Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr. was the bourbon visionary who pushed through the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, and the small batch bearing his name is Buffalo Trace's daily tribute to his standards. Bottled at the bonded 100 proof, it draws from hand-selected barrels aged in the historic warehouses Taylor himself built on the banks of the Kentucky River.
The pour is the color of autumn maple syrup, and the nose opens with that quintessential Buffalo Trace sweetness — caramel corn, vanilla bean, a faint dust of cinnamon. There is no harshness despite the bonded strength; the years in oak have rounded every edge.
On the palate it is generous and approachable, all buttered cornbread and brown sugar, with a swirl of dried orange peel and sweet baking spice. The mid-palate is creamy and unhurried, the oak present but never aggressive, the corn-forward mash bill singing clearly.
The finish carries gentle pepper and tobacco leaf, fading into caramel that lingers comfortably. This is bourbon as Taylor would have wanted it — honest, well-made, bonded, the kind of pour that earned the family name a permanent place above the rickhouse doors.
For the price, it remains one of the great bonded bourbons on the shelf, when you can find it.
