Woodford Reserve, the presenting sponsor of the Kentucky Derby, will showcase “The Greatest Two Minutes in Sports” with the release of its 2019 commemorative bottle.
This year marks the 20th anniversary for the Derby bottle, celebrated with a year-long exhibit at the Frazier History Museum, the start of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in downtown Louisville.
The limited-edition 2019 Woodford Reserve Derby bottle features the artwork of Keith Anderson and showcases thoroughbreds racing across the front. This is the second year that Anderson, who works in the Bourbon Street Café at Brown-Forman headquarters in Louisville, has had his work featured on the annual release.
The Derby bottle has been an annual collector’s item anticipated by bourbon and racing fans since 1999. The first four years of the Derby bottle featured simple graphics that celebrated Derby. Beginning in 2003, Woodford Reserve started featuring the work of artists on the bottle.
All 20 Derby bottles, all the original artworks used to design the labels, and other artifacts — including specialty glasses and Woodford Reserve’s $1,000 mint julep cups, which are sold on Derby Day for charity — will be on display in Woodford Reserve & the Kentucky Derby: Two Decades of Artistry, Bourbon and Horse Racing, a temporary exhibit at the Frazier Museum.
The exhibit, which opens March 20 and runs for one year, will be housed within The Spirit of Kentucky, a large permanent exhibition about the history, craft, and culture of Kentucky bourbon that the Frazier opened last August.
The 2019 Kentucky Derby bottle hits shelves nationwide in March with a suggested retail price of $43.99 per 750-ml. bottle.
