Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Barrel Proof Bourbon

An intense, Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey by Buffalo Trace Distillery in Kentucky for the Sazerac Company presented at barrel proof; uncut & unfiltered. It has a rich & bold birth with notes of cooked berries, caramel & a hint of floral notes; while a bold & spicy life adds notes of spice, toasty vanilla, dried oak & pepper; that led to a long & balanced death with a hint of fruit. May / July 2022 Batch 11 - August 2024

I first had a taste of Taylor Barrel Proof at a fancy steakhouse last year but the unfortunate thing about tasting whiskey in that setting is... the smell of delicious food overruns the nose, it wasn't served in a Glencairn and honestly, my date was very distracting ( in a good way ). So... I didn't bother with a review. Yikes... that made me sound awfully pretentious didn't it? Ick. My neighbor was gracious enough to give me a sample of this stuff and mentioned it was this year's batch. I didn't even realize a new batch comes out yearly but man... this stuff is already hard to find at RRP but to know a new batch comes out every year? My poor bank account. The nose is dark, sweet and tannic. Dark cocoa powder with tannic charred oak make for quite a dry nose. Brown sugar is a bit muted from the ethanol hit due to the proof. Salted caramel opens up the taste as you hang on to it for a moment. But as that taste goes down, black peppercorn and heat from the proof light up your tongue. There's some brown sugar in there from the nose. As I'm tasting this I suspect there would be more complexity with a pip or two of water but as mentioned prior, I'm rather stubborn and insist on tasting all whiskey and bourbons neat. The back half of taste has a bit of sweet and tart cherry, its quite reminiscent of more than a few Stagg releases. The proof from this release does that thing that makes your tongue and roof of mouth feel a bit powdery but that plays in with the tannic nature of the finish. Bitter, dark chocolate powder is joined with oak and the finish is of medium length although not very viscous. When the fire dies down you catch the tail end of some of that tart cherry that was present on the back of the taste. This release really does remind me of some of the Stagg releases I've had in years past but contains its own E.H. Taylor sweetness. It's good but hard to imagine shelling out secondary prices for this bottle. I'd gladly have it at RRP though.

medium complexity. Smell: Carmel, sweet, nutmeg Taste: tannins, barrel, rye Mouth: medium Finish: medium long