Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon Batch A124

Up front not a whole lot of sweetness. Starts with ethanol bite followed up by dark flavors. Flavors build up on the pallet. On the finish mainly some rye spice and vanilla. A little bitter not bad though

I got a mostly dry taste throughout the pour. Lots of smoke, leather, and pepper. I only got a faint hint of caramel. Both has only been open a few months. Maybe needs time for the cherry and buttery caramel flavors to come out. Have tried it neat and with 2 ice cubes

Ahh A124. The youngest ECBP to date. Is this truly worthy of all the hate? Let’s find out. Nose is definitely subdued with candied orange, minerals, cinnamon, berry, sweet corn, and…not much else. Really pesky ethanol keeps coming in and making things worse. Not a good start. (Ok after a while the mineral note vanished and ethanol decreased. Weird.) Thank goodness things improve massively on the palate; butterscotch, black cherry, soft mature oak, nutmeg, tobacco, and brown sugar. Flavors are less punchy than I am used to from this expression, but also well integrated and rounded. Finish gets even better with caramel, vanilla creme, cinnamon sugar, creme brûlée burnt sugar, white pepper, chocolate, oak, mint, leather, and barrel char. Honestly, a great blend of sweet and spicy notes here. On the longer side of medium. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, with a hint of effervescence which actually serves this pretty well. Let’s get something straight; this is NOT an inferior release. Just…different. Where as often times ECBP bludgeons you, this one is a gentleman. Comes across a little more like a “daily drinker” type whiskey vs a “special occasion” bottle and while that is a departure for the line it’s not a bad thing if you ask me. Anyone who says this is shitty because it doesn’t have a 12+ year age statement is smoking crack. At $89.99, there’s nothing to find sweious fault with here as I’ve paid a lot more for a lot less. Bring on B524.

Welcome to 2024. The rent's too high, I'll never own a home, and my 2015 car I guess has to last me the next 10 years! But at least bourbon hasn't changed? Oh wait...ECBP is now not 12 years old? They are lower proof at under 120 proof? OK we're all having to accept a changing time, but not lower standards. We just gotta accept times are hard. Nose - Classic heaven hill vanilla and light corn over a bit of spice from the rickhouse. It's simple at first. Taste - Rich, but leaning towards sour and drying. Then on the finish a lot of really big smokey oak....not bad but different. Lets jump right to water. So we have classic ECBP here again! Nutty, rich, buttery, light smoke, and just classic vanilla caramel with some hints of leather and oak. This is just another meh ECBP, but anyone jumping on this has some falling off beyond what we've had for years...just an alarmist. You don't need this one. But you'll be happy to have it if you love bourbon. 75 bucks for me with 500 points. This doesn't wow me given that point aspect but no regrets! Not sure if I'm holding myself to my standards but 2.75 feels fine. 2.5-2.75.

Nothing like watching people lose their minds because last trimester we got a 13 year ECBP and this time around it’s 10 Years 9 Months. Do you see me clutching my pearls over here? How dare they! I’ve never seen people so polarized over something that matters so very little. I just read a review that started out panning this: this tastes nothing like the ECBP I know! It’s abrasive! It’s too oaky, too leathery, too gamy. *****, please. Maybe I can scoff at you because then never got our regions shipment of C923 in. So I had to make do with tasting A123 and B523 but had to skip over what was supposedly the be-all end-all ECBP, the one to define generations and give instant orgasms upon sipping. But I have to admit….this tastes a lot like…ECBP. Except, okay, I’m going to admit, it’s actually maybe not quite as good as those other two barrels I mentioned being able to get my hands on. Doesn’t pack quite the same robustness of flavor or complexity. I’ll throw you a bone there. Maybe this isn’t the 4.5 star or 4.25 stars I gave those two. Maybe this is just a 4 star or even a (gasp!) 3.75 ECBP. Again, I’m clutching my pearls. How dare they give us a very good bourbon instead of the excellent bourbon I’ve come to expect as my right? Let’s hold their feet to the fire! Everybody got their pitchforks ready? We got spice and oak on the nose here. Not a whole lot of sweetness, and usually you do get some vanilla and caramel on the nose with ECBP, so yes, it’s lacking in that respect. The mouthfeel is good through and the caramel comes through there as well as the cinnamon from the nose carrying over, though a lot of the fruit you get is also missing with the usual ECBP. So yes, it’s lacking in that respect, if this is what you’re looking for. The finish is nice and spicy and long and decent, so it’s not lacking there and pretty well adheres to the ECBP formula expectations. I’d say the main problem for most people is that this is more on the savory and less on the sweet side of bourbon, and a lot of people need their bourbon sweet enough to ruin their teeth. That might be where the divisiveness comes through on this. Me, I like savory. So while I’ll acknowledge this might not be quite as good as previous releases, I still don’t regret buying it. It’s just not one where, as with A123, I’m going to pick up a second bottle to store for posterity/future sipping. But that’s not a bad thing. It’s rare a whisky is so good that I’ll do that. This is a more than respectable outing at $75 that you really can’t go wrong with. Lament if you will that it’s not C923, but C923 is gone. This is what you have not, and soon this will be gone too. Perhaps B524 will be better? Perhaps worse? Let’s hope it doesn’t slip too much further down the quality latter because while I’m not actually clutching my pearls, I will eventually stop buying if the roundness, robustness and complexity disappear. I’m just not ready to go into panic mode yet. Then again, for as much as I like it, I've never been an ECBP believer, hanger on, proselytizer either. It's always decent value for money no matter how you square it, so I buy it, but it's never rocked my world. PS. It's hilarious that a website built for reviewing spirits that require one to be above 21 year to consume/purchase should feel the need to censor the word b*#ch. But there you go. Clutch your pearls, you old ladies. Profanity is a no-no!