This seems like a good opportunity to look at the background of the man that the collection was named for. Chuck Cowdery has gone as far as to call Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr. the most significant individual in the history of American Whiskey.
Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr. was born in 1830 in Columbus, Kentucky. He was orphaned early on, and lived with a variety of relatives until he was adopted by a wealthy uncle for whom he had been named (the “Junior” suffix was added at that point to avoid confusion).
At the age of 19, Taylor began a banking career, going to work for his adoptive uncle. By 1860, that position had led to his involvement in the financial side of the whiskey industry. He started or operated no less than seven distilleries during his lifetime; O.F.C. (now Buffalo Trace), Pepper/Crow and Old Taylor among them.
His main role in the industry was that of a financier, and he was a key figure in the transformation of American whiskey into a large, commercial business. Taylor helped modernize many of the distilleries he was associated with. Steam heated warehouses and a more efficient sour mash method are just a few of the innovations he has been credited with.
By the time he was 50, Taylor had transitioned out of banking and become fully immersed in the whiskey business. But by his early 40’s he had also begun to dabble in politics. After serving as the mayor of Frankfort, Kentucky for 16 years, he was elected to the state legislature.
Politically, he became an advocate for whiskey, working tirelessly to pass laws that would assure the purity of the product and protect consumers from fraud and deception. Taylor was a proponent of increased trademark protections, but his crowning legislative achievements were the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 and the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
E.H. Taylor Jr. Collection:
Rye: Straight Kentucky Rye, Bottled in Bond, 50%, $70
nose – big and bold, but not sharp or hot. rye spice and clay-like earthiness.
palate – good depth, with vanilla and caramel up front. it starts off fairly dry and becomes even more so as it moves into the finish.
finish – nice evolution of spice notes (cinnamon red hots, spearmint and peppermint) balanced by just enough heat.
overall – full flavored and weighty, but still well composed and approachable.
Small Batch: Straight Kentucky Bourbon, Bottled in Bond, 50%, $40
nose – the most youthful and spirity of the bunch. caramel, mint and Play-Doh all come through aromatically.
palate – there’s a bit of clay mixed with dry oak. I’m also picking up a mild rye floral/spice note that is reminiscent of Old Overholt.
finish – It evolves a bit, developing some dry spice notes as it moves into the finish, but it is still fairly one-dimensional at any given time.
overall – there’s nothing terribly wrong and it has no obvious flaws, but it maintains a theme of slight immaturity throughout.
Single Barrel: Straight Kentucky Bourbon, Bottled in Bond, 50%, $60
nose – sweetness and soot come through as the primary notes
palate – candy corn and caramel, with some pleasant oak notes
finish – the barrel char comes to the fore as it moves into the finish, providing an interesting interplay with the sweetness, though they do seem to butt heads a bit. Good length as it slowly fades out.
overall – pretty good overall, but it goes a little out of balance (perhaps too acidic) at times through the finish.
Barrel Proof: Straight Kentucky Bourbon, unfiltered, 67.7%, $70
nose – the aromas are dense but subtle; surprising considering the high proof. dark chocolate, sweet corn, a bit of oak and very subtle spice notes.
palate – viscous, very well balanced, a hint of sweetness up front followed by dry oaky notes as it moves into the finish
finish – some warming spice notes rise up first, then it gets a little hot and fiery later in the finish, but in kind of a good way.
overall – an interesting transition from being somewhat mild mannered up front to getting a little surly on the back end.
My overall impression of the five bottlings that I tasted is that the Rye is the best of the group, with the Barrel Proof not far behind. The Small Batch and the Single Barrel are respectable, but they both have some characteristics that keep me from loving them. The Tornado Surviving is the iconoclast of the bunch, but I think it has the most potential to improve given some time to breath.
When you read what others have to say about these whiskeys as a group, the general consensus is that they are overvalued. Being priced (for the most part) in the same range as Buffalo Trace’s Antique Collection, many people feel that the quality level is not up to the standard set by that iconic range.
While some commenters get very passionate about the subject, I tend to have a more pragmatic outlook. In my opinion, the prices will stand at the level that the market is willing to bear. I think that Pappy Van Winkle bottlings are too expensive and would probably pass them up even if I came across them at suggested retail prices. But, obviously many people are willing to pay quite a premium for them, sustaining the elevated markups.
