302. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C922 Review

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

Well, you know who likes to give back to their community is one of our sponsors, Jim. Chris Cruz from Cruz Customs Flags. He does custom flags out of bourbon barrels. Not only does he do that, but he's also using veterans to build those flags with. I've got one right behind me, Jim. I know you got one on your bar. Beautifully handcrafted, repurposing a bourbon barrel, not throwing it away, not making it into smoking chips, making a piece of Americana, right?

Something that'll last probably quite a few years longer than a bourbon barrel would, right?

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We get a chance to review a bottle on this craft distillery Monday that is certainly not from a craft distillery. It's also a bottle that people kind of wait for a few times a year. What do we have in our glass?

So, well, we got one of the men that started a craft distillery back in the 1700s though, but we have Elijah Craig Barrelproof C922. So this is the last batch of 2022 from Heaven Hill on this Elijah Craig Barrelproof comes in a hundred and twenty four point eight proof, Jim. And it's as usual, 12 years old.

Well, We know that we're getting ready to sample a bit of a flavor bomb, but each one of these releases tends to be just a little bit different. And let's take a second and talk about the batch numbers because they're kind of unique. They do an A, a B, and a C release every year. A is the first release of the year, B is second, and C is third. So today we're drinking C922, which is the third batch of the year. The nine stands for the month in which it's released, which is September. So this is September and then 22, 2022. So it's batch three of September, 2022. Like you said, this is 124.8 proof. It is a 12 year old Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, well-aged and a beautiful bottle with that wonderful barrel proof neck label that goes around the neck.

Yeah, that's it's pretty special. And it comes from, you know, the guy's name that's on it, Elijah Craig. He was a Baptist preacher. He was all kind. He did all kinds of stuff, Jim. But, you know, it took him a while. He started out in Virginia. It took him a while to migrate to Kentucky. Now, 1781, he made his way to to Kentucky. It was kind of neat that, you know, He just didn't rush right here. You know, he was a preacher there. He started a school here. He actually donated land where Georgetown College is today. He actually started his distillery in Fayette County, not Bourbon County, which some people had claimed back in 1789. So you're going to see that 1789 on that label, right, Jim?

That's right. So that's a raised kind of a raised glass and boss glass of 1789 on it. Everything else is printed on the bottle except for the barrel proof sticker.

Yeah, this bottle's got that wide shape, but it's skinny. You know, it's it's got those big hips on it, but it's skinny in the front, you know, and they really don't have any back either. So it's kind of one of those flat bottles that's this little bit wider. Nice looking bottle and stuff. 2013 is when they came out with the Elijah Craig barrel proof and they took that 12 year off of the batch proof. Right.

Yeah. So, um, it was kind of a process that went over about three years. So in 2013, they introduced the barrel proof where these bottles were released at, you know, barrel proof. And then in 2016, three years later, they announced that they would pull the, the age statement off the small batch, uh, 12 year, and it would no longer be age stated. And that's what we have today, even in the, in the small batch bottle is a mixture of eight and 12 year bourbons. And they had to do that in 2016 to extend their stocks because, uh, you know, they didn't have enough inventory to meet demand, but they did give us this barrel proof and they've been pretty good about making sure it gets issued three times a year. And every single batch they release is a little bit different than the last.

Now listeners, you can find these bottles for SRP for around $69.99 now. A lot of liquor stores are going to upcharge for this. This is a limited release. So, you know, you see one of these bottles, you see it at that price, you better grab it.

Absolutely true. Uncut straight from the barrel without chill filtration says it right on the bottle. You might even find a piece of char in here. I might say might have things. So Jim, well, I've never seen one, but it might happen.

It might happen. Well, heck, I say we've been talking long enough. Let's go ahead and give this sucker review. All right. Let's check it out. Cheers. Cheers.

Yeah. You gotta, you can't go right in full, full bore and take a big whiff of it. Can you?

No, it'll, it'll, uh, I got some nose hairs, so it'll send them suckers right off.

Yeah. It's got a little bit of ethanol on the nose. It's got a lot going on though, doesn't it?

Yeah. Very complex. That dark, rich nose, that sorghum, molasses. We always talk about that oak, a little bit of tobacco in there and letting you know, Hey, I'm a bourbon. Um, that little bit of quick, a little bit of a sweetness in there from that dark caramel. You ever have one of those cow tails, Jim?

I have had cow tails. Get that little cream center.

Yeah, I get a little bit of that chocolate cream center in here. Man, it's you could go on and on about this bourbon and it's nose and and how rich it is and how complex like we've always said about all the batches. They're doing something magical down there.

Yeah, it's it's it's definitely got a great nose to it. You get the sense that this is a an extra age bourbon, but it's not it's not like deep rick house aromas it's not like overly aged it's not overly oaked it's it's kind of sitting still in that sweet spot uh it does have a nice uh sort of caramel it lacks a little bit on the vanilla though for me but um it does have a nice caramel nose i am getting a little bit of cherry on this one actually getting quite a bit of cherry on this one but I can't help but notice those typical almond pecan nose that you get, uh, kind of on a, on a heaven hill whiskey. Um, for me, it's a little bit more of a, like a bourbon silk pecan, you know, like you might, like you might get on a bourbon ball.

