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True or False: Old Forrester=Woodford Reserve?

Unread postPosted: Tue Sep 07, 2010 2:54 pm
by Birdo
Rumor has it that Old Forrester is Woodford in different bottles. Living in Louisville, I have heard this before, and once again from a guy that works at BF in bottling. Supposedly, the best goes in the Woodford bottles, and once the Woodford demand is filled, the rest is sold as OF. Stuff that may not be quite WR goes in OF bottles.

I can say I like WR, and OF, they both taste great, but I haven't tried them side by side. Working on a bottle of OF, and it is pretty darn good.

Re: True or False: Old Forrester=Woodford Reserve?

Unread postPosted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 12:08 pm
by josh
False.

Woodford is owned by Brown-Forman, makers of Old Forester, Early Times and Jack Daniels. Woodford Reserve is a mixture of whiskey distilled at the Woodford distillery in Versailles (ver-sayles) Kentucky and whiskey made by Brown-Forman in Shively, Kentucky where Early Times and Old Forester are made. All of it is aged at Versailles.

That said, the early bottlings of Woodford were all distilled at Shively. That's probably what the rumor-mongers were talking about.

Re: True or False: Old Forrester=Woodford Reserve?

Unread postPosted: Thu Sep 09, 2010 7:45 pm
by cowdery
This is also a bit of whispering campaign started by competition. Somebody said it to me recently. Like most good lies it is just true enough to be useful.

It's also true that Woodford and Old Forester share the same recipe, i.e., the same mash bill and yeast. The portion of Woodford that is distilled at the Brown-Forman Distillery isn't distilled separately as Woodford. Some of each batch of Old Forester white dog goes into the Shively warehouses and some portion goes into the Versailles warehouses. (Although it may still spend its first couple of years in Shively. They try to pick only honey barrels to finish aging at Woodford.) Every bottle of Woodford except the Master's Collection contains some whiskey from each distillery, though the proportions vary batch to batch. When they restored Woodford they set out to make the spirit made there taste as close to the Old Forester new make as possible.

Early Times, in contrast, is not the same recipe. It has a different mash bill and yeast. So, of course, does Jack Daniel's, but it's also entirely made at the distillery in Tennessee.

Re: True or False: Old Forrester=Woodford Reserve?

Unread postPosted: Fri Sep 10, 2010 2:23 pm
by Birdo
cowdery wrote:This is also a bit of whispering campaign started by competition. Somebody said it to me recently. Like most good lies it is just true enough to be useful.

It's also true that Woodford and Old Forester share the same recipe, i.e., the same mash bill and yeast. The portion of Woodford that is distilled at the Brown-Forman Distillery isn't distilled separately as Woodford. Some of each batch of Old Forester white dog goes into the Shively warehouses and some portion goes into the Versailles warehouses. (Although it may still spend its first couple of years in Shively. They try to pick only honey barrels to finish aging at Woodford.) Every bottle of Woodford except the Master's Collection contains some whiskey from each distillery, though the proportions vary batch to batch. When they restored Woodford they set out to make the spirit made there taste as close to the Old Forester new make as possible.

Early Times, in contrast, is not the same recipe. It has a different mash bill and yeast. So, of course, does Jack Daniel's, but it's also entirely made at the distillery in Tennessee.


For my novice palet, OF is about as good as there is. A guy here at work is watching his cash and has dropped down to Early TImes, and says it isn't as good. But I haven't bothered to try ET just yet, I know it's the Kentucky Derby mint julip bourbon which is pretty good bragging rights. I'll drink the JD at dad's house but I won't buy it because I'm from KY!!