I was looking for something to pull out of the ol’ whiskey closet during the last snowstorm when I got my eyes on something that I wasn’t expecting. I noticed the distinctive plastic lid of the old-style Elijah Craig bottle. Now, I had no idea that I’d stashed one of these away and even less idea that I hadn’t already finished it. But here we are. When the roads are slick and travel is not advised, sometimes you gotta make do with what you have on hand.
And it turns out that I had something pretty interesting on hand. It was a bottle of Elijah Craig Small batch from 2015. According to the piece of tape I put on the bottle before I stashed it away, I bought it in very early January 2016 at Total Wine for a cost of $21.99. This would have been the last version of Elijah Craig before Heaven Hill removed its 12-year-old age statement. So obviously I cracked that bad boy open. Annnnd…was reminded that it was very dry and tannic. Probably one reason I left it up there and forgot about it. But I did have an idea. I thought that it might be fun to put it up against two recent Elijah Craig expressions and see how it stacks up. Did Heaven Hill make the right choice when they changed and expanded the product? To find out I set each of these up in my patented If You’ve Had… style where we compare one product to a similar product in order to find the differences.
What’s that? You haven’t been around long enough to know what the If You’ve Had… series is? Well here is a quick cheat sheet to bring you up to speed. The setup is like this: "If you've had Whiskey A then Whiskey B is..." hotter, spicier, sweeter, more floral, etc.” Each section below is written comparing all of the whiskeys in the line-up to one of their peers. So if you've had Whiskey A, but not Whiskey B, C, or D, then the Whiskey A section will be the most useful to you. You may notice that there are different tasting notes here as compared to the usual reviews. That is because I am literally going from one bourbon to the other and recording my impressions of the difference. This article purely describes the differences between the various bourbons. I try to write this so that there are no value judgments. This way you get to decide based on what you know of Whiskey A if Whiskey B sounds like something you'd want to try.
So without further ado, I present the ninth installment of the If You’ve Had… series. Plus, afterward, I’ll let you know my thoughts on the current state of Elijah Craig when compared to the 2015 version.
If you've had Elijah Craig Small Batch (2023) then...
Elijah Craig 12-Year-Old Small Batch (2015) is: about the same color, visually. 2015’s nose shows much more sharp oak compared to 2023's cinnamon/nutmeg/baking spices. The mouth of 2015 is hot and very strongly oaky to the exclusion of almost everything else. Whereas the 2023 is full of baking spices. The finish of 2015 is also tannic and bitter compared to 2023’s fruit and spice.
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (C922) is: visually much darker in color. The nosing experience is very similar between the two with the Barrel Proof version showing more alcohol burn in the nostrils. The mouth of the Barrel Proof is much hotter, but also sweeter and the notes, while similar to 2023, pop more. The finish of the Barrel Proof shows more oak and lasts longer.
If you've had Elijah Craig 12-Year-Old Small Batch (2015) then...
Elijah Craig Small Batch (2023) is: visually very similar in color. The nose shows more cinnamon and baking spice that is hidden behind 2015’s oak. The mouth of 2023 is more gentle and shows more sweetness and baking spice. The finish shows less oak than the 2015 version.
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (C922) is: visually darker in color. The nose of the Barrel Proof shows a similar level of oak but also shows more sweetness and chocolate. In the mouth, Barrel Proof is hotter but also sweeter and shows more baking spice. The finish is hotter and shows more sweetness and spice to complement its oak.
If you've had Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (C922) then...
Elijah Craig Small Batch (2023) is: visually lighter in color. The nose is very similar showing much less alcohol in the nostrils. In the mouth, 2023 is more gentle and shows more fruit and less sweetness. The finish of 2023 is shorter and shows more fermented fruit notes.
Elijah Craig 12-Year-Old Small Batch (2015) is: visually much lighter in color. 2015’s nose is similar but shows less sweetness. 2015’s mouth is more gentle but shows its oak more as the Barrel Proof also shows off chocolate and sweet notes to go along with its oak. The finish of 2015 is drier and shows off the oak more.
So... Thoughts:
Is it worth trying to hunt for the unicorn that is the old 12-year-old Elijah Craig? In my opinion? Fuck. No! At least not a bottle of the 2015 release, like I have here. My bottle was from the last release before it lost its age statement and I can only describe it as over-oaked. I'm not a fan, personally though my wife enjoys it. Obviously, I like oak. I just want it to be a supporting flavor not the only flavor like it is in the 2015 version. The Barrel Proof still has a lot of oak but it also has a lot of chocolate, sweetness, and spice that accompanies the oak. I also prefer the standard Elijah Craig Small Batch that is on shelves currently. I don’t need everything to have a lot of oak so I enjoy that they allow Small Batch to showcase the cinnamon, baking spice, and fruit. Both the Barrel Proof and Small Batch are satisfying complements to one another. Whereas the old 12-year-old Elijah Craig from 2015 is kinda just a one-note oak bomb. Some people, like a gentleman I was chatting with in the liquor store, love the "overpowering oak" (his words) that these old bottles have. I don't. So after seven years I can look back and feel that, as far as I’m concerned, Heaven Hill made the right choice by removing the age statement and allowing the flavor to drive the brand, not the age.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that all of the old 12-year-old bottles were as dry and tannic as this release was. I was upset when they removed the age statement. But I’ve been part of a round-table that compared various editions of the 12-year-old Elijah Craig and this one was my least favorite of the group. Some of the even earlier ones were delicious. So I’m mostly just shitting on this particular release, not the entire history. But if the age statement was holding them back from making an even better product, or products in this case, then I think it was probably the right call.
My Ranking:
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (12 year old)
Elijah Craig Small Batch (2023)
Elijah Craig 12-Year-Old Small Batch (2015) - Distant 3rd.
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