Colonel E.H. Taylor
Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Written by Brian Donnelly
Who was E.H. Taylor?
Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr was born in Columbus, Kentucky, in 1832. Taylor was a descendant of two United States Presidents, James Madison, and Zachary Taylor. He worked as a banker and local politician in Frankfort, even serving as the city’s mayor for 16 years, from 1871 to 1887. It was while working as a banker that Taylor first began to finance local distilleries around Frankfurt. In 1869, he bought his distillery, purchasing the small Leestown Distillery and the Carlisle Distillery. The following year, he renamed that distillery Old Fashioned Copper (O.F.C), although many believe the original name was Old Fire Copper In 1878, Taylor ran into financial trouble and sold the distillery to George T. Stagg. Stagg then hired Taylor to run the distillery, which he renamed after himself in 1904. The freshly renamed George T. Stagg Distillery would eventually become the current Buffalo Trace Distillery in 1992.
What is a Kentucky Colonel?
The state’s Governor gave Taylor the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel. The title has no affiliation with any military rank and recognized his many accomplishments, contributions to his local community, and public relations reasons.
The Old Taylor Castle Distillery
Taylor worked at the George T. Stagg Distillery for several years, rebuilt his finances, and then built a brand new distillery from the ground up on Glenn’s Creek in Millville, south of Frankfort. The Old Taylor Castle Distillery opened in 1887 and was like no other distillery at the time. Unlike most Bourbon distilleries, which looked like mills or factories, the Old Taylor Distillery was built to look attractive and appealing. Taylor made his distillery resemble a medieval European castle, including a classically inspired springhouse and sunken gardens. There was also a train station and updated road infrastructure for cars to allow visitors to visit the distillery easily. He was ahead of his time, paving the way for Bourbon tourism.
E.H. Taylor brought more than just architecture to the Bourbon industry; he brought real innovation. He was credited with several modernizations to production, including copper fermentation tanks, still design, sour mash technique improvements, and steam- heated cycled rack houses. Perhaps Taylor, along with his contemporaries and acquaintances in the Bourbon industry, is most famous for his political lobbying to ensure the new Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. Consumers would finally be given an indication of quality and authenticity for the whiskey they bought during a time when producers and wholesales would sell altered, counterfeit, or even dangerous products.
The distillery had to close down operations in the lead up to Prohibition. The Taylor Distillery was not one of the six distilleries permitted to sell medicinal spirits during the thirteen years of Prohibition (1920 – 1933). After Prohibition finally ended with the passage of the 21st Amendment, National Distillers, previously The American Medicinal Spirits Company, purchased the Old Taylor Distillery in 1935 and all their inventory of aging whiskey. National Distillers drastically increased production at the Old Taylor Distillery and their other distilleries to meet the Post-Prohibition customer demand.
In the 1970s, Bourbon slowly fell out of popularity, and consumer drinking trends shifted to Vodka, Rum, Gin, and other clear spirits. In 1972, National Distillers stopped production and closed the Old Taylor Distillery. The property became abandoned. All the buildings and structures fell into a state of disrepair and deterioration for more than 40 years. The distillery was eventually sold to Jim Beam in 1987. Finally, the Buffalo Trace Distillery, owned by parent company Sazerac Company in New Orleans, purchased the Old Taylor Bourbon brand in 2009.
Since 2011, Sazerac continues to produce Bourbon under the E.H. Taylor brand at the Buffalo Trace Distillery. The historic Old Taylor Distillery was purchased, renovated, and in 2016 was once again distilling and producing spirits under the Castle & Key brand. The new Castle & Key Distillery is not affiliated with the E.H. Taylor brand.
Mash Bill
All core expressions of E.H. Taylor, Jr. use Buffalo Trace’s Mash #1, a traditional bourbon mash bill of Corn, Rye, and Malted Barley, with a low-rye percentage. This same mash bill is used for other popular Bourbons from the Buffalo Trace Distillery, including Benchmark, Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, and George T. Stagg. The E.H. Taylor brand is extremely experimental, so many of the line extensions or limited releases, such as the Rye, Four Grain, Amaranth, and 18 Year Old, will be produced using something other than just Mash Bill #1.
E.H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch
Buffalo Trace’s Mash Bill #1
Bottled-in-Bond at 100 Proof (50% ABV)
E.H. Taylor, Jr. Single Barrel
Buffalo Trace’s Mash Bill #1
Each barrel is hand-picked
Bottled-in-Bond at 100 Proof (50% ABV)
E.H. Taylor, Jr. Barrel Proof
Buffalo Trace’s Mash Bill #1
Hand-Selected Barrels
Bottled directly from the barrel
Uncut and Unfiltered at more than 125 Proof (62.5% ABV)
E.H. Taylor, Jr. Straight Rye
Buffalo Trace’s Rye Mash Bill
Bottled-in-Bond at 100 Proof (50% ABV)
E.H. Taylor, Jr. Four Grain
Four Grain Mash Bill of Corn, Rye, Wheat, and Malted Barley
Matured 12 Years
Bottled-in-Bond at 100 Proof (50% ABV)
E.H. Taylor, Jr. Amaranth
“This bourbon honors Taylor’s enduring spirit of innovation and commitment to exceptional whiskey by introducing Amaranth as the flavoring grain. Amaranth was originally cultivated by the Aztecs and is known as the “Grain of the Gods.” This ancient grain is similar to wheat, but offers a complex taste with subtle flavors ranging from a nose of butterscotch and spearmint, to a finish of pecans and dark berries. Amaranth roughly translates to “never fading,” just like the legacy of Colonel Taylor, the founding father of the modern bourbon industry.”
Bottled-in-Bond at 100 Proof (50% ABV)
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery
E.H. Taylor, Jr. 18 Year Marriage
This expression is matured 18 years, combines barrels from three signature mash bills, including two different rye bourbon mash bills, and our wheated bourbon mash bill.
Bottled-in-Bond at 100 Proof (50% ABV)
E.H. Taylor, Jr. Cured Oak
E.H. Taylor Cured Oak Bourbon is aged inside oak barrels made with staves cured for 13 months, more than twice as long as typical barrel staves. This extended curing process extracts the rich characters deep within the wood. Barrels were aged inside of Warehouse C, built by Colonel Taylor in 1885 as a prime aging warehouse.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery
E.H. Taylor, Jr. Warehouse C Tornado Surviving
On Sunday evening, April 2, 2006, a severe storm with tornado strength winds tore through Central Kentucky, damaging two Buffalo Trace Distillery aging warehouses. One of the damaged warehouses was Warehouse C, a treasured warehouse on property, built by Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. in 1885. It sustained significant damage to its roof and north brick wall, exposing a group of aging bourbon barrels to the elements. That summer, the exposed barrels waited patiently while the roof and walls were repaired, meanwhile being exposed to the Central Kentucky climate. When these barrels were tasted years later, it was discovered that the sun, wind, and elements they had experienced created a bourbon rich in flavors that was unmatched. This was truly a special batch of barrels, and though the Distillery does not hope for another tornado, it feels lucky to have been able to release this once in a lifetime product.
Source: Buffalo Trace Distillery
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