Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon Review (2020)

Updated June 10, 2020

By Richard Thomas

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof A120
(Credit: Richard Thomas)

I don’t know what is more remarkable about what has happened between making my evaluation of this year’s first Elijah Craig Barrel Proof batching: what has changed or what has not changed. One thing that has occurred to me about the pandemic in America is that it could very well be the bottle hunter’s gain. Many bars with deep inventories of private barrel bottlings are now selling those bottles at retail, most famously the Jack Rose Saloon in Washington, DC.

Furthermore, liquor stores generally remain open, although they aren’t quite as busy as one might expect (given what is closed). Whenever I’m making my rounds, places like the supermarkets, Walmart and Lowe’s seem unaffected. The parking lots of the liquor stores often seem thinner, though.

So maybe, just maybe, that means those willing to impose social distancing on the dimwits who seem to be unable to maintain personal space even under these circumstances can get out and grab popular limited edition offerings without the usual fuss and bother. That would include Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon, Batch A120.

As has been the case from the beginning, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is a 12 year old bourbon, holding over from when the original small batch expression was also a 12 year old. The strength varies from batch to batch, however, as the consistent part about it is the bourbon goes uncut. This time that came to a staggering 68.3% ABV (136.6 proof).

The Bourbon

Batch A120: B+
In keeping with a middle aged, cask strength bourbon, this installment of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof came over as deep and dark reddened amber in the glass. A sniff didn’t show the whiskey off as too hot, but a sip certainly did, so in went the requisite splash of water before I began studying it.

The nose hit me first with equal measures of oak and nuts, but this initial smack was soon covered over by a gentle wave of brown sugar, caramel and toffee, leaving behind just traces and overall coming into balance. The taste was sweet vanilla syrup with a dry woody note underneath. Further sipping teased out some peppermint. The finish carried on with herbaceous spiciness and oak.

Batch B520: B+
The second outing for EC Barrel Proof in 2020 was a more reasonable 127.2 proof, although at 63.6% ABV it is still high enough that I wasn’t surprised that it needed dialing back with a splash of water. I was recently asked why I review individual installments of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (in the past, I’ve been asked the same about Booker’s), and the answer is right there in the variable proof point. Although the expression is drawn from a common base of stock and has an age statement of 12 years, the only nod Heaven Hill makes to achieving a consistent flavor profile with EC Barrel Proof is in where the barrels come from. I’ve found the expression is about as variable as a typical single barrel whiskey can be.

With that out of the way, this bourbon was a lot like a serving of well-toasted smores with caramel drizzle, served on an oak platter that got dropped in the fire and scorched. Instead of the herbaceous finish that marked the January 2020 installment, the whiskey wound down on barn-dried leaf tobacco.

The Price
Bottles of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof are usually priced at between $60 and $70 these days. Certainly any retailer asking for much more than that is gouging you. That actually makes it quite a good bargain compared to its contemporaries. Booker’s, for example, is more expensive and not as well-aged.