New whiskey releases coming from Old Forester, Coopers’ Craft
Brown-Forman is launching two releases this month. One is designed to build on the popular Old Forester brand and the other to extend the relatively new Coopers’ Craft bourbon brand.
Old Forester Kentucky Straight Rye Whisky will be available nationally Feb. 1. It’s the first new grain receipe from Old Forester, Brown-Forman’s oldest label, in nearly 150 years, according to the company.
“Our signature bourbon recipe has done this brand proud through Prohibition, World Wars and changing consumer palates,” said Campbell Brown, Old Forester president and great-great grandson of found George Garvin Brown, in a news release. “This January we will create a new tradition with a Kentucky Straight Rye that will capture the hearts and excite the palates of experienced rye drinkers and curious whisky enthusiasts alike.”
The rye is made with a mash bill of 65 percent rye, 20 percent malted barley and 15 percent corn, inspired by Normandy Rye, a brand Brown-Forman acquired in 1940. The high percentage of malted barley allows a natural fermentation using the traditional Old Forester yeast strain, said Chris Morris, master distiller. That gives this rye a uniquely floral character, he said.
According to the tasting notes, it has an aroma of brown sugar and magnolia, sassafras and candied lemon, with tastes of spice, including black pepper and cinnamon stick, dried dill and baked apple.
The release is 100 proof with a suggested retail price of about $23.
The other release is Coopers’ Craft Barrel Reserve, a new expression of the bourbon introduced in 2016. The 100-proof Barrel Reserve will launch beginning in January in Kentucky and the other several original markets plus four new ones.
The original Coopers’ Craft bourbon is aged in a traditional oak barrel, then run through a beech and birch charcoal filter finish. For the Coopers’ Craft Barrel Reserve, the bourbon is aged in “a unique chiseled and charred American White Oak barrel ... giving it a more robust and more complex flavor profile.”
According to the tasting notes, the Barrel Reserve has hints of smoke and char, oak and fruit, with a taste of caramel, cotton candy, fresh apple and vanilla wafers.
“Kentucky bourbon is famous around the world for its maturation in new charred oak barrels,” Morris said in a release. “Consumers will be able to experience the distinctive taste that this tradition delivers in the only bourbon that celebrates the barrel crafting art.”
The new release will have a suggested retail price of $30-$33 a bottle.
This story was originally published January 15, 2019 at 1:32 PM with the headline "New whiskey releases coming from Old Forester, Coopers’ Craft."