Colonel E.H. Taylor Warehouse C Tornado Surviving

April 14, 2015

Colonel E.H. Taylor Warehouse C Tornado Surviving

Half a Million!!!

So we opened up our trusty Blogger console this morning and saw this:

It's truly humbling to think that we've had half a million articles read since we started SmokyBeast two years ago!  Thanks to everyone for their support and love and to all the great people we've met along the way.  To celebrate, we're reviewing a pretty special bottle today, Colonel EH Taylor "Tornado Surviving."

Colonel EH Taylor is great stuff.  Their Single Barrel and Straight Rye are some of the best widely available bourbon's on the market right now.  The Barrel Proof is one of our current favorites.  We actually got to pit it against some 1970's Old Taylor (granted a lower proof version) and it held up remarkably well.

Photo from http://www.longmanandeagle.com/

I Don't Think We're in Kentucky Anymore

For all the redonkulous marketing hype that's going on in the whiskey biz right now, by all accounts the story of Tornado Surviving is legit.  And it's pretty cool...

"On Sunday evening, April 2, 2006, a severe storm with tornado strength winds tore through Central Kentucky, damaging two Buffalo Trace Distillery aging warehouses. One of the damaged warehouses was Warehouse C, a treasured warehouse on property, built by Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. in 1881. It sustained significant damage to its roof and north brick wall, exposing a group of aging bourbon barrels to the elements. That summer, the exposed barrels waited patiently while the roof and walls were repaired, meanwhile being exposed to the Central Kentucky climate. When these barrels were tasted years later, it was discovered that the sun, wind, and elements they had experienced created a bourbon rich in flavors that was unmatched. This was truly a special batch of barrels, and though the Distillery does not hope for another tornado, it feels lucky to have been able to release this once in a lifetime product."

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Wow that's a really badass nose.  Lots of wood, vanilla, leather, cinnamon sugar, nutmeg.  It's a total winner.  Love it.

Palate:  The dry punchy woody nose turns into a sweet taste with honey, nougat, chocolate covered cherries, and little explosions of oranges, peaches, and tangerines.

Finish:  The finish may be the weakest part of this bourbon since there's a little bit of overripe peach going on.  But this is a minor criticism.  It still stays with the awesome wood, sweetness, and richness, if slanting a bit towards overly sweet at the end.

Review:  We've heard a lot of people talk about how overrated this stuff is and we couldn't disagree more.  It's straight up awesome.  Maybe not in the same league as some of the ultimate beasts of all time (Old Pappy 20, BMH 14, Parkers 27), but it's way up there in terms of most of the bourbon we've tried.  Extremely good.


That's all for now, we're finally getting some real spring weather here in NYC, so you'll find us outside enjoying some great whiskey in front of a long sunset with friends.  Look us up if you're in town!!

Review: Stagg Jr., Colonel E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof, and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof - Battle of Three Barrel Proof Beasts

August 10, 2013

Review: Stagg Jr., Colonel E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof, and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof - Battle of Three Barrel Proof Beasts

We're Up All Night To Get Lucky

There's a new game in town.  From the legendary George T Stagg bourbon that rocks the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection every year comes a new, young, barrel proof offspring called Stagg Jr.  It's not on the shelves yet.  Stores are lining up to get half a dozen bottles.  We got lucky.

Queue soundtrack =>

New Stallion in Town?




Sadly the days of finding George T. Stagg, Pappy, and AH Hirsch on the shelves are long gone.  Could Stagg Jr be the prodigal son?  The little brother who rises to great heights?  The Eli Manning, the Serena Williams of the family, ready to step up and take the championship?  We put it to the test against our other two favorite barrel proof beasts.





Contenders

Colonel E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof (NAS) 67.25%, 134.5 proof  $75.99
Stagg Jr. ("nearly a decade") 67.20%, 134.4 proof  $49.99
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (12 Years) 67.1%, 134.2 proof  $39.99

Let's break it down and see how they do.

Appearance

ECBP:  Dr. Pepper.

Taylor:  Honest Tea.

Stagg:  Chamomile.

Winner:  ECBP is the darkest.  (Stagg looks extremely dark in the bottle because it's got a strategically placed black label on the back).


Nose

Stagg: Crushed pepper, bitter orange rind, blue cotton candy, canned corn.  Hot and heady.

