Sunday, April 12, 2015

Colonel E.H. Taylor Cured Oak Review

I don’t normally like to review a whiskey these days until I am almost through with the bottle but I am going to make an exception today because of the madness currently surrounding this particular release. There might be a follow-up later on when I finish the bottle if my opinion changes.

Information on new Colonel E.H. Taylor bourbons first popped back in June of 2014 when Sku’s Recent Eats sleuthed out the TTB labels. Buzz at the time around the releases seemed very positive. Cured Oak seemed interesting because of the unique stave drying process. Seasoned Wood seemed interesting because of the wheated aspect which is all the rage right now. Things went dark for quite a while after that until a couple of weeks ago Bourbonr broke news from Buffalo Trace that Cured Oak was a 17 year old bourbon that would be in stores by the end of March. The suddenness of that announcement, old-ish age of the product, and release during a time of year when nothing else special is hitting the shelves started the beginning of things taking a turn for stupid. To make matters worse, within a week reports started coming in that allocation was very low - rumors like big box retail stores such as Liquor Barn only getting a single case and entire markets only getting 15 cases. Then a recent AMA with a Buffalo Trace employee indicated there were only ~4200 total bottles released which is pretty paltry even by special release standards.
So, limited allocation is one problem but if the whiskey isn’t amazing, demand shouldn’t be crazy right? When it comes to the Colonel Taylor line, the answer is no. Along with the regular releases available throughout the year, there have been two other special one-time Colonel Taylor releases: Sour Mash and Warehouse C Tornado Surviving. A popular thing amongst collectors is acquiring the entire set and the various sweet tubes that come with them. Despite a range of reviews that have the previous two limited releases as possibly just good but not great whiskeys, those two releases demand a crazy premium on the secondary market.
All of this leads to a perfect storm where we have this new Cured Oak release which has been available all of two weeks with barely any reviews already selling for $450 on the secondary market. This is the quentisential representation of the complete asshatery of the bourbon craze right now.
bottle
50% ABV; No age statement but claimed to be 17 years old; $80
Notes: The nose is rich with mostly wood and tree sugar sweet notes. The oak notes have a slight funk to them which is expected given the age. On the sip those oak notes are much more prevalent and more of the funkiness comes out in them too. What’s nice about the mid palate though is there is good bit of fruit flavors like pears that I normally get in the much younger Colonel Taylor Small Batch that don’t usually come out in older bourbons. The palate is a good balance of fruit, sweet, and oak with a decent mouthfeel but overall I find the whole taste a little dull/muted. The finish really brings the wood notes back into the forefront with old, dry, musty oak and some other savory flavors like leather/tobacco.
Thoughts: If you like older whiskeys you are going to like this a lot more than me. While I find musty old funk notes interesting they are not my favorite. The old oak notes in this aren’t as overbearing as I expected and there are some interesting things going on with fruit and tannic complexity but I feel like this is rather forgettable for me. I certainly think it’s better than Eagle Rare 17 but again I rather disliked that whiskey by the time I finished a bottle of it. I see this as a mash up of the best parts of Eagle Rare 17 and Colonel Taylor Small Batch but definitely not worth the current secondary market valuation on it.
Rating: B- / B

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