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Col. E.H. Taylor Small Batch Bourbon Review + Tasting Notes

Named after Col. E.H. Taylor Jr., this particular range of liquids produced by Buffalo Trace are a tribute to the man himself. A known innovator in distillation and marketing, he helped bring laws such as the Bottled In Bond Act in 1897 to pass.

OVERALL RATING

8
$95
  • Phil Dwyer is a freelance whisky writer and consultant with over a decade of experience in whisky retail and online whisky education. Best known for hosting Whisky Wednesday on YouTube, he is dedicated to making whisky accessible and enjoyable by cutting through jargon and complexity.
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Tasting Notes

About:

Named after Col. Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr, this particular range of liquids produced by Buffalo Trace are a tribute to the man himself. A known innovator in distillation and marketing, he helped bring laws such as the Bottled In Bond Act in 1897 to pass. Guaranteeing a minimum level of quality to the product that consumers would be drinking. The Taylor range contains many different products, both normally around as well as extremely limited release products. This release, their Small Batch Bourbon is a combination of liquids at a minimum of 4 years old, but can be as old as 9-10 year old stock from Buffalo Trace.


Appearance:
Dark Gold
Nose:

Like so many whiskies from Buffalo Trace mash bill #1, this is a wealth of fresh fruit and sweetness. There’s pineapple, rye spices, green apple, orange marmalade, vanilla pods, sweet American oak and little waves of cinnamon and nutmeg working through the style.


Palate:
You feel the bottled in bond strength right away. It isn’t offensive but it does give you a brace for the levels of flavour that come up behind the spiciness.

After the tingle of ABV dies down, you’re greeted with more fresh fruits of apple and cherry, with a little touch of nutmeg again. There’s even an element of espresso or dark coffee to this, it counters the fruit notes really well. Followed by that are brown sugar, vanilla pods, drying oak and a return of that tingle of ABV but with oak this time.
Finish:
Decently long, with that soft drying oak influence moving all around your tongue. The fruit dies away and you’re left with those spicier and drier elements of bottled in bond bourbon. There are cooking spices, rye spice, oak, sweet vanilla, cinnamon, even a little flourish of bitter orange oil.
Comments:
This is a great quality bourbon that has been difficult to attain due to gold medals and the demand that comes with being a product from Buffalo Trace.

Outside of that, on paper, it’s a rich, spicy, wonderfully flavoured American whisky with so much flavour to it. When you look at the products produced from mash bill #1 at Buffalo Trace, it is a huge list of products that we all know and love, such as: Buffalo Trace, Benchmark, Eagle Rare, Eagle Rare 17 Year Old, Stagg Jr, George T. Stagg, E. H. Taylor Small Batch, E. H. Taylor Barrel Proof, E. H. Taylor Single Barrel, all of the Old Charter range and all of the other limited edition release within the release above. It’s a lot to handle.

I’d love to be able to do a side-by-side of the entire Taylor range, I truly believe you’d be able to experience some of the hidden intricacies of mash bill #1 at a minimum of 50% ABV across the board. Thinking about the flavours of the Stagg range bottles compared to this and seeing how radically different they are is quite remarkable.

A fantastic bottle that starts as the core of a truly remarkable giant of both bourbon as a liquid, as well as the history behind the brand and story.

Editor’s Note: This whiskey was either bought as a sample by The Whiskey Wash or provided to us as a review sample by the party behind it. Per our editorial policies, this in no way influenced the outcome of this review.

Phil Dwyer

Phil Dwyer is a freelance whisky writer and consultant. With a decade of experience in whisky retail and nearly as long running Whisky Wednesday on YouTube, Phil is dedicated to sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm with fellow whisky lovers. His goal is to make whisky accessible and enjoyable, dispelling the jargon and complexity that can sometimes surround the spirit. In addition to his online presence, Phil managed The Whisky Shop Manchester, where he curated an impressive selection of some of the finest drams available.

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