Brian’s Elijah Craig 18 Year Single Barrel Review:
reviewed 16-September-2023
ELIJAH CRAIG 18 YEAR SINGLE BARREL BOURBON REVIEW:
The Elijah Craig 18-Year Single Barrel bourbon boasts an aromatic blend of sweet smoke, musty leather, aged potpourri, and wood-forward earthiness. Its mellow taste unfolds with warm wine, grassy hints, and herbal dusty grain, intertwined with chocolate-covered blood orange and vanilla-infused toffee. This bourbon combines wood dominance with unexpected notes like mint, blood orange, and yellow cake, offering an easy-to-sip experience marked by a distinctive glass appearance and a medium-long, dry finish with herbal undertones, retaining a wood-focused profile and leaving a lingering sawdust scent.
ELIJAH CRAIG 18 YEAR SINGLE BARREL VITAL STATS:
Category: Aged Single Barrel Bourbon
Region: Kentucky, USA
Distiller: Heaven Hill
Mashbill: 75% Corn, 13% Rye, 12% Malted Barley
Barrel Char: #3
Barrel Entry Proof: 125
Barreled: 2001
Barrel: 4632
Age: 18 Years Old
Bottled: 12-June-2019
ABV: 45% (90 Proof)
NABCA CSC #: 17920
Fair Price: $249.31 (BoozApp, September 2023)
Current MSRP: $159.95 (Idaho, September 2023)
Note: This particular bottle was purchased in late 2019 in Idaho for $129.95
ACCORDING TO HEAVEN HILL
“Elijah Craig 18-Year-Old Single Barrel Bourbon is the oldest Single Barrel Bourbon available in the world. Only a handful of the millions of barrels of Bourbon aging in Kentucky have been allowed to mature this long.”
Learn more at Heaven Hill.
ENJOYMENT METHOD FOR THE REVIEW:
Taken out of the newly opened bottle, the first one and a half ounces mixed with the bourbon in our Infinity Bottle Project. Then, by alternating the pours, four once review amounts went into Glencairn and a Weck. My daughter and I enjoyed the bourbon neat as I prepared this review.
ELIJAH CRAIG 18 YEAR SINGLE BARREL NOSE:
Even before I take the first draw, sweet smoke and musty leather drift up from the glass. As I breath in, EC18 greets with an old potpourri satchel of dried fruit tree blossoms. With carefully nosing, the unexpected faint scent of a mint topped baked apple with a tiny dollop of apricot jam peeks in. I struggle to find more fruit, and when I do, dry and dark prune fruit leather, infused with cinnamon, ginger, and pepper comes to mind. When I move on, a single peeled wedge of blood orange atop yellow cake makes its surprise entrance. There are sweets here too, as blended simple syrup and rich vanilla cooked with caramelized brown sugar, and orange blossom honey treat the senses. However it is wood forward earthiness which carries this pour, as peanut, dry old oak sawdust and hazy barrel char dominate the nose.
ELIJAH CRAIG 18 YEAR SINGLE BARREL PALATE:
I do not recall enjoying a more mellow bourbon. Individual flavors in this pour of EC18 are hard to detect making me think this is simple, but there are surprises. I feel warm wine on my palate, being sipped under the shade of an old oak atop a rolling hill on the edge of an open field. I take in the hay-like grassiness, along with herbal dusty grain, which at first seems a touch bitter. Nearly all trace of fruit has disappeared, yet there is a treat of chocolate covered blood orange dipped in cinnamon, white pepper, smoked pepper and cocoa malt powder. Then a confection of vanilla infused, chocolate and dark brown sugar toffee dances across the tip of my tongue. But like detected on the nose, dry old oak, smoky sweet char, and a touch of old leather make this a wood forward experience.
Balance, Body, Feel and Look:
As to be expected, the balance is heavily skewed towards wood. The unexpected aromas of mint, blood orange and yellow cake promenade with flavors of baked apple, smoked pepper, and cocoa powder but wood dominates the pour. Each sip is mellow and easy to hold. In the glass, a solid crown gives way to large drops, and after each sip, long thick legs transport the dregs back to the mahogany colored pool.
ELIJAH CRAIG 18 YEAR SINGLE BARREL FINISH
Elijah Craig 18-Year-Old Single Barrel Bourbon offers a medium-long, dry, warm finish with a fairly strong herbal aftertaste. Dusty grain and the sensation of fresh cut hay left in the field to dry blend with cinnamon, ginger, and cocoa which lay hidden in woody caramel and dark toffee. Like noted above, the finish follows the wood-forward suit, having plenty dry old oak, char, and leather. And when the last drops are downed, the empty Glencairn smells of dried sawdust swept into a pile at the end of a long workday at the mill.
MY RATING: 89/100
Will I buy this whiskey again? Maybe …
At $160, the price makes it a hard ask. The conditions would have to be absolutely right.
Click to read Brian’s scoring process.
Click 89/100 to access other whiskies with this score.
To access other reviews from this brand, click Elijah Craig.
WHISKEY TRAITS, FLAVOR NOTES AND PROFILE GRAPH:
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