Dana McMahan| Special to Courier Journal
I tried the new $2,000 whiskey from Woodford Reserve and have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is it’s going to be hard to get your hands on a handmade crystal decanter made in Baccarat, France. Even if you have a spare $2,000lying around waiting to drop on a (very expensive) bottle of booze, this stuff is seriously limited.
The good news? This is tasty whiskey, for sure. But you needn’t weep over not having it.
There’s a tendency, I think, to believe super expensive things are wildly, exponentially better than things normal folks like you and I can afford. And yeah, to be fair, sometimes that’s the case. Other times? Let’s just say I’ve had buyer’s remorse over a will-not-be-named high-dollar whiskey purchase in the past.
But here’s the thing. We are beyond fortunate to live in a place where on any day of the week, we can stroll to our favorite spirits shop and pick up a bottle of bourbon forwell under $100 that will be absolutely stellar. And, because we’re not spending the equivalent of a vacation on it, we’re not afraid to drink it. I mean when you're sipping a whiskey that costs so much, you can’t help but do the math, right? That sip cost $72, did I enjoy it enough? Was it worth that?
How does a whiskey even come to cost so much, anyway?
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I hopped on a video tasting with Master Distiller Chris Morris and Assistant Master Distiller Elizabeth McCall last week to learn more and sip alongside these experts and a few other spirits writers.
The answer? The liquid inside is special, no doubt. It spends three years aging in XO Cognac casks from France resulting in the Woodford you love, but with a velvety finish and a dusted chocolate elegance that lets you imagine we still live in a world where we could hop a plane to France and be there this time tomorrow. But that gorgeous Baccarat crystal decanter it’s presented in, the one that takes an artisan five days to create? Yeah, you know that doesn’t come cheap.
This marriage of Woodford Reserve and Cognac being celebrated with the iconic Baccarat crystal makes for one of those bourbon lore stories distillers love to share. An executive from Baccarat USA was in Lexington, his hometown, Morris shared, and visited Woodford, where he learned about plans for the Cognac-finished bourbon. He told his colleagues and “they thought it was so neat,” Morris said, they reached out to Woodford and proposed they offer the whiskey in their crystal.
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They even asked if Woodford would like to call the product Woodford Reserve Baccarat Edition. And although other super-luxe spirits are available in this crystal (including a $4,000 Johnnie Walker Scotch, because while $2,000may be wildly expensive, there’s a whole world out there of even more expensive spirits), “they don’t let anyone else use their name so we thought that was pretty cool,” Morris said.
Thus theWoodford Reserve Baccarat Edition was born. And the bottle is definitely the co-star here.
I don’t know if you normally keep your favorite bourbon bottles(I know I can’t be the only one pressing the prettiest ones into service as vases or water carafes), but this one is meant for pride of place on your bar after the whiskey is gone. And you should be drinking it, Morris said.
“If they don't drink it, shame on them,” he said. “It's so good.”
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The crystal bottle is engraved and plated in 24-karat gold with Woodford Reserve and Baccarat, with a peelable plastic label you can easily remove after the spendy stuff is gone. Then you can refill it with whatever you want. I’m going to suggest Double Oaked, one of my favorite whiskeys, and a star among Woodford’s lineup of finished whiskeys.
Here’s why. Besides being absolutely delicious, it makes a very fine stand-in for what must be the most expensive co*cktail I’ve ever had, The French Connection (Woodford Baccarat edition).
Morris mentioned the co*cktail during our tasting, and I was intrigued. Who puts a $2,000 whiskey in a co*cktail? Apparently bartenders for first-class travelers in luxury airline clubs, which is where this is served after Woodford’s global ambassador created it. I had just enough left from my sample to make that drink and couldn’t resist, so I picked up the ingredients at Old Town Liquor in the Highlands and whipped it up.
Then I made another one with $63 Double Oaked. And I promise I’m not saying this to make you feel better: I liked that one best.
You should definitely give this a try the next time you’re dreaming about jetting off to France. It can’t take the place of travel, of course, but it certainly makes life in 2020 a lot more bearable.
So let's toast to the day we can travel again. And to beautiful whiskeys we don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on.
(But if you really want to add the Woodford Baccarat to your collection, head to reservebar.com/products/woodford-reserve-baccarat.)
Tell Dana! Send your restaurant “Dish” to Dana McMahan atthecjdish@gmail.comand follow@danamacon Twitter.
The French Connection (Woodford Baccarat edition)
- Three parts Woodford Reserve Double Oaked (or Baccarat Edition if you have it)
- One part dry French orange Curacao
- One part Lillet Blanc
- Chilled Champagne
- One dash bitters
- Your prettiest co*cktail class and a lemon twist
Stir the first three ingredients in a glass and top with bubbly and bitters, then garnish with the lemon.
