Is This Small Batch Kentucky Whiskey Worth The Price Point?
When it comes to bourbons of whiskeys, especially ones I sip on the rocks, usually with a cigar, I'm good with a 30ish dollar bottle.
I've drank from 100 plus dollar bottles of single malt scotch, and while they taste good, I haven't found many that are in my taste bud's opinion worth the premium price.
Taste is subjective though, right? So, what is good to you, might not be good to me. Lately, my go-to has been Elijah Craig Straight Bourbon Whiskey. It's a good smooth drink on the rocks or neat and has been available in gift sets which include glasses at Belknap Liquor in Superior. It's also one of my favorites for making an old-fashioned cocktail.
At my last stop into Belknap, I was eyeballing various steps up from Elijah Craig, when they mentioned another one, they had only one bottle left in stock of. A bottle of Colonel E.H. Taylor Small Batch was pulled from behind the counter and pitched to me for a price too good to pass up.
I didn't bother to look up anything about it but was told if I like Elijah Craig or Buffalo Trace, I'd like this one. Coming in at a price of about half of MSRP, I think someone had ordered it and never picked it up, lucky for me.
I brought it home and instantly tried it neat, and then neat with a cigar I randomly pulled from the humidor.
If you've read my bourbon reviews before, you know I'm not a snob, I either like it or I don't, or I'd buy it again or I wouldn't. This Colonel E.H. Taylor Small Batch is supposedly made in the same distillery as Buffalo Trace.
It's made with pure limestone water and labeled as a "Premier Kentucky Whiskey". In the glass neat, it smells pretty strong of oak and almond and maybe a little butter. It's not too intense but isn't that mellow either. For taste, it's similar to the nose, but with a bit of pepper making it pop. It's definitely smooth but has just a second flash of cheap taste to it too, almost like whiskey you might have drunk in college out of some stranger's flask at a party. That taste is easy to get over if you're drinking it with a good cigar.
What should you pay for a bottle? I wouldn't spend over $40 or so going forward, which is less than I paid initially. Prices of this particular breed run all over the board from $60ish up to around $135.00. It's good, but I've had much less expensive bottles put it to shame.