Woodford Reserve 1838 Sweet Mash Tasting Notes and Ratings.

Woodford Reserve 1838 Sweet Mash

Added on Sunday, Jul 26, 2009 at 06:36 PM

Bottler:

Brown Forman

Age:	N/A	Type:	American
Vintage:	N/A	Subtype:	Bourbon
ABV:	43.20 %	Region:	Kentucky
Price:	$90	Availability:	Wide

Member Ratings and Notes

Chris

N: Very strong nose with cooked grain notes. Some similarity to the Four Grain, complex and unusual.
P: Sweet and oily with rye spices. Some bitter woody notes. Despite being very full bodied, it doesn't develop any further.
F: Spice fades linearly.
An interesting experiment, but the oily sweetness gets to you after a while.

Dave

Started on a bright sweetness that had classic vanillas and malty flavors and then just kept going.....and going.....and ..... I actually spit it out and could not stomach another taste. Just too ('cringe') sweet and ... well....yucky.

Andy

Blechh. I don't want to think about it again, much less give notes.

Sku

The nose is dry and oaky and a little soapy. It reminds me of the nose on Wasmund's Single Malt (maybe something to do with the pot still). The palate is heavily medicinal and woody, with a bit of brine and some orchard fruit in the background. The finish is medicinal with a bitterness that grows. This version seems to have magnified some of the harsher characteristics of the regular Woodford.

Tim

N: Sweet - corn note in abundance, a slightly vegetal undertone, turbinado sugar, toffee, maple syrup sweetness, some light wood. With a little time in the glass and some air it opens to give a little more traditional vanilla note.

P: Thin, surprisingly strong alcohol note, syrupy sweetness, medium heat, some slightly bitter wood. Maple syrup, almost a medicinal hint. Some very far off notes of plum. Despite the sweetness it's still kind of bland.

F: Big alcohol flush, not particularly nuanced. Toffee, raw sugar, corn.

This is one-dimensional and tastes young. There's not a lot of complexity to the whiskey. The woody bitterness clashes with the strong sweetness. It just doesn't hang together coherently. Thank god for the sour mash process. The longer you drink this, the sweeter each subsequent sip tastes.

Not entirely unlike the also-bad Rebel Yell.

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