Tastes

**Price:** $26.99 at Total Wine in Houston, Texas **Setting:** Neat in a Glencairn, with a fat basset snoring next to me. **Color:** I’ll call it deep copper. **Nose:** Red apples, oak, and baking spices, with an occasional musty note that wafts in and out. It’s a nice potent nose without being overpowering. **Taste:** More apple, oak and baking spices, along with some corn and rye notes. **Finish:** Long. Waves of heat come and go while sweet and oak notes battle it out, with a rye note showing up after 20 seconds or so. **Conclusion:** Elijah Craig is by no means a complex whiskey, but it’s a damn fine drink. It hits a sweet spot at 47% ABV between potency and overpowering heat, and has a really nice mouthfeel. I find myself turning to it again and again over other whiskeys, and it remains my favorite inexpensive Bourbon, as well as the measuring stick against which I compare other Bourbons. **8/10**

Packs a punch, with a mixture of smoky and salty flavors. Really nice on a cold day.