Buffalo Trace Distillery has announced their annual limited edition Col. E.H. Taylor, Warehouse C Bourbon.
The new Taylor expression honors Taylor’s favorite barrel aging rick house, Warehouse C. If you’ve ever made the pilgrimage to the distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky, you’ve seen it as soon as you walked out of the gift shop – a 136 year old brick and limestone building that’s survived ice storms, floods, and even the tornado that tore the roof off for the unique barrel aging of the original E.H. Taylor Warehouse C Tornado Surviving Bourbon.
“We know Col. Taylor had a lot of pride and affection for Warehouse C, as evidenced by his attention for detail, especially on the exterior with the architectural features,” said Master Distiller Harlen Wheatley in a press release. “Fortunately, it’s a really good aging warehouse for bourbon too, so not only does the warehouse look good, it produces some of our best whiskies. This year’s release of the Warehouse C bourbon is no exception.”
The press release from the distillery highlights some of the unique characteristics and history of the warehouse.
“Originally built before elevators were available, ramps were used inside Warehouse C to manually roll barrels to each floor. With six floors holding a total of 24,000 barrels and each barrel weighing approximately 500 pounds when filled, it must have been quite a task to get barrels into their ricks!
“In more modern times, a barrel elevator was installed, and Warehouse C was re-ricked and re-floored to maximize capacity. Since barrel warehouses are built with the barrel ricks as stand alone units not attached to the walls for safety measures in case of a collapse, the re-design of Warehouse C when the elevator was put in allows for good air flow throughout the floors, making for an excellent all around aging warehouse for new and old barrels.”
E.H. Taylor Warehouse C is aged 10 years and (like most Taylor products) is bottled-in-bond at 100 proof. The barrels used for the new Warehouse C release were all aged in the center of Warehouse C, with half of them coming from the 2nd floor and the other half from the 5th floor. The distillery tells us that the second floor is an outstanding aging floor for older barrels, with very tight ricks, making it slow and difficult to put in new barrels, and very dry floors. The fifth floor of Warehouse C, we’re told, has sunny windows all the way around, providing excellent warm air flow throughout the floor.
The distillery tells us to expect “a nose of cherry cobbler with rum sauce and a hint of oak; a palate of cherry cola, vanilla bean and toasted oak; and a finish that is long and lingering with a hint of spearmint, coffee, raisin bread and anise.”
The news doesn’t come as a surprise to most bourbon fans, as the TTB label for the new release appeared earlier this year. If you can find one of these rare Taylor Warehouse C bottles at retail when they arrive this June, you can expect to pay around $70, but some releases in this line have doubled in value on the secondary markets over the past year.
