.jpg)
📚Background: Elijah Craig has grown on me over the years. While I've had inconsistent experiences with barrel picks/private barrels, I love their thrice yearly barrel proof selection and have a warm spot in my heart for the original. Somewhat hard to find, I was happy to chance onto another bottle of Toasted Barrel when stopping in to replenish my standard spirits. This bottle is a Reddit favorite and I often see people mention it as their personal highlight. Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel starts its life as normal Elijah Craig before getting a second aging in custom toasted new oak barrels to take on more sweet wood. The original aging is in level 3 charred oak containers (these are fairly typical for bourbon), while the second is toasted and then flash charred. Toasting is the process of exposing the wood to a longer and lower heat that penetrates deeper into the wood, low and slow similar to smoking or barbequing. If all goes well, this produces an expanded intensity of wood flavors like vanilla, caramel, light oak, or coconut. Flash charring is also called Level 1 Char which is a simple 15-second exposure to the fame, very light and leaving many sweet flavors in the wood. Honestly, I find the fact that they use both the toast and flash char to be fairly interesting as my layman's mind would have thought one cancels out the other. Upon further exploration, the flash char may add additional color while the toast is the only thing that really penetrates deep into the barrel, meaning that both flavor profiles can emerge in tandem.
🛒Sourced: $54.99 Tower Wine & Spirits, GA - 750ml
This is an allocated bottle, though I see it in stock fairly often around $60. Costco has had it a few times a year for $56 near me. I have heard reports of $52 in South Carolina, difference appears to be local liquor tax and not Costco pricing.
🧪Proof: 94 proof, 47% ABV
🎨Color: R7- Amber with deep browns. Fairly dark for the proof. Thick legs on the glass, running down in tiny rivers
🥔Mash Bill: 75% corn, 12% rye, and 13% barley - the same as all Elijah Craig standard bourbons. Elijah Craig Small batch has lost it's age statement though Barrel Proof offerings seem to be between 8-12 years old. Giving the original aging period plus the toasted finishing, it is likely that Toasted Barrel fits in at the lower end of that range if not slightly younger.
👃Nose: Wow. Simply beautiful. Brown sugar, vanilla, coconut, and and sweet oak. I just straight up stuck my nose in there, no regrets.
😜Palate: A little peppery on the tip of your tongue, it sits on the mid and aft palate pleasantly. Mostly vanilla and oak flavors, marshmallows and baking spices upon second reflection. Smooth and inviting. Bordering on a thin, but somehow it pulls off the flavor anyway.
💦Finish: Short and somewhat dry, the only new flavor for me is green apple. The same baking and vanilla notes fuse to be something reminiscent of graham cracker.
🏆 Overall: 6.5 - Very Good a Cut Above - I do quite like it and can see why it's a recurring favorite. It's definitely a cut above regular Elijah Craig and I like it better than some other Elijah Craig special releases. That being said, other bottles, notably Woodford double oaked are another notch higher on the latter and around the same price. The Woodford bottle also isn't allocated which is always a plus. I double blinded this and an Evan Williams Single Barrel and ended up picking the Evan Williams SiB as my favorite, adjusting both ratings accordingly.
1/3 Bottle Update: Staying with 6.75, it's good, but not up there with the other 7s I've given.
See how this bottle compared to our reviews of the standard Elijah Craig Small Batch Whiskey or a Costco Kirkland Private edition of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Distiller's Select.
1/2 Bottle Update: Reducing to 6.5 after a blind lineup. The lack of body does hold this one back.
💵Would buy again? Sure, though I will deal shop it only less than SRP
⚖️Rating Scale:
2 | Poor | I wouldn’t consume it by choice.
3 | Bad | Multiple flaws.
4 | Sub-par | Not bad, but many things I'd rather have.
5 | Good | Good, an agreeable dram indeed
6 | Very Good | A cut above.
7 | Great | Well above average.
8 | Excellent | Really quite exceptional.
9 | Incredible | An all time favorite.
10 | Perfect | Perfect.