My criticism of the E.H. Taylor Jr. Collection lies more with the inconsistent manner in which Buffalo Trace has conveyed technical information about these whiskeys. Looking at the Buffalo Trace website, one finds a random hodgepodge of information about the whiskeys in the collection. A little more searching will get you their press releases where more detailed information can be had, but some of that seems to contradict the website and at least one fact from a press release is known to be wrong. And then there are journalists who have managed to extract more technical detail from the company than was originally made available. I’ll do my best to sort it out here.
As for age, none of the bottlings carry an age statement, but Buffalo Trace has announced their ages, mostly through press releases. The Small Batch and Barrel Proof are both aged 7 years. The Sour Mash and Rye are both at 9 years. The Single Barrel is 11 years, 7 months old, and the Tornado Surviving ranges from 9 years, 8 months to 11 years, 11 months. The press release for the Tornado Surviving says all 93 barrels were dumped together. It has been confirmed that this information is incorrect. One of the Bottled-in-Bond requirements is that all of the whiskey in the bottle comes from a single distilling season, and that would not have been the case if all 93 barrels were dumped together. They say it was actually dumped in two batches. I’ve heard that one batch is much better than the other, but there isn’t really a way to tell which batch a bottle is from.
As for warehouse location, most of the bottlings appear to have come from Warehouse C, which is appropriate as it was constructed under Taylor’s ownership. There’s no question about the location of the Warehouse C Tornado Surviving barrels (floors 5 and 6), but I could find no information about the warehouse location of the Old Fashioned Sour Mash bottling. The Rye comes from Warehouse C, floor 1. The Single Barrel also comes from Warehouse C, but no floor is specified. In press releases, the Small Batch and Single Barrel are both touted as having been aged on floor 6 of Warehouse C. But on the website it says those two come from “warehouses” constructed over a century ago by Taylor. That leaves open the possibility that some of the barrels came from Warehouse B, which Taylor also constructed, and seems to contradict the press releases.
With the Old Fashioned Sour Mash, they mention reviving a sour mash method used in Taylor’s time, but no details of the method are given. Chuck Cowdery did some investigating and found that the modern way of souring the mash (which lowers its pH to create a more favorable environment for the yeast) is to add spent liquid from the still into the next batch of fresh mash. Using the older method, that mash was transferred from the cooker to a holding vessel where it was allowed to rest for several days. During that time the pH lowered naturally. Once it was at the right level, that mash was transferred on to the fermenters.
The last bits of interesting information pertain to the mash bills used. Buffalo Trace is kind of secret about their recipes, but we do know that they make a wheated bourbon and two different rye bourbons. I’ve seen a few different estimates of the recipes and while no one knows for sure, Mash Bill #1 is probably 8-10% rye, and Mash Bill #2 is probably 12-15% rye. The press release for the Tornado Surviving states that it is made with Mash Bill #1, and there’s a pretty good consensus that the rest of the bourbons in the collection are from the same mash bill.
The mash bill for the Straight Rye is stated (on the web site and in the press release) as being composed of only rye and malted barley, but not corn. That was true of the eastern ryes made primarily in Maryland and Pennsylvania before distilling died out in that region during the decades following Prohibition. As the few remaining rye whiskey brands shifted production to distilleries in Kentucky, their mash bills changed, incorporating corn, and having their rye content drop much closer to the minimum required 51%.
Corn-free ryes originating in distilleries in Indiana and Canada have become pretty common over the last decade. They were originally intended to be used as flavoring components in blended whiskeys, but have made their way to many of the non-distiller producers. The Taylor Straight Rye is the only non-corn rye from Kentucky that I know of. It’s the result of an experiment from around 2003, but they have continued to make some every year so the E.H. Taylor Rye will be an annual release. Unfortunately, they don’t give any indications of the ratio of rye to malted barley in this whiskey.
I like the concept of this collection, but I think Buffalo Trace has missed a great opportunity here. They’re not being deceptive, but they could have been so much more transparent with all of the technical information about these whiskeys and presented it in a much more organized manner.
Imagine if all of the bottles carried age statements, the different batches of Tornado Surviving were identified on the label, and the Single Barrel bottles had their barrels numbers listed on the label. Additionally, they could have consistently identified warehouse locations, given at least general proportions of the mash bills used, and provided a basic explanation of the old fashioned sour mash method.
If they had done that and put all of the information in one place, clearly presented and easily accessible, it would have been a much greater tribute to the legacy of Colonel E.H. Taylor Jr. and garnered a lot more respect from the consumers who are most likely to purchase these offerings.
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