From Distillery to Derby, How Churchill Downs Serves 120,000 Mint Juleps

The Kentucky Derby’s famous Mint Julep has four ingredients. Arguably the biggest star doesn’t even show up in the signature cocktail’s name. The local Kentucky mint is a requirement along with crushed ice, but it’s the Woodford Reserve bourbon that gives this drink its punch.

With approximately 120,000 Mint Juleps served during Kentucky Derby week, Levy (the Kentucky Derby culinary team) executive chef Robbie Walters reminds us, “that’s a lot of mint.” It’s also a lot of bourbon.

Churchill Downs sources 50,000 liters from Woodford Reserve each year. The distillery — located 60 miles east of the racetrack in Versailles, Kentucky — has exclusively provided the spirit for the Kentucky Derby since 1999. The Pepper family chose the distillery site in 1812 for its natural limestone, used in the distillation process to add magnesium and calcium for better yeast growth and to filter out iron, which would discolor the final product. Brown-Forman purchased the vintage stone distillery that’s nestled in a hollow amid horse farms in 1993, reviving bourbon production. The Woodford Reserve whiskey proved so popular it became the name of the entire brand.

How the bourbon is made

For whiskey to be classified as bourbon it must contain at least 51% corn and be aged in a new oak barrel, among other requirements. Woodford Reserve’s signature bourbon features that filtered water, 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley, explains master distiller Elizabeth McCall.

This mash bill combines with a proprietary yeast strain, fermenting in one of eight 7,500-gallon barrels for up to seven days. That process helps produce fruit notes while the yeast consumes the sugar and creates alcohol. At this stage the mixture tastes similar to a fruit-based beer or gum, a signature of the Woodford Reserve yeast.

The fermented mix moves to a three-step distillation process. It spends at least three hours in a 2,500-gallon copper beer still with a temperature between 173°F and 210°F. Then the thick and oily 40-proof alcohol mixture is transferred to a stainless-steel tank before hitting the second pot, a 1,650-gallon high wine still meant to cut the tail flavors while increasing the alcohol to about 125-proof. After three-plus hours there, it takes another trip to a stainless-steel tank and then spends at least five hours in the low wine still, meant to keep only the best flavors by cutting off the “head and tail,” says McCall. With distilation complete, the whiskey is poured into new 53-gallon barrels.

What took about 10 days in the distillery now needs five to seven years in a heat-cycled warehouse. Stone warehouses need a little help to keep the whiskey warmer than 53°F, the minimum temperature for the drink to mature. Woodford Reserve lets nature do the heating in the summer, but in the winter the distillery uses probes to check internal barrel temperatures to ensure the whiskey is reading 80°F for at least a week before cooling it back down and starting it all up again. 

During this process, water evaporates, along with some of the whiskey, pushing against the staves of the barrel and producing the “angel’s share” that evaporates out. But the space freed up in the barrel allows for oxidation. Mingling oxygen with the whiskey causes the fruit esters to develop and pushes the alcoholic proof up higher.

The actual oak barrels play a key role in the process. Woodford’s 32-piece barrels have been processed by Brown-Forman’s cooperage in Louisville (a site that will close in 2025) using as many as 30-plus species of oak from around the country. McCall says the mixture of oak variety in each barrel is key in keeping flavor profiles consistent across multiple batches, as the oak imparts the signature color and flavor profile of bourbon. Before having whiskey added, barrels undergo a 10-minute toasting tunnel and a 25-second char.

McCall says tasting samples of batches six months prior to their youngest dump date helps determine how much longer the whiskey needs to mature.

Since laws don’t allow full barrels to leave the distillery property, all bourbon is packaged into the signature-shaped Woodford Reserve bottle on-site. Kentucky Derby bottles are wrapped with each year’s special-edition label. 

How the mint is harvested

When the truck loaded with over 28,000 bunches of spearmint arrives at Churchill Downs from Nelson Family Agriculture — based less than an hour from Louisville in New Hope, Kentucky — it brings with it the smell of the Derby.

Nick Nelson grew up working on the farm that has supplied mint to the Derby since 1980. He bought in as an owner in 2018 before taking it over fully in 2020, continuing the mint tradition. Nelson cultivates a variety of produce, but the mint is the famous crop. The ideal time to plant mint, a perennial crop that lasts four to five years, is in the fall, so mint sourced for the Derby was planted about a year-and-a-half prior to harvesting, allowing enough time for the root-based plant to spread and fill in the farm’s quarter-acre and half-acre plots.

Harvesting mint is a laborious process, with picking done by hand starting up to two weeks before the Derby and running until the event’s final days. Nelson tells us he wants the mint 12 to 16 inches high before harvest.

After picking, he bundles the mint, wraps it in newspaper — a process his grandmother once helped with on the family farm — and dunks it all in water, an added step to keep it fresh as it makes its way to Louisville and into the commemorative Derby glasses.

In total, 28,730 bunches of mint get delivered to Churchill Downs. “Every single bit is done by hand, start to finish,” Nelson says. “I feel very fortunate [to work with the Derby] and have the relationship we have. It has grown four-fold compared to what we used to do.” 

Crafting a Mint Julep

Chris Morris, master distiller emeritus for Woodford Reserve, tells us that the proper way to prepare a Mint Julep is to start with mint leaves in the bottom of the glass, dropping a spoonful of simple syrup on top. Muddle them together, if you like, and fill the glass three-quarters full with crushed ice (the crushed ice machine at Churchill Downs is a workhorse). Crushed ice is a requirement, Morris says, to help the drink last. Pour the bourbon, which drops the ice level, add a straw for easy sipping, garnish with additional mint, and fill to the top with crushed ice.

“Yes, it looks good,” Morris says about adding the garnish, “but the aromatic character is also good.” It’s the smell of the Kentucky Derby.