When she was named Woodford Reserve’s Grasp Distiller in February 2023, Elizabeth McCall knew she was in for a problem.
However that doesn’t imply she feels alone in taking the model ahead. She inherits the position from Chris Morris, who started mentoring McCall to take over the job round 2015. And whereas McCall and Morris spent the higher a part of a decade making ready for the transition, Morris isn’t precisely retiring from the bourbon business, as an alternative staying on in an emeritus position that can hold him an integral a part of the Woodford distilling group.
McCall joined dad or mum firm Brown-Forman in 2009, the place she served in a collection of R&D roles — together with operating tasting panels and dealing immediately with manufacturing — earlier than changing into Woodford’s Grasp Taster in 2015. Since then, she’s been an instrumental a part of growing the model’s extra experimental expressions. Her new title provides her the twin duties of constant to push the envelope for particular releases whereas sustaining consistency in Woodford’s core expressions.
We sat down with McCall to speak about witnessing the bourbon increase, her 5 and ten-year objectives for Woodford, and the massive errors that paid off in stunning methods.
Observe: This interview has been frivolously edited for readability.
Drinkhacker: How has the model advanced throughout your tenure with Woodford Reserve?
Elizabeth McCall: I joined the corporate in 2009, and in my authentic position, I used to be a sensory technician and specializing in high quality management. A part of my job that was type of quiet, no one had actually labored on shortly, was this marker program, the place we go to all of our manufacturing amenities and prepare individuals on easy methods to correctly nostril and style our merchandise. And we’d spike a few of these with some high quality points, and hopefully we’d educate individuals easy methods to choose these up. I used to be like, “That is actually vital. We have to deal with this!” So ultimately I used to be going out to Woodford Reserve to do tasting or coaching on our merchandise.
By round 2010 or 2011, we had been bottling twice every week. There have been simply the unique 4 fermenters, three pot stills. It was a quiet, sleepy place that was simply this big secret that no one actually knew about but, however you may really feel issues had been taking place. Individuals would fish within the pond there, you had time to do these issues! After which we obtained two new fermenters, then we had extra shifts on bottling. After which by the point I used to be working on the market in 2016, we had been bottling on three shifts, 5 days every week, generally six days every week.
We had expanded to then having a dumping facility. So we’ve obtained a separate facility the place we dump all of our batches of Woodford Reserve. And once I first began going on the market, we dumped each batch of Woodford Reserve on our little teeny tiny dump trough within the bottling corridor.
It’s simply been this explosion in my time there, and it’s actually wonderful and spectacular and loopy to see. And I really like listening to the tales from individuals who had been there firstly. We used to take actually lengthy lunch breaks and will deliver a six pack of beer and hang around. And now it’s like, oh, we’ve obtained our huge boy pants on. We’ve grown up.
Drinkhacker: I feel for lots of parents who discovered bourbon outdoors of Kentucky, once they go to now, it’s tough for them to comprehend how shortly issues have modified.
Elizabeth McCall: I feel that it’s laborious for individuals to know that we weren’t at all times this huge. Woodford Reserve wasn’t offered outdoors of the state of Kentucky once we had been launched within the late Nineteen Nineties. And that lasted for fairly some time. Chris Morris talks about how we offered Woodford Reserve one drink at a time. And now we’ve obtained a special mentality altogether. So I’ve been part of it for the reason that increase started, mainly.
Drinkhacker: Let’s discuss your new position. I might love to listen to about your priorities in your first yr within the place. However provided that it’s whiskey, maybe the primary 5 years can be extra applicable?
Elizabeth McCall: Precisely. Whiskey’s a really gradual course of. I like to think about it as Chris Morris had been within the driver’s seat, and I used to be within the passenger’s seat. And now I’m coming over, I’m within the driver’s seat, however he’s nonetheless within the passenger seat. He’s not retired, he’s not going anyplace. So he’s nonetheless going to have the ability to give me the counsel I must navigate via any points that will come up. And I’m actually enthusiastic about that consistency in management for this model as we transition to me being the primary chief. With our core manufacturers, with our bourbon, rye, malt, wheat, Double Oaked, we need to hold these the identical. I don’t need see them shifting in taste profile. They should keep.
And so maintaining the consistency in high quality goes to be my major deal with these manufacturers. After which persevering with what I’ve been doing on the Grasp’s Assortment and Distillery Collection. Chris gave me the reins a couple of years in the past to start out dipping my toes into this area of making an attempt to innovate. And now I get to essentially sit within the driver’s seat, and I get to determine if we’re going to strive a brand new, loopy recipe.
And what’s fantastic is I’ve labored at Woodford Reserve and with the manufacturing groups that I’m going to ask to do bizarre issues. The subsequent grain recipe I need do shouldn’t be straightforward. It’s obtained loads of small grains in it, it’ll be a giant taste, type of a enjoyable bourbon. However it’s going be demanding bodily as a result of we’ve obtained to hold 50 pound sacks as much as our mash cooker, simply due to the way in which our distillery is designed.
After which additionally with the Distillery Collection, we’ve obtained loads of fascinating issues deliberate, and we’ve obtained all the pieces laid out for the following couple years as a result of that’s an incredible outlet for us to look in our warehouses and go, “What bizarre issues do we have now that’s only a few barrels of this and some barrels of that?” I’ve been managing that, too. It’s been fascinating, however once I take into consideration when any Grasp’s Assortment shall be out, it’ll be like 10 years from now! Wish to strive it? We’ll have to attend 10 years!
Drinkhacker: What are some Distillery Releases or Grasp’s Assortment releases that you’re notably proud of, and that you just contemplate triumphs over the previous few years?
Elizabeth McCall: I positively suppose our greatest triumph is the Woodford Reserve Double Double Oaked. That’s a kind of enjoyable issues the place we had some Woodford Reserve Double Oaked that usually ages in that second barrel, as much as 12 months is our max. And we had barrels in a warehouse that went previous that. So we thought we’d allow them to sit for twenty-four months and see what occurs. And it was a giant studying expertise, as a result of we opened that pattern bottle up, and it was so totally different from common Double Oaked. It simply proves how maturation time and barrels can shift the flavour of a whiskey so shortly. You must be monitoring, you need to consistently be checking on issues, as a result of only one month can actually shift it.
Individuals went nuts for Double Double Oaked, and it’s solely launched in Kentucky. We’ve hopes to at some point broaden that when we have now the potential to deliver it to the world. What that taught me is that there’s actually no such factor as a real mistake that may’t be fastened once you’re doing manufacturing. So when our operators attain out and go, “Oh, the scales had been method off, and we added an excessive amount of rye to this batch, what ought to we do?” Let’s simply mark it in our database. We are going to discover a method to make use of that and leverage it. That’s been triumphant in loads of methods for me.
It’s additionally a relic of an earlier period, earlier than bourbon was as in style as it’s now, once you couldn’t actually afford to let issues go to waste. As of late, you do one thing bizarre, and folks prefer it. When Chris Morris was doing it again within the early 2000s, he obtained loads of pushback. And now these experiments have develop into customary observe, and so they’re celebrated. So it’s simply fascinating to see the evolution, and it’s fantastic as a result of it makes my job simpler in loads of methods.
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