Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel
47% ABV 94 proof
The laws surrounding whiskey production are fairly strict. Depending on the type of whiskey you’re trying to make, you may have to adhere to a specific recipe or mashbill, location, length of age, etc. To legally call a whiskey Bourbon it must be made in America, the mashbill must be composed of at least 51% corn, it must be aged in brand new oak barrels, distilled no higher than 160 proof, barreled at no higher than 125 proof, bottled at 80 proof or higher, and made with no additives (flavors, colors, etc.). That doesn;t leave a lot of room for distilleries to play around with their bourbon, and they must get creative to create a unique product that stands out on shelves.
Aside from changing the mashbill (looking at you, wheaters), the most impactful step in the whiskey making process is the barrel that the whiskey is aged in. Legally, bourbon must be aged in new, charred oak barrels. But the law doesn’t state that they must spend the entire aging process in that barrel, simply that the process must begin in that barrel. Therefore, several distilleries have been playing around with finishing the aging process in another type of barrel. Sometimes they will use a barrel made from an exotic wood with different flavor compounds, other times they will use a barrel that previously held another spirit (wine, rum, cognac, etc.). And yet, other times, they simply use the same kind of barrel they started the aging process in, doubling down on the intensity of fresh virgin oak.
Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel is such a bottle. This is the standard Elijah Craig Small Batch that has become a staple in the bourbon industry and is on shelves across the nation, but they rebarreled the bourbon part way through the aging process into a new oak barrel. This time, rather than a deep char on the barrel staves, they applied a light toast to the barrel. The different heat temperatures release different flavor compounds in the wood, from baking spice to vanilla. Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel is a fantastic representation of how the simplest of alterations in the finishing process can have a drastic impact on the flavor of the bourbon.
Nose: sweet, rich & complex. Deep oak notes, dark salted caramel, a little spicy, with a bright cherry on the edges
Palette: big oak and black pepper, light honey sweetness, leather, baking spice, caramel/toffee, a little bit of a chocolate and a hint of espresso
Finish: warm lingering chocolate and baking spice, dry oak