Elijah Craig 9 Years Single Barrel Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey The Prime Barrel Pick #38

Won’t knock your socks off with complexity but it taste really good and is super easy to drink. We shared it with friends and everyone really liked it.

This is a nice easy drinking whisky, there is an essence of orange peel, some viscosity on the tongue with a long finish of toasty butterscotch. Curiously for a 94 proof there is some residual alcohol heat. The EC barrel proofs are amazing, this has some of the characteristics of the barrel proof but not the expressive and intense flavors found in the barrel proofs, however at substantially less cost it is a nice pour and good value.

Most single barrel Elijah Craig bottles come in at 120 proof or better, which makes them flavor bombs, but also ethanol bombs. This means that in order to really enjoy those big boy bourbons you have to warm up. One of my favorite warm up bourbons is EC toasted barrel, so when I saw this single barrel offered at 94 proof, I thought I had a pretty good chance of finding a good warm up bourbon as well as an easy sipper. I was right.

The nose is rich and powerful caramelized sugar, sweet oak, and that creamy vanilla that reminds me of crème brûlée every single time.

The body is tied right in with the nose, it’s rich, it’s decadent with big vanilla and caramel bombs dropping. It isn’t running the gambit of flavors I know bourbon can do, but that’s fine because the two or three flavors that are there are in big bold capital letters and they are doing what they do perfectly.

The finish is fairly long for a lower proof, and the caramel blast melts away into honey, cinnamon and cream as the very mild kentucky hug sets in and fills the hole in your soul that the world has left.

Excellent!