Elijah Craig: 12 Year (USA Bourbon: 12 Year: 47% ABV)
Visual: Bronzed gold.
Viscosity: Fast medium thickness streaks.
Nose: Honey. Rye crackers. Soft vanilla. Paprika. Water makes more heather and floral.
Body: Very smooth. Vanilla toffee. Rye crackers. Shredded wheat. Pepper. Honey. Orange crème. Sugared pastries. Beef slices. Water loses some subtlety but adds to the honey bringing out golden syrup.
Finish: Rye crackers. Honey. Orange juice touch. Water sweetens the orange and brings out pepper and a treacle touch.
Conclusion: This is some smooth bourbon – at 47% abv I was expecting at least some kick, but even neat it went down easily. It was warming but completely burn free. Nice.
The flavours are well within what I am used to for bourbon – a taste like honey drenched through shredded wheat backed by vanilla toffee coated rye bread. However, it is nicer than that imagery would suggest. I am aware that toffee coated rye bread would probably taste horrible in real life. Then again, pocky is basically chocolate covered breadsticks and they are addictive as hell, so who knows. Anyway, I digress.
This does have some extra notes, some sweet orange and a slightly dried beef character that I would normally associate with peated whisky – but generally it falls within the expected range of notes, just done very well and easy going.
Some of the lack of variance could be attributed to the fact that I am not as experienced with bourbon as I am with whisky, so I may just be getting the more evident characteristics and not the subtleties – especially considering that I am working with a smaller sample here. Which isn’t a complaint by the way, just an explanation – getting to try all these is awesome.
Anyway. I just checked out the price point on this and at a bourbon in the thirty to forty quid range this is doing very well. Very easy drinking and far smoother than most I encounter in that range.
A nice, well delivered, easy drinking bourbon.
Background: Huh, you don’t see aged bourbon much – usually, as they have to use fresh casks each time, they spend far less time in the wood. Ok, copy paste time again. ” Ok, bias warning first: This is a part of the Whisky Calendar given to The Bath Whisky and Rum Club, part of Independent Spirit, who invited me to assist with the notes in return for uploading them to alcohol and aphorisms. Sounded a very fair deal to me. Also, due to this we each only had half of the 3cl bottle so thoughts are based on a smaller exploration than usual. On the other hand I could not say no to the chance to try so many new whiskies. Many thanks!” I think that covers it. Was listening to Crossfaith – just saw them live and they are fucking awesome.
