“Doors to automatic and cross-check“. I buckle my seat belt, cross my arms and take a deep breath. I’ve never been afraid of flying. In fact, on the contrary. I love airports. The only thing that remotely bothers me is having to sit on the plane for too long. There isn’t much to do, and, as they say here in Brazil, ahead with no thought is the devil’s workshop. I watch the flight attendant point out the emergency exits. Suddenly, my mind reduces the sound volume of the surroundings, and an intrusive thought appears. What if I run out and open the emergency door as soon as the plane takes off?

You should let the intrusive thought win, for once, a friend of mine would say. I stifle the dialogue between reason and entropy in my brain. Not this time, this time everyone would die. I’m going to let it win when I it is somewhat like showing my butt in the middle of a restaurant or the church. Then, the worst that will happen is to become a felon. The flight attendant approaches me. Small moment of panic. I ask myself if he is a telepath and heard my thoughts. Would you like juice or water – she asks. I breathe a sigh of relief.

When the Boeing 737-900 starts running down the runway, I get excited, and the intrusive thoughts dissipate. After a few days in Tennessee, learning everything about Jack Daniel’s, we’re going to Kentucky to see one of the bourbon distilleries that I most admire in person. The Woodford Reserve. Known in Brazil for Distiller’s Select, Woodford is much more than that. It is an innovative distillery, which has often defied tradition and created new whiskeys – such as those from the Master’s Collection line, with very unusual maturations and techniques.

Our tour was guided by Elizabeth McCall – the master distiller at Woodford Reserve, in person. For a whisky geek like me, being able to talk to a person of such importance in the industry is always an honor. Our tour started at the visitor center – which has a well-stocked souvenir shop. Bottles, not so much. There is, of course, the entire Woodford permanent portfolio in the United States. But, no exclusive special editions, except for one – the Toasted Oak. This is because there’s a huge expeculative market over these expressions.

Elizabeth led us to the washbacks – where an exclusive Woodford yeast ferments the wort, which is made up of 72% corn, 18% rye and 10% malted barley. Fermentation takes 5 to 7 days. I notice that the washbacks are made of wood, and ask Elizabeth about the choice. The answer is surprising. “These are made of wood, but there is another portion of stainless steel. In our laboratory, we did not find significant differences between the fermented musts of the two. The wooden one is more traditional, and requires more work to clean.”

From there, we went to the laboratory where the yeast is grown. The strain has an Elon-Muskian name: “WR78B”, and has been used by Woodford since its founding. This is an important part. Scotch tend not to care much about yeast. In the bourbon industry, it’s the opposite. According to McCall, this yeast is responsible for Woodford’s fruity profile. In the lab, there is also equipment that assists in new-make standardization. And speaking of them, the next step was a visit to the pot stills.

If you, whiskey geek, paid close attention to the last words of the paragraph above, you might have thought I made a mistake. But not. Woodford Reserve is one of the only bourbon whiskey distilleries that uses pot stills in its distillation process. Their Woodford Master’s Select is a combination of the spirit from these stills with another, produced in a column. But there are expressions that come exclusively from them – notably, the expressions from the Masters Collection.

Woodford employs triple distillation. Wash stills produce low-wines with approximately 40% alcohol content. In intermediate distillation, high-wines come out at 60%. At this stage, the feints are removed, but not the foreshots. The spirit then goes to the second spirit still, which increases the strength to 78%. Finally, both foreshots and feints – once again – are removed. The spirit is then slowly dilluted, so that it reaches the entry-level strength for the barrels. 55% – 7.5% below the maximum allowed by law.

Finally, we were taken to a maturation warehouse. McCall explained that most Woodford expressions mature for five to seven years – but the idea is that the whiskey is unbarrelled and blended when deemed appropriate, due to its sensory profile, not time. Here, Woodford also has a difference. It does not rotate barrels, like some distilleries. But it controls the temperature of the warehouse. Especially during the winter, they raise the temperature and let it drop, encouraging the expansion and contraction of the wood in the barrels, and increasing extraction.

And there was one last surprise. Elizabeth chose a barrel, drilled it – with a small drill – and served a shot to the participants. A Woodford with 12 years of maturation, and 67.5%. The alcohol content, in addition to being insane, brings curious information. The barrels are 55% filled, but the water evaporates faster than the alcohol, due to the dry climate. Then, the alcohol concentrates. In twelve years, 12.5% ​​alcohol. It is a lot.

I catch myself thinking about what would happen if I stole the drill and went around drilling holes in barrels and drinking the whiskey. You should let the intrusive thought win, at least once, that friend of mine would remind me. No, not this time either. I’m just going to savor the moment here, and leave the intrusive thought for the plane back.