American Whiskey Review #55: Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Batch B519

Distillery: Heaven Hill

Region: Kentucky

ABV: 61.1%

Age: 12 Year

Color: 1.6, Mahogany/Henna Notes.

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Nose: (according to the wife) It has a very odd scent. There are a few easily recognizable notes in caramel, peanuts, and vanilla but there’s this familiar but very hard to place note. After much deliberation, we settled on artificial hazelnut syrup, the type that gets used in lattes.

Palate: It’s noticeably very thin and incredibly hot. I actually could not drink more than a few sips at full strength as this was far too hot. I tried starting with a few drops but that didn’t seem to calm this down enough. It took a lot more water than I’d expected to get this to a drinkable state, that is where I didn’t feel like I was about to burn my tongue . At that point, that note of artificial hazelnut really takes over and dominates here. It’s on the slightly sweet side. There’s also a lot of oak here as well, a bit too much for me.

Finish: Medium to short in length. Hint of cherry. And oak. Way too much oak.

Conclusion: This Elijah Craig Barrel Proof is the second of three batches I’ll be reviewing this week. Despite being bottled at a lower proof than Batch A119 from earlier in 2019, this second release from Heaven Hill was noticeably far hotter. It felt like I’d burn my tongue trying to drink this at full strength and took a lot of water to calm down. Once it is calm, it’s not particularly tasty. The artificial hazelnut is just alright but there’s far too much oak in this for me. Hopefully the third of this series isn’t like this!

Final Score: 66.

American Whiskey Review #55, Bourbon Review #42, Whisky Network Review #295

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Scoring Legend:

• 96-100: The perfect dram, nectar of the gods.
• 90-95: Near perfect, there is something truly special about this whisky.
• 85-89: Amazing, will always try to keep a bottle of this in my collection (if feasible).
• 80-84: Very Good, maybe only one minor nitpick about the whisky keeping it here.
• 75-79: Good, quite enjoyable to drink.
• 70-74: Solid, wouldn’t go out of my way to get it.
• 60-69: Meh, still drinkable.
• Below 59: If you have a bottle of this, start cooking with it instead.