E H Taylor Small Batch Bottled-in-Bond
Col. Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. is rightly called a Founding Father of the Bourbon industry, standing alongside other names like Elijah Craig, George Garvin Brown, Julian “Pappy” van Winkle, and other liquor luminaries. He also happens to be a grand-nephew of President Zachary Taylor.
Just a few years after the Civil War ended, the Colonel (the Kentucky kind not the military kind) bought the OFC Distillery at Frankfort, Kentucky, and began distilling. Though Taylor only owned the distillery for 8 years - he sold it to some guy named George T. Stagg - his name is synonymous with the first consumer protection act in American history: the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897.
The Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 was designed by leading whiskey makers (including Mssrs. Stagg, Taylor, Brown, and others) and the US Treasury Secretary at the time, John G. Carlisle. At the time, whiskey was nearly lawless - spirits were adulterated with tobacco spit, iodine, caramel, and worse to make the color right or to otherwise “rectify” the spirit.
We’ll talk more about the Bottled-in-Bond Act elsewhere (see my review of Larceny Bourbon, for example), but the core takeaway is that it was designed as a seal of quality by the federal government: a consumer could know that any whiskey with the Treasury-provided tax strip was unadulterated, at a certain proof, and was safe compared to un-bonded whiskey (side note: we can debate the safety of alcohol all day, but I don’t think anyone would argue that bonded whiskey is safer than formaldehyde…).
Since 1964, the tax strips are no longer strictly necessary - all warehouses today are federally bonded, for example - but most if not all bottled-in-bond spirits still retain either a faux or genuine tax strip (See the picture to the left, as well as brands like Henry McKenna 10 Year Old), and many other whiskies use a similar strip-like sticker to suggest quality regardless of whether the whiskey complies with the Act.
Taylor is widely considered the leading lobbyer for the Act of 1897, and Buffalo Trace honors that heritage by aging and bottling almost every E H Taylor product as bottled-in-bond (the exception being their Barrel Proof release). This includes regular releases of single barrel rye, single-barrel bourbon, and sour mash, as well as special releases like the Cured Oak, Seasoned Oak, Four Grain, Amaranth Grain of the Gods, and 18 YO Marriage.
Final note: I’ve gotten to try some of those (ridiculously) limited and (again, ridiculously) priced special releases. Hit or miss, none are worth the thousand to multi-thousands of dollars a single bottle can demand.
E H Taylor Small Batch: Specs
Classification: American Bourbon
Origin: Buffalo Trace Distillery
Mashbill: Buffalo Trace Mashbill 1
Proof: 100 (50% ABV)
Age: NAS
Location: Kentucky
E H Taylor Small Batch Bottled-in-Bond Price: $40 (MSRP)
E H Taylor Small Batch Bottled-in-Bond Review: Tasting Notes
Eye: Reddish copper. Medium rim with thin-to-medium legs.
Nose: Fruity and powerful - scents float out of the glass. Cherries, dried fruit and vanilla, caramel sets a beautiful background note.
Palate: Vanilla and caramel are more upfront here. Rye backs it up and stays in the background. Great sweet-heat balance. Second sip doubles down on the mouthfeel, which was already coating, oily and medium-to-heavy bodied.
Finish: Soft but lingering, sweet cornbread and cinnamon.
Overall: Quite good - I don’t know if it will top my list, but it’s well-balanced, definitely a great everyday sipper. The more I sip the more I like it.
Final Rating: 6.4
10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close (Blanton’s Straight from the Barrel)
9 | Incredible | Extraordinary (GTS, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof B518 and B520)
8 | Excellent | Exceptional (12+YO MGP Bourbon, Highland Park Single Barrels)
7 | Great | Well above average (Blanton’s Original, Old Weller Antique, Booker’s)
6 | Very Good | Better than average (Four Roses Small Batch Select, Knob Creek 14+ YO Picks)
5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary (Elijah Craig Small Batch, Buffalo Trace, Old Grand-Dad Bottled-in-Bond)
4 | Sub-par | Many things I’d rather have (A.D. Laws Four Grain, Compass Box “Oak Cross”)
3 | Bad | Flawed (Iron Smoke Bourbon, Balcones)
2 | Poor | Forced myself to drink it (Buckshee Bourbon and Rye)
1 | Disgusting | Drain pour (Virginia Distilling Co. Cider Cask)
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