Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon C919
Distillery: Heaven Hill
Type & Region: Bourbon, Kentucky, USA
Alcohol: 68.4%
Composition: 78%, 10% rye, 12% barley
Aged: 12 years in virgin American white oak
Color: 1.5/2.0 on the color scale (auburn, polished mahogany)
Price: $60-70
From the Heaven Hill website:
“To sip Barrel Proof is to experience Bourbon in its purest form: uncut, straight from the barrel, and without chill filtering. Each bottle is hand labeled with its unique proof and batch number; but the nose, taste, and finish are pure Elijah Craig.”
TESTS & Aftertaste
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is intensely sweet with caramel, brown sugar, vanilla, citrus, cherry, spiced apple with cinnamon and nutmeg, and just a little licorice and anise. It’s all viscous, dark, and oaky, but not too burnt.
Admittedly, it could be super oaky, but it’s so sweet that it may be counter-balancing it, overall making this a big bourbon with huge flavors. Even then, the ABV is extremely well controlled even at a face-melting 68.4% ABV.
With “chewing”, I taste caramel, vanilla, brown sugar, very oily oak, citrus, and baked apples, then some licorice and dark cherries, followed by a surge of rich oak, cinnamon, and clove. This is a brown sugar and vanilla bomb, and has a similar oily and viscous quality to EH Taylor Barrel Proof bourbon.
It’s intense and a little hot at times, sometimes testing my ability to wade through all of it, but it’s worth it. But as I drink through this, I can’t shake the sense that the flavors are a delicious yet jumbled mess. BUY ELIJAH CRAIG BARREL PROOF C919 BOURBON AT
