Review: Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Batch Proof 2025

Woodford Reserve’s Batch Proof Bourbon is an annual affair, but 2024‘s hit in the early spring — and the next release was announced in December 2024. I’m going to go ahead and call this the 2025 Batch Proof release, but it’s likely you’ll find this bottle labeled sometimes as a 2024 edition alongside the actual 2024 version linked above. What would the whiskey world be without some healthy confusion?

That’s a long way of saying that you’ll need to check the abv on the bottle closely if you’re trying to keep them straight, and for this release that’s important: At 119.5 proof, it is the second-lowest abv of the collection since it rolled out in 2018. (Only the 2022 bottling, at 118.4 proof, is lower.)

Let’s fire it up.

2025’s release initially hits the nose with aggressive aromas of driven by the barrel: ample char and anise up top, then notes of sandalwood and exotic dried flowers. Fruit is more elusive than in prior Batch Proof bottlings, though some cherry and spiced raspberry rings the edges. With time in glass, the whiskey becomes nuttier, evoking roasted walnuts with a light smoke applied to them.

Ample tannin kicks off the palate, which comes across as immediately austere and surprisingly dense and hot. The “low” 119.5 proof is misleading, of course: This is almost 60% alcohol and it shows. Time in glass helps the whiskey develop its flavors more fully, which are led by a surprising amount of dark, pruny fruit and chocolate notes. Secondary flavors of orange peel — or chocolate-covered orange slices — add a light citrus element, while menthol builds on the midpalate as it crests into the finish.

This Batch Proof starts rather closed off but evolves nicely in the glass to reveal more complexity than expected. And I’m not complainin’.

119.5 proof.

A- / $150 / woodfordreserve.com [BUY IT NOW FROM FROOTBAT] [BUY IT NOW FROM CASKERS]

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