Despite its vaunted reputation, I've held a grudge against Elijah Craig for a while. I'm sure I used to drink the Small Batch way back in the day before I paid attention to what I was drinking primarily because it was inexpensive and readily available. But the first time I actually actively bought a bottle of Elijah Craig was one of the barrel proof releases in 2020. This was before I was keeping records, before I joined Distiller here and could capture my experience and look back on what my feelings about a particular bottle were. The bottle was fine, if not a little hot, but given the hype that surrounded it, I expected life-changing (I believe it was B520, but I could be mistaken; it might have been B521 and my memory is merging my past into a little ball). In any case, that all right bottle of Barrel Proof was followed by a single barrel store pick from Circle Liquors outside Ocean City Jersey, which might still be my lowest rated whisky on this site. Honestly, it was like water with a little alcohol mixed in. It was 94 proof same as the Small Batch, but I probably would have been better off buying the Small Batch given the quality of what I got in this case. I used it as a mixer to try and finish it, and as a mixer it was awful. It was so weak tasting that when I made Manhattans all I tasted was vermouth. I felt a little betrayed given everything I'd heard and read: Elijah Craig was supposed to be a reliable brand. That's probably the only reason I'm here, trying again. The reputation. The reliability. Am I really not an Elijah Craig fan? Or did I simply pick two expressions that didn't do it for me when there are wonderful expressions out there. Now I buy a bottle of whisky every Friday. That's sort of how I make it through the week. Don't mistake that as I drink a bottle a week. There's a ton of whisky in a cabinet in my house waiting to be tasted. Probably 60-some bottles at this point, and because I buy one a week but don't drink one a week, it grows. I try not to plan what I'm going to pick up. I peruse the state store site prior to heading to one of the nearby branches and I have ideas about what I'm looking for, but I'm always willing to change my mind in the store. Also, the site isn't always up-to-date, so when I got there, even though the online site said ECBP was cold out, what they meant was they had no more ECBP C922. They had just that day gotten in the ECBP A123. And, well, doesn't the release of a 3x/year Barrel Proof always feel like an event? Like something special just happened? Like, if the site says they're out, and the store has it in, and it just arrived that day, maybe that's the one you should get? Or is it only me? Anyway, before grabbing this, I walked around the store, eyeing up other bottles. I considered Pikesville, being the rye lover I am, but I passed. I gazed at some of the scotches with longing but the ones I wanted were above what I wanted to spend on my first bottle since my credit card turned over. They had the Knob 18, but if I'm going to spend that much on a whisky, I have my heart set on the Highland Park 18 and not the Knob, and I think most of y'all would send up an Amen at that. So, I circled back and picked up the Elijah Craig, a bottle that just felt good in my hand, its shape, its weight, like pulling Excalibur from the stone. Plus, even though EC just raised the SRP of this to $70, our stores are charging $65, so it felt like a discount. The reviews I've read have said that this is in keeping with the tradition of solid releases, but it's not the best in recent memory. But they also say that this favors the wood and spice, which I tend to prefer to the sweet when it comes to bourbon. And so the nose on this is beautiful to me. There's a lumberyard quality of fresh cut wood to the nose coupled with a trace of caramel and vanilla. This is exactly what I mean when recently reviewing a host of bottled-in-bonds where I say I prefer something as inexpensive as Old Tub to Jack Daniel's Bonded: it's got a summery feel of the ballpark, of the carnival rather than a cloying sweetness. It's not necessarily a nose I'd like to get as a scented candle, as I've mentioned before with certain scotches like Dalwhinnie or Talisker DE, but it makes me nostalgic in that a spiced and oaky nose reminds me of days in my 20s, when the springtime came and I'd pick up a bottle on my way home from work, rest my feet up on the sill of an open window and stare out at the evening sun as it was just about to go down, maybe a cool breeze blowing in, preparing to head out into the night for whatever adventures might await. The palate itself continues the spice. At 125 proof, this is a hot one, but it's not unpleasant. Added to the oak and caramel on the tongue is a sweetness that's also not cloying, maybe dates or figs with a slightly minty touch of ethanol that's also pleasant in the way it coats your mouth and comes out in a minty rush through your nose. The finish here is long, lasts forever, and it's tannic, but again not offputting. Overall, I'm glad this is what I picked up for myself this week. I'm having my dad and brother-in-law over tomorrow for the Super Bowl, and while I plan to open the Laphroaig Lore as my big surprise to them, I'm also thinking I might serve this at some point over the course of the evening. Generally when they're here I don't just stick to one bottle but try to mix it up to give a host of flavors and examples of what whisky can be. The only question is, where do I put this in the sequence of servings? Generally, I tend to go from more delicate to more extreme. For example, I was also going to serve Highland Park Cask Strength Release No. 2. So do I start with the Lore, switch to the Highland Park, and finish with the ECBP A123? Then give them the option for their fourth dram to choose what they want of the three? I don't know, that sounds like a plan to me. But maybe I'll just have to improvise as I go. I haven't tasted the Lore yet. The Highland Park Cask Strength is better than this one. So I'd be amping it up and coming down in terms of my own personal preferences. But it strikes me as the Highland Park would compliment the Laphroaig better. What would say? How do you guys plan your sequences when having a tasting. Do you have theories? I'd say that it's like putting together a good mixtape, only nobody makes mixtapes anymore so that reference is out-of-date. Thoughts? Opinions?