection expressions have always reflected what is different from our core bourbon; in this case it’s the chocolate malt content that makes it different. We had rye that was malted, and in the malting process the grain has to be dried out. The malt house turned up the temperature of the drying kiln and that caramelized the malt sugar in the rye—when it’s roasted and toasted it tastes like chocolate. This one is 60% corn, 15% choc malted rye and 15% standard distillers malt.

How do you come up with the ideas for the Masters Collection?

Morris: Elizabeth and I are planning for the future; I am the sage old mentor, and when many of these expressions get bottled years from now, she will be in charge. We work on a number of concepts at any one time; we have whisky in barrels that take us up to 2030. Some takes years to perfect, when making something unique you can’t predict the timing of which one is ready to be released, some years we might have four candidates that could be released.

How much time do you spend tasting?

Morris: A lot!  Its funny people are like you just drink bourbon all day for your job? Which is not the case, we do tasting panels to assess quality, then we have descriptive panels for tasting notes, and then we taste our standard batches and then we taste the Masters Collection. We do taste every day because things always changes and you have to be aware and on top of it.

What do you do with your free time that is totally unrelated to bourbon?

McCall: I have a horse; I’m an avid horsewoman and I spend many hours at the barn, or I am at home cooking and hanging out with the dogs.

Morris: This is almost a 24/7 profession; we are always busy with events, but I am an avid gardener, mostly flowers and botanicals, and I have a huge array of ferns and hostas. They remind of the deep woods in Kentucky. I am also an amateur sculptor—clay, marble and wood, my preferred medium is wood I have black walnut, cherry, cyprus from a swamp, some maple. have a sculpting studio at home.

 Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Chocolate Malted Rye (SRP $129.99)