Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select

After Bulleit, this was the second ever bourbon I bought and I recall liking it and being surprised by the difference in style to the former. I picked this up last Christmas to primarily make a glaze for a ham with, but as the bottle's been sat on the spirits shelf (and not on my personal, and far superior whisk(e)y shelf, ha!), I've found the bottle winking at me quite often, which leads us to this review. This is the standard Woodford we get in the UK and is bottled at 43.2%. Is that the same in the States?

Review is neat, been open 8 months and with about a third left.

Nose - Wonderful straight from the bottle, it must be said, and a touch more spirity in the Glencairn. Burnt sugar, caramel, some light leather and wood varnish notes, a little violet sweets, sweet oak, and some dry vanilla. Some buttered, charred corn is in there too with clove and a hint of cardamom and mint.

Taste - More violets, caramel and oak but the mouthfeel is quite thin so is a bit of a let down after the nose. Goes a little peppery and drying as it develops with charred cinnamon sticks.

Finish - short to med with the pepper and cinnamon spice lingering. A little sweet toffee note hangs on too. Some pleasantly drying tannins.

As hinted at above, the abv really isn't helping this and I imagine Woodford could produce some exquisite single cask or high proof bottlings (sadly not seen here) as the overall profile, especially on the nose, is very nice indeed. As it is, for a low to average priced bourbon (UK) that is in most supermarkets it makes a decent buy but I think there are better - my bottle of WT101 simply overpowers this one and the standard Buffalo Trace (@40%) is usually cheaper and does as good a job, really. It does make a mean Old Fashioned though!

Find where to buy Woodford Reserve whisky