The Buffalo Trace Antique Collection has returned, some 25 years after it first arrived on the scene, and has pioneered a new upper tier for American whiskey.
This annual release remains the most anticipated event on the calendar for collectors and enthusiasts worldwide. Still, this year’s drop is sure to prove especially momentous thanks to the addition of a never-before-seen E.H. Taylor bourbon.
As readers of The World of Fine Spirits will likely be aware, BTAC – as it’s known to friends and family – sits somewhere between hen’s teeth and rocking horse manure in the ranking of things that are exceptionally hard to find. Competition for the latest Eagle Rare 17 Year Old or Sazerac 18 Year Old is so fierce that these iconic bottlings rarely touch our shelves before disappearing into private collections and auction houses.
The inaugural E.H. Taylor Bottled in Bond Bourbon may well be this year’s most sought-after American whiskey, with demand far exceeding the scant number of bottles available. For those of you wondering how it actually performs in the glass, I’ve written a few tasting notes for this and the other five bottlings in the class of 2025.
On a personal note, my first encounter with this series in 2012, when I was working as a bartender, significantly contributed to my becoming a drinks writer. When I was introduced to George T. Stagg, I couldn’t believe how intense and absorbing it was, or understand how it could seem to evolve with every dash of water I added. I glimpsed another level of whiskey that night, and afterwards I wanted to know more, to understand more, and to taste more, forever. It’s in that spirit that I return to the Antique Collection now.
Who was E.H. Taylor?
The first new addition to the BTAC stable since 2006 positions Colonel Edmund Haynes Jr alongside such greats as George T. Stagg, who brought the distillery now known as Buffalo Trace from the brink of extinction in 1878, and the godfather of wheated bourbon, William Larue Weller.
Taylor was a Kentucky native, born in Columbus in 1830. During his 92 years, the Colonel worked as a banker, a politician, and a distiller, bringing the latest equipment and techniques to his Old-Fashioned Copper distillery and championing Kentucky bourbon nationally and across the Atlantic. He served as mayor of Frankfort for 16 years, was a direct relation of Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States of America, and purportedly associated with a certain Colonel Sanders. But E.H. Taylor is best known today as the man most directly responsible for the advent of the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897.
In a time when the production of American whiskey was largely unregulated and adulteration was rife, this landmark piece of legislation assured that a bonded bourbon or rye was distilled in a single season, at one distillery, aged for a minimum of four years, and contained only pure water as an additive to standardized strength at 100 proof, or 50% ABV. The significance of this gold standard in the evolution of American whiskey cannot be overstated. It was instrumental in cementing bourbon and rye whiskey as categories and helped lay the foundations for everything that came after.
Today, the 1897 act has largely been superseded by overarching legislation around the manufacture of whiskey in the USA. But the words ‘Bottled-in-Bond’ printed proudly on a label still resonate with us, as does the name E.H. Taylor. But what exactly does the latest Taylor whiskey taste like? Gamely, I investigate.
E.H. Taylor, Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon
ABV: 50% | Price: $150
William Larue Weller, Kentucky Straight Bourbon
ABV: 57% | Price: $150
Eagle Rare, 17 Year Old Bourbon
ABV: 50.5% | Price: $150
George T. Stagg, Kentucky Straight Bourbon
ABV: 71.4% | Price: $150
Sazerac, 18 Year Old Rye Whiskey
ABV: 45% | Price: $150
Thomas H. Handy Sazerac, Straight Rye Whiskey
ABV: 63.6% | Price: $150
