Credit: Lost Cargo
* Note: This article uses information from the U.S. Department of the Treasury Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). Whiskey labels are approved by the TTB weeks or months ahead of their release and public announcement, so details about pricing and availability aren’t available yet. Furthermore, any proof statements on the label may be placeholders and might change before the official release announcement. However, everything else on the label will appear as it does here, so this gives us a great early look at an upcoming release.
The second barrel-proof expression in the E. H. Taylor, Jr. lineup is expected to be E. H. Taylor, Jr. Barrel Proof Rye.
In December 2021, the label for E. H. Taylor, Jr. Barrel Proof Rye was approved by the TTB. This will likely be a one-time limited release like 2021’s Warehouse C or 2020’s 18 Year Marriage, rather than an annual release like E. H. Taylor, Jr. Barrel Proof bourbon.
The label notes that this is indeed a barrel proof version of the distillery’s E. H. Taylor, Jr. Straight Rye rather than a different recipe such as the one used by their Sazerac Rye. Buffalo Trace’s High Rye Rye mashbill is used only for the Taylor Rye and isn’t shared by any of the distillery’s other releases. It’s a unique recipe in that it contains no corn – just rye and malted barley.
Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr. had uncompromising standards for high quality whiskey that set the stage for the modern day whiskey boom. The barrels selected for this limited edition barrel proof rye release were selected in his honor & with a similar standard so only whiskey deemed of “Topmost Class” was bottled uncut and unfiltered to allow for this full-bodied expression of E. H. Taylor Straight Rye Whiskey. The Barrel Proof Rye release is a testament to its namesake and the measures he took to ensure that all of his whiskeys were of unmatched quality.
– Back label copy
Interestingly, the Straight Rye bottling also has Barton’s distillery number (DSP-KY-12) on the label in addition to Buffalo Trace’s (DSP-KY-113), but the Barrel Proof Rye label only has Buffalo Trace’s. Barton and Buffalo Trace are both owned by Sazerac, and companies with several distilleries may often use that capacity to distill or age products at different sites. In this case, it looks like we’ll likely be getting a rye distilled and bottled in Frankfort.
Images
Front label
Credit: Buffalo Trace
Back label
Credit: Buffalo Trace