Taylor: Way more refined.  Far less hot than the Stagg.  Sweet honey, tangerines, herbals - mint, maybe tarragon/rosemary or some other leafy spice.  Clove cigarettes.

ECBP: Cinnamon, roasted pecans, smoky pork, oiled leather.

Winner: Elijah Craig wins the nose hands down.

Body (neat)

Granted this is masochism, but it's important to see which is most drinkable neat...

Taylor: Very drinkable.  More heat than burn.  Shockingly un-painful at 134.5 proof.

Stagg: Way rougher than the Taylor.  This is rocket fuel w/o water.

ECBP:  Very smooth and rich, also stunningly drinkable at full test.  Cherries, Luden's cough drops, but a little less balance than the Taylor.

Winner: Taylor wins the neat taste test.

Body (w/ a dozen eye-dropper drops of water & 10 minutes in the glass)

Stagg: Opens up much nicer than the nose.  Now we're getting tastes of old man Stagg.  Big bold taste backed by the oak and char.  Rich raisins and sweet peaches.  Still raw and hot.

ECBP:  Not much change with the water.  Very nice spice.  Hint of licorice.  Cherries.  Woody.

Taylor:  Solid delicious bourbon here.  Spice, spirit warmth, molasses sweetness all coming together in a musky, cologne, oiled leather drinkability.

Winner:  Tie between the Taylor and the ECBP.  Taylor is more refined and balanced, Elijah has more richness and body.

Finish

Stagg:  Massive chest warmth and throat burn.  Robusto cigar smoke on the breath.  Chili peppers on the tongue.  It's still showing the youth and breathing fire through the water, but it's a lively and fresh powerful blast of whiskey.

ECBP: The finish is the worst part of this whiskey.  A bitterness creeps up, over-sour cherry skin, maybe a rough oak cask taste.  It's got all the elements of a nice finish but they don't come together right.  The wood doesn't cancel out the burn and the sweetness doesn't compliment the spice.

Taylor:  It's kind of "all in" with the Taylor.  The wood flavor comes out but doesn't overpower.  The sweetness and spice combine into a nice round punch.  It's by far the smoothest finish with a nice long lingering campfire-stone smokiness.

Winner:  The Taylor wins again for finish.

Overall

Best Value:  For the money we give the award to the Elijah Craig.  At half the price of the Taylor, it's a very impressive beast.  It's way smoother than the Stagg Jr, has a lot more spice, and is easily some of the best valued juice we've seen in a long time.  It has a similar flavor profile as Pappy 23 year, with lots of wood snap and a dry spicy crisp crack.

Best Overall:  Without considering money, the Colonel E.H. Taylor takes the prize.  It's not quite as dark and rich as the ECBP, but with just a few drops of water it's simply delicious.  The best all around balance, and honestly this is the closest whiskey to the original George T Stagg.  A huge ballsy beast that hits you in the chest but gives you that thick, sweet, nutty, smoky, rich awesomeness that you will be thinking about the next day.

No ribbon for Stagg Jr?  We're going to let this bottle open up for a few days and suffer through another greatest hits tasting.  After all, the first time we had George T Stagg we'd never tasted anything at that proof before, and it took some getting used to.  It turned out to be an all-time favorite.  Also it's worth noting that we'd still go out and buy another bottle of this for safe-keeping if it was available.  We're talking best-of-the-beast here and although it we couldn't give it gold or silver, bronze in this competition is nothing to sneeze at.  It's a big, spicy, hot, punchy new friend that has found a welcome place on the shelf.

We're up all night 'til the sun
We're up all night to get some
We're up all night for good fun
We're up all night to get lucky

/SmokyBeast

Update:  Ok, so we put the Stagg Jr. in the decanter, let it air out for a few days, added some different amounts of water (up to 50%), let those air out, and have basically given it every benefit of the doubt.  Sadly we can't get behind this.  A beast it is!  But not a beast that we really care to drink.  The nose and body have some interesting flavors, but it's just so hot and burning that it's not easy to drink.  We love Buffalo Trace and really had high hopes for this one, but sadly it's getting a SmokyBeast "C-".

Review: Colonel E.H. Taylor Straight Rye - Tea is Boring, Let's Fight Over Whiskey!

April 11, 2013

Review: Colonel E.H. Taylor Straight Rye - Tea is Boring, Let's Fight Over Whiskey!

Tea is Boring

Returning from last week's jaunt to Paris, we find ourselves back in the good old US of A.

