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.