Old Taylor Straight Bourbon

Still crazy good. Wonderful, great price. Wish they'd release it more often into Virginia.

I really wanted to like this. I was prepared to offer highly motivated reasoning borderlining on anti-reasoning for the sake of recommending this bottom-shelf tribute to one of my favorite figures in bourbon history. (Also a shared namesake with one of my favorite bourbons, EH Taylor small batch.) But I can’t. This is not good. Nose is walnuts, bananas, yeast. Black pepper. Body is yeast, vanilla, leather, and brine. Finish carries the brine, and I also get mild orange notes. I think this is the perfect bourbon for your friend who only drinks Jack or Jim Beam, and you want to broaden their horizons. It’s in that ballpark of mediocrity, but it does start to introduce more complex flavors like that orange note (when you really search). It’s unapologetically young, and if I had to reach for a poor-man’s EHT, this wouldn’t even be in my top 3. (Benchmark, Ancient Age, and plain ole BT, if you were wondering.) Yes, you could make the “works okay in mixed drinks” argument… but that still makes me want to rip that red signature off this label. Sad to see this suck. Won’t ever buy another. Edit: out of frustration, I mixed this 1-1 with regular Buffalo Trace to make it go away faster. It is delicious. There is an argument to be made here (especially if you are in camp “BT is too sweet”) that this blend is better than either on their own.

Still a great pour and still less than $20 for a handle bottle. You can't go wrong here.

Picked this up to have as a mixing bourbon for family and friends during the holidays. Never put a serious rating to it. Pale golden/dark straw in color. Legs appear relatively quickly and move with similar speed. They do hang well on the glass. Nose shows plenty of vanilla, with a touch of sugar cookie with a fresh cut through old oak boards. Whispy hints of lemon and eucalyptus. Soft but thin mouth feel, it's initially slightly sweet but well balanced with some spice and oak. Light caramel, butterscotch, and barrel char round out the short to medium finish. I would say this is a generally faultless bourbon. It's not impressive in any way, but it's not offensive either!

Sort of bad/sort of good. Hot for its proof. A bit bitter at first but there is a sweetness that makes me go back for more.