You can now customise the flavours of your bourbon to suit your palate
Advertizement
Experiences
Yous tin can at present customise the flavours of your bourbon to suit your palate
Chris Morris of Woodford Reserve wants to change your impression of bourbon – and make it a personal drinking feel by letting you lot cull its flavour.
(Photo: Woodford Reserve)
09 Jul 2022 06:30AM (Updated: ten Jul 2022 04:26PM)
Few spirits are as dichotomous every bit whiskey (or whisky in the United kingdom) when it comes to paradigm. Bourbon whiskey has long had a wilder vibe: It is the gruff and tough cousin of Scotch, the other suited up, old-school British relative across the Atlantic.
READ> Due south$2.1m for a canteen of Macallan? The most expensive whiskies sold at auction
"Historically, on the international stage, bourbon was known [to people outside of America] through Hollywood. Its portrayal was always less than sophisticated, especially in the Westerns, where whiskeys are being consumed, and someone is getting shot or his face punched," said Chris Morris, master distiller of Brown-Forman, an American spirits company that counts the award-winning Woodford Reserve bourbon as one of its brands. The visitor also owns Jack Daniel's and Quondam Forester.
Morris, 61, joined Dark-brown-Forman 43 years ago equally an intern, and is at present the visitor's seventh master-distiller. Having seen the ups and downs of the bourbon industry, Morris is on a mission to turn whiskey into a global premium product. But first, whiskey needs to make upwardly for some lost time.
"Bourbon was a victim of its upbringing. Information technology had always been produced just for the American market but that story changed in the 1980s, when its sales began to decline. By and then, other spirits like Scotch and cognac had a 100-year head showtime in the international market place considering of distributions via the British Empire," said Morris. "After the second earth war, outside of a few markets where the US military machine had a presence, bourbon was largely unknown. It wasn't until recently that nosotros started to shift this paradigm."
Because of its loftier corn content, many bourbons can be overly sweet, a characteristic that has contributed to the drink'southward seemingly one-dimensional character. To attract today'south global audience, Morris noted that Brown-Forman knew it "had to be different". In 1996, they launched the Woodford Reserve make in Kentucky, opened the distillery to the public – a very rare move at the time – and created a balanced flavor profile that would "catch more palates" and "appeal to the diversity that is the world's drinking population".
The mash nib or grain mix for Woodford Reserve contains 72 per centum corn, which gives the bourbon its sweetness; 18 pct rye (ane of the highest in the manufacture) for spice notes; and 10 percentage malt for a nutty touch. Morris also uses a combination of pot and column stills – the former produces a nutty character, while the latter gives a well-baked fruitiness.
"You don't really taste the corn in the Woodford Reserve," said Morris. "A lot of bourbons have a corn note in them. Merely why go at that place?" The Woodford Reserve is still sweet only not in the heady mode usually plant in other bourbons. The corn flavour is subtle, wrapped in succulent layers of caramel, toffee, anise, and cinnamon, and backed upwardly by a long, warm terminate. This isn't your father's kind of bourbon: It'southward Clint Eastwood in his director's chair – restrained and refined – and non from his days with Sergio Leone.
"When you make a circuitous bourbon, your palate is going to find what you desire. I can't tell you lot what y'all would taste. I love to hear how people describe our bourbon in their own familiar terms, like 'Oh, it reminds me of grandma'southward apple pie.' It becomes personal to them," said Morris.
In 2003, Morris introduced the Woodford Reserve Personal Choice, a programme that allows consumers to option their own two-barrel selections. "In that location are many single butt programs across the world. For instance, y'all can purchase yourself a single cask of whisky or tequila. But you did non become to create that particular flavour [in the cask]," said Morris. "Our Personal Selection allows you to shape your ain flavour profile for your bourbon."
To make your Personal Selection, y'all visit the distillery, sample a range of single barrels of different ages, and option four barrels of your choice. The iv barrels will then exist 'batched' (industry jargon for 'blended') into two-barrel combinations, creating a set up of six ii-barrel combinations. From the sextet of dual butt blends – each of which offers its own unique flavour profile – you pick your favourite to be your Personal Selection.
If yous don't want to fly all the mode to Kentucky for your Personal Pick gig, you can do it here in Singapore, too, albeit in a scaled downward format. Malt & Wine Asia, Woodford Reserve's local importer, will present you lot with three bottles of two-barrel combination samples: sweetness and woody; spicy and savoury; and nutty and malty. (Anything more iii bottle samples may become confusing, said Morris.) You lot so sense of taste and choose one to be your poison.
Back at the distillery, Morris' team will put together a flavour profile that matches, equally close as possible, the sample yous take called. After a waiting period of 24 weeks, you will receive 180 one-litre bottles of your own Personal Selection, along with your customised label. Singapore is the first Asian market to receive this special off-site Personal Choice option from Woodford Reserve.
"Jennifer Lawrence has washed her Personal Selection, and so has Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer," remarked Morris. "This program is open to anyone. Information technology has really touched a cadre with drinkers who realise they can actually craft their bourbon'south flavour contour. During the offset year of the Personal Choice program, only one person did it [at the distillery]. Now we become near i,000 customers a year."
READ> The Singapore whisky collector who has assembled 700 bottles over 20 years
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/experiences/woodford-reserve-bourbon-255871
0 Response to "You can now customise the flavours of your bourbon to suit your palate"
Postar um comentário