Elijah Craig Barrel Proof – A124

Holds up the Elijah Craig name but fall shorts in complexity compared to previous select batches

DISTILLERY	Heaven Hill
REGION	Bardstown, KY
AGE	10 Year – 9 Months
STRENGTH	59.5% ABV (119 Proof)
MASHBILL	78% Corn, 12% Malted Barley, 10% Rye
MSRP	~$75

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GLANCE

Clear with a rust orange + golden hue. Medium intensity overall

NOSE

Clean with a medium to pronounced intensity. Classic heaven hill aroma hits you right away. Raw oak, sawdust with toasted almonds. Mild cinnamon and raw oats. Fresh pear and apricot with mild vanilla and bright caramel.

PALATE

Watery to mouth-filling texture, and sweet with pronounced intensity. Notes of oak, caramel, cocoa with salted cashews. As you gets toward the middle of the palate I got cinnamon, and baking spices with graham cracker. I found this to be creamier in the front of the palate but doesn’t have a very viscous feel overall. Towards the end of the palate there are notes of ripened apricot and fig.

FINISH

Medium in length overall with some complexity. Baking spices, salted cashews, nutmeg, caramel and tobacco.

CLOSING REMARKS

This one was a surprise at least to me. From all the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof’s I have tasted, this seemed to veer the most of the beaten path. Its not big and bold like the other Elijah Craig Barrel Proof’s and I didn’t find it to have the depth of flavors I have come to expect either. A124 sets the record for the youngest and the second lowest proof batch for the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof series to date. If purely looking at the age statement, if it was another bourbon it would be a great/respectable age statement. And of course age is not all that matters in making a whiskey great. In the case of ECBP, fans have gotten accustomed to the 12 year statement but last year Heaven Hill changed this requirement for the ECBP program.

This created quite a wave within the community, with the main concern being if the quality will remain with the ECBP. I too was initially not thrilled but I believe this fluctuating age statements allows for more diverse flavor profiles to be executed with ECBP. In that way, it is more exciting! Hence, we have the A124. At the base this flavor profile is likable and easy to wrap your mind around. The problem I faced was the spice angle of this batch comes of quite strong and overpowers the other flavors at times. The palate starts of very promising with the sweet, creamy ECBP we all love but then it gets spice heavy. In short its not in balance with the other sweeter flavors. I also felt the mouthfeel lacked weight compared to previous batches I have tasted.

In conclusion, I feel this is still a buy at MSRP. Its a solid bourbon that has some depth in flavors and overall is a straightforward barrel proof Kentucky bourbon outside of the strong spice. I look forward to the upcoming batches. Cheers!

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