Two great tastes that ... taste great together?

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“It’s certainly a new adventure,” Adams said. “I haven’t had a lot of experience with Kentucky bourbons. I’m learning more and more as we go.”

Scotch makers have used wine barrels for years to finish some of their products.

Lew Bryson, managing editor of Malt Advocate, a consumer-whiskey magazine, said Brown-Forman pulled it off with its new product — proving that bourbon whiskey can coexist with a hint of wine.

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“You hear something about another finish in the whiskey world, and at this point you kind of automatically think gimmick,” he said. “But it’s not a gimmicky thing at all. It really works and works well.”

Whiskey writer Chuck Cowdery said the result was something unique.

“It’s really something you haven’t tasted before,” he said. “You don’t drink it and say, ‘This is bourbon with a little chardonnay in it.”’

Bryson and Cowdery were among a group of whiskey writers invited by Brown-Forman to sample the special whiskey before it reached liquor stores.

They said such experimentation is good for the bourbon sector to appeal to consumers looking for variety.

“There are so few distilleries left that you could really have a situation in which bourbon would kind of degenerate into a sameness,” Cowdery said. “By doing things like this, you’re able to keep some vitality in the segment. And people want to try new things.”

Morris said he tinkered extensively before finding the right mix and settled on bourbon aged for five years instead of the usual seven-plus years. The fully mature Woodford “was too robust to get the nuances of the contribution of the Sonoma-Cutrer to shine through,” he said.

In just four months, the wine-finished whiskey went through different weather cycles while maturing.

The barrels were placed in storage warehouses in late January. The warehouses were heated at the time, creating a balmy climate that allowed the liquor to absorb into the wine barrels. The bourbon makers later turned off the heat, allowing the warehouse to cool off so the liquor came back out of the wood.

“It’s kind of amazing that that little amount of time in that wood can make such a big difference,” Cowdery said. “It tastes so different than the normal Woodford Reserve.”

The wine-influenced whiskey is the second release of a special Woodford Reserve whiskey as part of a Master’s Collection. In 2005, Brown-Forman rolled out a limited-edition four grain version of Woodford Reserve in Kentucky that ultimately spread to 16 other states the following year.