Elijah Craig Small Batch Single Barrel Select

Great mouth feel, oily, rye heavy, caramel, long dry finish barrel forward. Finally a sweet note at the end

Superfine Wine 12 Year pick. Sweet vanilla and oak on the nose with an balanced body that starts light and fruity, but settles into a mature oaky finish. Excellent pick! Bumped up the rating as it’s really exceptional for the price.

One of the best bourbons I’ve had. Incredible smoothness for how strong it really is.

A little rough.

Barrel No. 5195665 Floor 5; Rick A Age 12 years Picked by Heaven Hill Master Distiller and Durham ABC Open 7 months Nose - Peanut brittle, caramel apples, light vanilla, grainy corn, strong oak spice, and light ethanol. Palate - Caramel, vanilla, oak spice, toffee, stewed cinnamon apples, and barely any ethanol taste. Medium finish with more dry oak and rye spices than on the front palate, watered-down caramel, and vanilla bean. I mostly see 9-10 year EC store picks these days, so when I heard from Bull City Bourbon Club we were getting a local 12Y pick I jumped at the chance to buy it. The standard 94 proof EC is never my go-to bourbon because of proof, but it always holds up really well against the competition. I think it's one of the best classic examples of bourbon on the shelf, and it's hard to beat these high age store picks at $30. For comparison, I also have a Blanton's on hand. That is double the price (if you can find it at MSRP), almost the same proof, and probably a little more rye content than Elijah Craig. Side-by-side, these match up really well on the nose and palate. I know the bottle is really cool, but you're really wasting your time and money searching for Blanton's when stuff like this sits on the shelves everywhere.

10 year Kroger Pick, 94p Rick T floor 6 for $25. That’s right, I said $25. Do you like Elijah Craig? If not you should? Try it try it, if you may. Try a barre pick I say! How many of these have I had tonight? Enough to turn out the Dr Seuss mockery. Bright holden with teardrop legs that arrest midway down the glass. Prickly oak, cinnamon, anise, cigar wrapper, fresh cherries, vanilla and brown sugar with an hint of naval orange. Thin body and immediately corn- forward and sweet, followed with immediate heat, cinnamon, coriander and cayenne, then buttered and roasted pralines into a subtle 2 dimensional wood and vanilla finish. Empty glass elutes oak, creamsicle, cinnamon and tobacco. Well worth every cent. This was $25. Buffalo Trace would roll over if it met this bottle. Honestly this is a stones throw away from Old Ezra 7y BP which is spicier and less oaky but also twice the price. Honestly, the wood with the thin palate make this an excellent, full flavor but lighter sipper. This is not a bourbon that will cause deep, existential introspection. This is a bourbon you drink, enjoy and then go do whatever you damn well please. I will be packing it into a flask, alongside 30 cans of Natty Light as I march into the Indy 500 tomorrow because damnit it’s summer and I need to FEEL the thunder of an unrestricted Honda twin-turbo 2.2L V6 shake me back to life after this past year and a 120+ proof in the heat just won’t end well. Try it if you may, I say!