Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. 18 Year Old Marriage is a one-time 2020 release from Buffalo Trace that blends bourbon from three different mash bills, all distilled in 2002. It is bottled in bond at 100 proof.
About This Bourbon
The barrels for this release were filled in 2002 with three of the distillery's recipes: rye bourbon Mash Bill #1, rye bourbon Mash Bill #2 and the wheated bourbon recipe. After 18 years the three streams were married into a single small batch and bottled in bond at 50% ABV. Buffalo Trace announced it in May 2020 for a June release and confirmed it would not be repeated. The house notes mention vanilla butter cake, caramel and cinnamon, and a finish of toasted oak with a hint of spearmint.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Vanilla butter cake and caramel, then tobacco leaf, dried cherry and polished oak.
- Palate: Layered and firm, with caramel and cinnamon, dried fruit, leather and mature oak spice.
- Finish: Long and drying, with toasted oak, cinnamon and a faint cool spearmint lift.
Serving & Food
Serve neat, just below room temperature, in a tulip-shaped nosing glass, and let it sit for ten minutes or so before tasting. Pair it with a cigar, candied pecans or a plate of Iberico ham and aged Comté.
How to Enjoy
Special occasions and serious tastings, especially for anyone who wants to see how very old Kentucky bourbon behaves.
Product Details
Producer: Buffalo Trace Distillery
Edition: 18 Year Old Marriage (2020, one-time release)
Style: Kentucky straight bourbon, bottled in bond
Mash Bill: Blend of Mash Bill #1, Mash Bill #2 and wheated bourbon
Age: 18 years old (distilled 2002)
ABV: 50% / 100 proof
Volume: 750mL
Origin: USA
Region: Kentucky
About the Distillery
Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. owned the Frankfort distillery that is now Buffalo Trace in the late nineteenth century and pushed hard for the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, the first federal guarantee of whiskey quality. Under that law a bonded whiskey must come from one distillery and one distilling season, age at least four years in a government-supervised warehouse and be bottled at exactly 100 proof.
Buffalo Trace, owned by the Sazerac Company, began the Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. collection in 2011. Alongside the regular Small Batch, Single Barrel, Barrel Proof and Straight Rye, the range includes one-off bottlings that explore unusual grains, woods or ageing, each presented in a vintage-style label and a canister modelled on Taylor's own packaging.