Colonel E. H. Taylor Small Batch

COST: $45 for 750 mL bottle

AGE: NAS (but minimum 4 yrs due to BiB)

MASH BILL: Buffalo Trace Mashbill #1 (low rye, suspected ≤10% rye)

PROOF: 100

This really isn’t a bottle that needs an introduction. Let’s begin!

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Burnished copper (1.3), oily looking, with a few thin, fast legs at first and then the a ring of very slow teardrop beads begin to form.

NOSE: A mixture of orange, vanilla, and perfumed saffron dominate. They are accompanied by lighter notes of Granny Smith apples, medicinal cherry, and a mix of baking spices and toasted malt.

PALATE: The mouthfeel is oily, but it is on the thinner side. Ample vanilla, cherry slices candy, a touch of orange extract, honey, and maduro tobacco. There is a little oak here, but it’s really on the backend and leading into the finish.

FINISH: Cherry cola soaked charred barrel stave. There’s a touch of orange and honey that lighten the heavier side of the aforementioned notes. The finish is short and has a very light hug in the center of the chest.

RATING: 6.8/10

VALUE: 9.3/10 (this value is based on a ratio of the $/mL to the rating above compared to this same ratio for all other r/Bourbon reviews I’ve made and normalized to 10)

OVERALL: This is my favorite expression from the core Buffalo Trace lineup with Eagle Rare being a very close second. While Eagle Rare has more red fruit that I love, EHT is more complex which normally wins me over. I love the various forms that the cherry note takes throughout this sip, albeit not very robust. It’s generally a bit light and bright, and lacks some of the spice or darker notes to help give it more depth.

BEHIND THE BOTTLE

I find the history of the namesake of this bottle to be very interesting. And while it would take too long to share it all, let me share a few nuggets that I picked up that perhaps you’ll find as interesting as I did (and explain to you why there’s a painting of a dog dressed as a military hero in my photo here).

Edmund Haynes Taylor was born in Kentucky in 1830 and orphaned at 5 years old due to his father’s untimely death (typhus), and the inability of his mother to be able to care for him alone. He was sent to live with a distant relative in New Orleans, LA, his great uncle Zachary Taylor, who would later become the twelfth president of the USA. Zachary Taylor was stationed in New Orleans while serving in the Army. Eventually, Edmund would return to Kentucky in 1851. An interesting thing to note is Zachry Taylor was president from March of 1849 to July of 1850 (dying during his term due to gastroenteritis). I think Edmund was technically still in the care of his great uncle Zachary while he was a sitting president, yet I can’t find anything that discusses that explicitly.

At any rate, when Edmund returned to Kentucky in 1851, he lived with his uncle by the same name, Edmund Haynes Taylor. As a way to distinguish the two, they each begun going by Edmund Sr. and Edmund Jr. So, EHT, Jr. did not get the Jr. title at birth due to his father’s name, but instead at the age of 21 due to being under the care of his uncle of the same name. Go figure!

Edmund, Jr. never served in the military. He obtained the title “Colonel” because he was bestowed the title of Kentucky Colonel from the Commonwealth of Kentucky (similar to Colonel Sanders of KFC) due to his service to the Kentucky Bourbon industry such as being a large proponent for the Bottled-in-Bond act and being one of the biggest innovators and founding fathers of bourbon as we know it today. However, I have always thought he was a Colonel in the army and similar to Teddy Roosevelt, enjoyed going by “Colonel” after returning to civilian life. But not so! However, it was 10 years or more that I thought this before realizing it was because he was a Kentucky Colonel. So, fast-forward to 2019, we had a Boston Terrier named Whiskey who passed away. After his passing, my sister-in-law had commissioned an artist she knew of that would take photos of family pets and paint them as distinguished figures. So, the photo you see here shows the painting we have of our “Colonel Whiskey.” So, I share all that to say every single time I think or hear EHT the whiskey, because for so long I thought of EHT as a military colonel, I always think to this painting we have of our dog Whiskey dressed up as a military hero. 😂

If you are interested in learning more about the history of Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr., check out this Sipping History article on him. It’s full of information and details that bring together a lot of the names you’re all familiar with giving you a better perspective of the relationship between them all, including George Thomas Stagg and James E. Pepper, and the various names of distilleries of the past that are still operating under new names today such as the Leestown Distillery, Old Fire Copper Distillery, J. Swigert Taylor Distillery, Oscar Pepper Distillery, etc.

1 | Disgusting | ...I've not subjected myself to this level

2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage

3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28

4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select

5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated

6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Eagle Rare

7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, PiggyBack SiB, 1792 BiB

8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, JD SiB BiB, High West MWND Act 11

9 | Incredible | Barrel Bourbon Batch T8ke, BBC DS #7, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08