Woodford Reserve broke bourbon’s rules from day one, launching in 1996 as a super-premium brand in a category few wished to touch. Nearly thirty years later, it holds a distinction no other bourbon has ever claimed: official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby.
Elizabeth McCall, the brand’s master distiller, has spent her career proving that Woodford’s rise was built one rule-breaking decision at a time.
A Brand Unlikely to Follow a Script
Woodford Reserve launched in 1996, when bourbon was unfashionable. The brand’s parent company, Brown-Forman, believed in the strategy anyway.
The new script worked because of flavor. “I’m biased because I love Woodford, but I do think its popularity is quite simple,” Elizabeth said. “It comes down to flavor. As soon as you take a sip of Woodford Reserve Distiller’s Select, you go, that is what Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey should taste like.”
The flask-shaped bottle often draws attention before anyone tastes a drop. “People first drink Woodford with their eyes and their palate,” she said. “It’s this cool flask-shaped bottle, and they’re like, what is that? So they got excited about it. Then the liquid inside was something people couldn’t resist going back for.”
Woodford’s flavor is why people keep calling it home in a glass. “It just has this beautiful flavor,” she said. “I think it’s because it is so balanced. It’s not too spicy, you don’t pick it up and go, there’s so much oak, or it’s harsh. It is a very welcoming, like a hug. Whether you’ve had a good day or a down day, it’s just so good.”
Elizabeth didn’t follow a script in becoming a master distiller. She earned a psychology degree, then a graduate degree in counseling. Her goal was a career as a therapist. A tip about an opening in Brown-Forman’s sensory lab changed her path, since the company often hires psychology graduates who understand how people respond to taste and smell. That detour led her, step by step, to running one of America’s most recognized bourbon programs.
“Based on my background, I probably shouldn’t be here,” she said. “I have my undergraduate degree in psychology, and I got my master’s in counseling psychology. I thought I would be a therapist. Then fate intervened.”
The Unscripted Kentucky Derby Partnership
Woodford Reserve is the only bourbon ever named official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby, a title that began in 1999.
“We are the first bourbon and the only bourbon that’s ever been the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby,” Elizabeth said. “Churchill Downs wanted to partner with a bourbon that was new, up and coming. We’re Kentucky-based, our parent company is family-owned and American-based, and our story read a lot of new life into the Derby itself.”
“Once you introduced bourbon, there was so much more to it,” she said. “You had fashion. You had cocktails, food, and a whole atmosphere around the sport. It just snowballed in a really positive way for everyone involved.”
At the Derby, Woodford Reserve’s involvement reaches beyond its role as the official bourbon. The brand releases an annual commemorative Derby bottle and is incorporated into the race’s official title: “The Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve.”
The “Presented by…” designation appears on all race-day programming, promotional materials, and broadcast coverage. “I’m proud that Woodford is a visible part of the event’s identity,” Elizabeth said.
It’s Magic
Ask a bourbon fan about innovation at Woodford, and the Master’s Collection usually comes up first. Chris Morris, Elizabeth’s predecessor, started the series by finishing bourbon in a Chardonnay wine barrel, a move that shocked traditionalists. Elizabeth lives by the rule Chris set.
“The core value of that expression is a promise to change one of the five areas of flavor and to never repeat it,” she said. “So once it’s out, it’s gone forever. That’s magical and heartbreaking at the same time.”
Elizabeth’s willingness to explore variables extends to a question now facing many distillers: Could artificial intelligence eventually predict how production changes, such as the height of a pot still, will affect a whiskey’s flavor?
She sees a limit to what any model can know. “Distillation you can kind of explain from a molecular level,” she said. “The chemistry of what goes on inside a barrel, I just don’t know. It’s magic. You can never fully predict it.”
An example of whiskey charisma came from Woodford’s unexpected partnership with Baccarat, the French crystal house. Woodford’s distillery sits in Versailles, Kentucky, a nod to the state’s French roots, so the team finished a batch of bourbon in cognac barrels to mark the connection.
During a distillery tour, a Baccarat employee with a home in Kentucky noticed Woodford’s Cognac-barrel project and suggested a possible collaboration. Woodford had already planned a premium bottle for the release. That chance meeting became a formal partnership.
Baccarat built a crystal decanter to hold the finished whiskey, and the collaboration transformed it into a far more ambitious luxury offering. The price of a bottle was nearly two thousand dollars.
“That premium collaboration has a nice halo effect for the brand,” Elizabeth said. “I’m not able to afford a two thousand dollar bottle of Woodford, or of any whiskey. But that partnership let enthusiasts see what we’re capable of. We’ve put a pause on that partnership for now, so if you find one of those bottles, enjoy it.”
Drink However Makes You Happy
Elizabeth pushes back on any notion that bourbon has one right way to drink.
“If you are trying to get into all the nuances, sure, have your drink neat and pour a little,” she said. “But if you’re just wanting to sit down and enjoy, have it however you like. When it’s hot here in Kentucky, I want mine on a lot of ice, maybe with some sparkling water on top.”
At a pool party, a group of women swore they didn’t drink bourbon, until Elizabeth mixed it with lemonade. “I said, let me show you how,” she said. “You don’t have to have it neat or on the rocks. You can mix with lemonade. They all said, that’s actually really good.
Almost anybody who wants to can drink bourbon, Elizabeth told me, and there’s no right or wrong way to do it.
Frequently Asked Questions of Woodford Reserve
What is Double Oak, and is it a good entry point for new bourbon drinkers?
Double Oak is one of Woodford’s higher-priced expressions, known for butterscotch and caramel. “It’s the most friendly hello you will get from a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey,” Elizabeth said. Fans have nicknamed it the Ted Lasso of bourbon for its warm, easygoing character, and it works well on the rocks with a splash of citrus.
Are people born with a refined palate is it something you can learn?
A refined palate is partly innate, but it can also be developed. Some people may be naturally more sensitive to certain smells and flavors, a trait that can run in families. “But the more people taste and compare different flavors, the better they may become at identifying what they are tasting in the glass,” Elizabeth explained.
Years in Brown-Forman’s sensory lab helped refine her tasting skills as she worked alongside food scientists trained to dissect flavor. Seeing her own children notice aromas and tastes at an early age also suggested to her that natural sensitivity may have a genetic component.
What do women tend to notice at Woodford tastings that surprises visitors?
Elizabeth has found that women at distillery tours, even those who say up front they’re not big bourbon drinkers, often pick out subtle flavors faster than their more experienced partners. She loves watching skeptics walk away with a new appreciation for rye or bourbon they once assumed wasn’t for them.
Are there plans for future Master’s Collection releases?
Elizabeth experiments with port and sherry barrel finishes. She has also floated the idea of trying a new yeast strain someday, something Woodford has never done. Any change requires careful planning, because a new strain could shift the distillery’s entire flavor chemistry.
Breaking the Whiskey Script
Woodford Reserve has often succeeded where convention once said it should not. Woodford launched as a super-premium brand when the category was in decline, turned a young Kentucky bourbon into the Kentucky Derby’s official bourbon, and used wine casks and crystal decanters to push whiskey beyond familiar limits.
Elizabeth McCall continues to break the old script and make new stories. A psychologist by training rather than a traditional distiller, she brings a sensory scientist’s discipline to a brand built on experimentation.
For more insights into Woodford Reserve and Elizabeth McCall, listen to the full conversation on the Whiskey Shenanigans podcast. And read a corresponding chapter about Elizabeth in our new book.
And for more conversations with fascinating people in the whiskey world, see our Instagram @whiskeyshaniganspodcast.