Reflecting on Americans values, we think most would agree that tea doesn't float our boats nearly as much as booze.  And speaking of which, did it ever strike you as odd that our big symbolic national rebellion against the British was the Boston Tea Party?  Sure, sure "no taxation without representation" yada yada...  But even in grade school, back when your faithful SmokyBeast authors were but young prepubescent whisky snobs, we found it hard to picture a bunch of rough-and-tumble pioneer Americans getting huffy and puffy over Earl Grey.  It seems very... well very British doesn't it?

There's a reason for this.  The fact is that most pre-Revolution Americans weren't actually paying a whole lot of cash in tea taxes.  That was a problem for the upper echelon: the city-dwellers, the import/export types that couldn't take a sack of flowers and stick it in some hot water on their own.  The majority of Americans, the farmers, didn't pay cash for tea.  They didn't pay cash for anything.  Because the currency of choice in Washington's time was... Drumroll please...  Rye whiskey.

Do You Take Hooch?

Yes the custom of the time was that farmers would take their extra crops, whatever wasn't used to feed family and village, and distill them into whiskey.  They'd learned the art of distillation from their rum and beer-bearing European immigrant relatives.  Rye whiskey became a common currency for barter amongst the colonialists.  It lasted forever, took up less space than grain, and well...  tasted delicious and got you drunk.  Seems like a no-brainer.  Can you imagine if all your financial transactions were conducted in booze?  It would make for a very interesting day. 

Brass Tacks

So tea party / schmea party, the real business came after the war.  Washington's generals had returned to their home turf.  Many became captains of industry.  One such hero of the Revolutionary War was Commodore Richard Taylor.  He was the father of two things:  The distillery that would eventually be called George T. Stagg and then Buffalo Trace, and also, less importantly, the 12th President of the United States, Zachary Taylor.  But never mind that, let's talk about the whiskey. 

After the US was won, Washington faced the challenge of forming a new government.  In order to do this, he needed cash.  His homeboy (and Treasury Secretary) Alex Hamilton had a bright idea: tax whiskey.  

The Whiskey Rebellion

Well low-and-behold Washington's old war buddies didn't like that very much.  In fact they were so PO'd, that they dusted off the muskets and decided that they'd take up arms against Old George, 'Father of Our Nation' or not.  It would be pretty much like Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera heading off to beat up Joe Torre.

Well off they went, figuring that they'd called GW's bluff and he'd call off the tax and leave them be.  But for all his puffy pants and wooden teeth, Washington actually wasn't messing around.  He rounded up 13,000 troops, and rode right at the head of the militia to suppress his war-buddies-turned-booze-rebellers.

It turned out that it was the farmers who were bluffing.  When they saw Washington roll up with the Governors of Virginia and Maryland, and thousands of troops ready to throw down, they packed up and headed home.  And since then taxes have been as familiar to whiskey as hangovers and one-night stands.  As a matter of fact when Washington retired, he started his own distillery and *evidently* paid taxes on every barrel of rye he produced.

Fast forward two generations and another Taylor was at the helm of Buffalo Trace, Colonel E.H.  Today we drink a rye bearing his name, that supposedly follows the original family recipe.

Colonel E.H. Taylor Straight Rye

Tasting Notes

Nose: Rich BBQ, mesquite, smoked ham, sweet honeyed sauce.  Warm and mellow, very enticing aroma.  This is going to sound weird, but when you combine honey, smoked meat, and spice, altogether it smells like perfume.  Chanel  No 5.

Body:  Extremely smooth for this high-test hooch.  Sweet corn and rye.  Lovely buttery, smoky, and spicy.  A bit of raisins or prunes on the tail end.

Finish:  Short heat followed by very well balanced mellow aftertaste.  At 100 proof, we didn't even think about ice/water/chaser, and that's a rare statement.

The Review

For around $70-$80 for the whole line this was a very pleasant surprise.  A solid SmokyBeast "A-".  Anything this smooth at this proof is doing something right!  Maybe it's the spring weather, but we're feeling very 'git your boots on' at the moment.  The brusk cowboy / gun-toting patriot feel of rye whiskey is just the ticket.  It makes you want to breathe in deep, dig in your spurs, and drink something that makes your belly warm and your aim sharp.  Try this beast neat before you head for a splash of water.  You know you want to.

God bless America.  /SmokyBeast