This is a rich and flavorful sipping whiskey, yet it’s so smooth. The first experience of the whiskey is sweet, with brown sugar and cherries — much like the scent. There are times when the taste is soggy, like chocolate doused in skim milk or cereal milk infused with cocoa pebbles.

The flavor profile is well-balanced; sometimes, we get a cereal-milk-infused flavor with hints of regular cherry and maraschino cherries. Woodford Reserve Double Oaked vs Woodford Distiller’s Select is a hotly debated topic in my house. I much prefer the more earthy and robust flavors of the Double Wood whereas my wife likes the softer sweeter flavors of the Distiller’s Select. There is no right or wrong answer really, but I like to think I’m right (because I am). Rebarreling whiskey to finish it in a second barrel isn’t a new concept and wasn’t new when Brown-Forman released Double Oaked. Barrel finished bourbons have been popular for a while and continue to gain popularity as the bourbon boom continues to expand. They make for an efficient way for distilleries to try to differentiate themselves in the crowded marketplace.Production details as available (neither carries an age statement) and our complete thoughts follow below. Both are bottled at 90.4 proof, as almost all Woodford releases are. Caramel, vanilla and oak. It has such a great classic bourbon nose that I just want to sit and sniff it for hours. Coming up behind the big three are hints of orange, butterscotch, mint, sweet tobacco and a slightly astringent pine.

The second third starts with some honeycomb and then I get a bit of vanilla. After the second third, it’s now rather creamy and actually smooth, with powdered chocolate cake-like tasting notes . Finish Woodford Reserve Double Oaked is a massive leap from the standard Woodford Reserve bourbon due to the flavors from the lightly charred oak tanks used to age this whiskey. In today’s world finishing whiskey is not a new phenomenon. But while many distilleries have experimented with previously used barrels to create wine finishes, Armagnac finishes, sherry finishes, and special wood finishes, there are only a handful that are experimenting with brand new barrels for the secondary finishing process. Not only is using brand new barrels more expensive, it has the potential of over-oaking the whiskey and ruining all that lovely flavor. Some succeed. Others fail spectacularly.The aging years of the Woodford Reserve Double Oaked are undisclosed, but speculations state that it was aged around six years on the initial barrel and then another year on the second barrel. Final Say Woodford Reserve Double Oaked is a double-aged whiskey aged in charred oak barrels for the second time, giving it a deeper flavor and more complex character. Brown Forman made a significant move with this bottle of Double Oaked bourbon, which is unique to their spirits line. In fact, Jim Beam was the pioneer of releasing double-barreled bourbon expressions, and Brown-Forman’s Woodford was the first to experiment in this process with an on-the-shelf spirit. What’s The Rating On Woodford Double Oaked?

However, since it’s a limited release, and you can’t find a bottle (just in case), mind you – only a handful of double-barreled expressions exist.

The second part of the vanilla, chocolate and the faint hint of cherry from the nose erupts onto my palate . I don’t know if it’s a result of a lot of charred oak casks in their aging, but the chocolate isn’t sweet enough to compensate for the bitterness and dryness that sets into my mouth after tasting libations like these. Michter’s Toasted Sour Mash leaves a nice first impression with honey, mint, and oak with subtle bready notes. I can sense that extra oakiness, but it’s not in the form of extra darkness (such as what older bourbons have). There’s also a bit of interesting smokiness that comes out to round this bourbon out. Overall this is a great whiskey that is well balanced with the savory earthy notes pairing very nicely with the sweet candy flavors that naturally come in a bourbon. My one qualm with the Distiller’s Select is that the sweet hangs a little heavy, but the double oaking definitely rights that in the case of the Woodford Reserve. While it does sit at 1.5x the price of it’s single oaked brother I feel like it’s completely worth the extra money, even though it’s not my go-to at this price range, as it’s a deeper and richer bourbon that I could sip on all night long.