Buffalo Trace is known for producing some of the most collectible bottles in American whiskey, namely Pappy Van Winkle, the Antique Collection, and W.L. Weller. The Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. line has also become rather coveted over the years, with some special barrel treatments and the unicorn Warehouse C Tornado Surviving expression that survived a natural disaster. The distillery just announced the addition of a new barrel-strength rye whiskey to the lineup, and this is one that whiskey fans will likely snap up pretty quickly.
The E.H. Taylor, Jr. lineup is named after the man some consider to be the “father of the modern bourbon industry,” as Buffalo Trace terms it. Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr. bought the O.F.C. distillery in 1869, which then became the George T. Stagg Distillery in the early 1900s and then Buffalo Trace in 1992 (the “colonel” in his name was honorary, by the way, not military). Taylor is credited with lobbying to pass the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897, which established specific criteria for whiskey at a time when a lot of it was adulterated with suspect ingredients. As a refresher, bottled in bond means the whiskey is at least 4 years old, exactly 100 proof, and the product of one distillery and one distilling season.
The entire E.H. Taylor lineup qualifies as bottled-in-bond, with the exception of the barrel-proof expressions, which obviously do not clock in exactly at 100 proof (a rare exception was the recent Angel’s Envy Bottled in Bond release). The new Barrel Proof Rye is the 13th expression to join the lineup, an uncut, unfiltered rye whiskey that is likely made from a mashbill of somewhere around the legally required 51 percent rye grain (the distillery does not disclose the exact percentages). It’s bottled at 126 proof, which is certainly high but more in Booker’s territory than hazmat levels of alcohol. We have not had the chance to sample the whiskey yet, but official tasting notes describe white pepper and a nutty aroma on the nose, followed by dried stone fruit, pepper, and oaky dryness on the palate with a sweeter finish.
Colonel E. H. Taylor, Jr. Barrel Proof Rye Whiskey will be available over the next few months, so keep an eye out. The SRP is listed at $78, but you know how this goes—prices range from about $120 for a bottle of the Small Batch Bourbon on Caskers to about $15,000 for the Warehouse C Surviving Tornado on the secondary market.
