FOR YOUR TABLE
INNOVATIVE spirit
From bars to backyard barbecues, bourbon is once again on-trend across the world, driven by next-gen distillers like Woodford Reserve’ s Elizabeth McCall.
BY BEN SMITHURST
F
or Woodford Reserve Master Distiller, Elizabeth McCall, bourbon has always been in her Kentucky blood.“ In my household, when I was a kid, my dad would come home and he always had a bourbon,” she recalls.“ That was just the way it was.”
Growing up, she’ d never considered a career as a distiller, choosing instead to study a masters in psychology at the University of Louisville.
But a chance encounter with an executive from Woodford Reserve’ s parent company inspired Elizabeth to join the historical bourbon distillery in 2009.“ I started in our sensory lab, the facility where the liquor-maker recruits volunteers to help assess product quality,” she says.“ Woodford Reserve typically hires people with psychology degrees because you use human beings as your instrument. And that’ s psychology – it’ s all about human response to a stimulus.”
Surrounded by artisans dedicated to the craft of evolving America’ s iconic liquor in new directions, Elizabeth would eventually seize the opportunity to help shape the flavour profile and perception of bourbon in younger demographics.“ For us at Woodford Reserve, it’ s all about mingling historical ways of making whiskey with modern takes – creating flavours naturally, with nothing artificial,” she says.“ Getting the balance [ between the past and the future ] is a challenging thing, but with Woodford Reserve, I think we have a really good foundation of what we stand for, and of our story.”
The bourbon resurgence
The art of crafting fine bourbon has taken place on the site of the Woodford Reserve Distillery, a declared US National Historic Landmark, since 1812. With an abundance of limestone-filtered water, Woodford-based distillers have plotted the future of bourbon under various labels.
Woodford Reserve itself was established in 1996 by Master Distiller Lincoln Henderson before the reins were handed to industry legend Chris Morris, the inventor of bourbon tasting notes, who remains as Distiller Emeritus for the label that’ s grown into a global brand.
Chris Morris handpicked Elizabeth to be his understudy, then appointed her his successor in 2023, where she’ s continued the mission to safeguard the quality of the brand’ s figurehead product, Woodford Reserve Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, while also developing the beloved Masters Collections with seven- to 10-year lead times.
When Elizabeth joined the industry in her mid-20s, the state’ s ubiquitous spirit was being left behind by drinkers her age, but her subsequent years of hard work have paid off, with younger aficionados now paying attention.
34 | SEP / OCT 2025 COSTCO CONNECTION