2017 Woodford Reserve Distillery Series Double Double Oaked Straight Bourbon Whiskey 375ml

The 2017 Woodford Reserve Distillery Series Double Double Oaked Straight Bourbon Whiskey comes from the scarcest-documented stretch of the series' early years — the distillery-only era when the 90.4 proof (45.2% ABV), 375ml bottling could be had at Woodford Reserve's Versailles, Kentucky gift shop and almost nowhere else.

Double Double Oaked is the Distillery Series' defining experiment: fully mature Woodford Reserve Double Oaked finished an additional year in its second, heavily toasted, lightly charred new oak barrel — two years in that second barrel in total, double the standard Double Oaked finish. Master Distiller Chris Morris designed the series to alter the sources of bourbon's flavor — grain, fermentation, distillation, maturation — in ways regular production never could, and the maturation experiments proved the most beloved of all.

The 2017-era bottling is also a collector's puzzle worth understanding: Woodford's published record for this stretch is thin, and the batch on gift-shop shelves during 2017 continued the Fall 2016 bottling run, with the next documented release wave arriving in winter. Bottles from these years carry their vintage on the label, so the label — not the press archive — is the authority on what's in hand. What is beyond dispute is the whiskey's construction: Woodford Reserve's 72% corn, 18% rye, 10% malted barley mash bill, matured on the National Historic Landmark distillery site where whiskey-making dates to 1812, then given its long second-barrel rest.

That rest is what fans chase. The deeply toasted, lightly charred second barrel piles dark, spicy oak sugars onto Double Oaked's sweetness — a distinctly spicier bourbon than its sibling, from the era before purchase limits and January lines made the release a media event. Contemporaneous reviewers noted the run stayed on gift-shop shelves well into 2017 — proof of how small the audience for the series still was. For Distillery Series completists, the mid-decade bottlings are the hard ones to find, and this is one of them.

• Size: 375ml
• Proof: 90.4 (45.2% ABV)
• Age: No age statement — fully mature Double Oaked finished an additional year in its second barrel
• Origin: Versailles, Kentucky
• Distillery: Woodford Reserve Distillery (Brown-Forman)
• Whiskey Type: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• Mash Bill: 72% corn, 18% rye, 10% malted barley
• Cask/Cooperage: Second new oak barrel — heavily toasted, lightly charred; two years total in the second barrel
• Series: Woodford Reserve Distillery Series — distillery-only era; confirm vintage from label
• Vintage: 2017 (per label)