Elijah Craig 12 Year Old Barrel Proof

So this is the tale end of a bottle I did a tasting with, and seeing as I've got several bottles of varying proofs, I want to document my tasting notes.

Colour on this is nice and dark, orange, reds and browns.

On the nose this is first and foremost deep rich caramels, caramelised sugars, muscodavo sugars, butterscotch, almost burnt caramel. Really sweet and intense, just as one would hope for in a bourbon. Grains are big in this. Getting toasted malt, thick oily corn sugars and slightly minty corn, herbal rye, but all tamed by the grip of the deep caramels. Then I'm picking up complimentary cinnamon and spice. The red fruits are coming through too in the higher floral notes, although can't quite pick out individual fruits. Also a slight grape, cognac note in there too. Wood is in there but subtle. Fantastic nose. Super deep burnt sugar and caramels. Nothing over dominates. Caramels are king but nicely complimented by fruit, spice and oak.

On the palate it's huge. Almost George T Stagg huge. First sip and I'm just trying to recover from the alcohol, because it blew away the flavours. Okay, let's try again. Picking out big caramel and big spicy rye notes, with an undercurrent of astringent oak wood. Really struggling to get to grips with this. Big wood, cherry, spice, butterscotch, oily sweetcorn, wood again, and the wood char. Eventually those burnt caramels coming through on the finish with some cinnamon and nutmeg. Nutmeg really comes through in the finish. It's weird because the wood is quite subtle in the nose, but not on the palate.

Overall I'm loving the nose, and whilst the taste is as hot as Stagg, it's not really bringing out enough flavour notes and the wood is too astringent and dominant.

No complaints though. This is a fab whiskey, but there are other versions of the barrel proof which are better.

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