Well, you know, our good friends over there at a barrel proof, you know, smoke your bourbon, those ladies, they make some of those bourbon pecans smoked. And I get that a little bit of that right there in that nose, Jim. I mean, you hit it spot on.

Let's taste it, Mike. Cheers. Wow. It definitely is a powerful whiskey. It's got a lot of, um, sort of that mid-pallet burn to it.

You think that's a mid-pallet burn or is that that Kentucky Wildcat getting a hold of the tongue right there? I mean, hey, shout out to you Kentucky fans. Uh, your football team, uh, beat Florida this, this weekend, past weekend. Uh, congratulations to you. But I think that Kentucky Wildcat is trapped inside this bottle.

Yeah, it's a powerful whiskey. remember it's a hundred twenty four point proof that's right up there now they've certainly had some up in the hazmat range uh... this is uh... a pretty decent proof i will say it it drinks a little hot for me But, um, I love that, that note of cherry that it has. I don't know if you're getting it, Mike, but it definitely is like a bourbon soaked cherries, kind of a mixture of bourbon soaked cherries and bourbon soaked pecans. Uh, a little bit of that caramel. I get something else there. Like a little bit of ginger, like ginger, caramel, pecan, a little bit of cherry. It's got a lot going on. Really good.

Yeah, I get the cherries, but I think maybe some cherry pie filling with some cinnamon on it is what I get. Real heavy cinnamon. That dark rich cherry pie you'd get. Maybe even if you've ever had a fried pie that had cherried in it. If they had cinnamon all over it, that would be this right here. It's got a creaminess to it. Even though I said it has so much spice and has that wildcat, it has a creaminess to it. It's got layer upon layer and it just coats your tongue, doesn't it?

It does. It really does. Mike, did you used to eat those packaged fries, fried pies when you were a kid? Heck, I still eat them today every once in a while.

I mean, they're like, they're like 3000 calories each, right? I look like a, I look like a cow with my tongue getting out and I try to get all the filling out first. Now that's a sight to see. I try to eat them in private so nobody sees me do that. But, uh, yeah. That's what I love about bourbon jam. It brings back great memories and great memories of food. It just it's so great. We just went to a wedding this past weekend and I ate a cupcake and it was a chocolate cupcake with cream filling on top or cream icing on top. You know, it's real fluffy and stuff. And while I'm eating that, I was almost going to give that cupcake a review. Cause I was like, man, this tastes like some bourbon right here. Um, and I almost thought about taking some, uh, bourbon and pouring over that cupcake, just a little bit, you know, I had to look around, see who was looking, but tell me that wasn't tasted good.

Oh, definitely. Without a doubt. This, this Mike is not as sweet as some other ECBPs I've had, right? Elijah Craig Barrel proofs. This one's, I'm not going to call it dry, but I'm going to definitely say it's drier than some earlier releases. And it's not as sweet as some other ones that I've had recently.

I think you're right a spot on there on the back end. It's not drying, but it's really oaky. Um, And maybe that's that drawing. I'm getting that oak and oakiness I'm getting. Yeah, a little bit. Maybe earthiness is what I'm looking for there. But still, I still get the sweetness. But like you said, not as sweet as some of the other ones that pecan. I hate to keep going back to that pecan. But it does have that pecan taste to it. A little bit of bitterness, a little bit of drying. But inside of a candy, pecan is like that.

Well, I tell you, whenever I make bourbon balls, I always soak my pecans in bourbon. And it never fails after I'm done making all the bourbon balls and all the boo-boos because I make a lot of boo-boos. I always have like a cup of these bourbon silk pecans left over at the end and I don't know what I'm going to do with them. So I just munch on them a little bit here and there. And that's, that's right. That's what I'm tasting right now. No bourbon silk.

I do get a little bit of a ginger, like you said, Jim, um, a little bit of ginger snap cookie though.

Yeah.

Um, you know, ginger snap cookies aren't overly sweet sometimes and they can get a little bite to them. Um, you better have a glass of milk around when you're eating them. Um, that spice sometime can overwhelm you, but that's what I get. Not heavy ginger, but enough to let you know, Hey, this has got ginger in it.

Yeah. I'm going to say if you've had Elijah Craig barrel proof in the past, you've noticed that once in a while you get one that really lights you up. and shows its proof right it really lights you up and says hey i'm i'm i'm barrel proof dang it this is one of them this is one of them that lets you know real quick it's a barrel proof

I was going to say, hold on a second, Jim, that wildcat has done crawled his way down my throat and is tearing me up. This hug on this sucker is powerful. Like I said, it's 124.8 proof, not the highest proof ever on one of these, but this sucker's got some bite to it. Folks, I'm telling you, some bourbons drink hotter than what they say. I would assume this thing is right up there at 130 something, not 124.4, but

Yeah. It, it drinks like a barrel proof. It lets you know right away, uh, that it's, uh, it's in charge of your palette because it takes over. Um, but you know, Hey, Elijah Craig barrel proofs are all over the map. They come out, they're different every time. Uh, but you know, there's always been that group of them that drink pretty hot. And this is certainly one of them. This one, uh, a little bit drying on the back of the palette. Uh, almost to the point of being almost tart, right? Yep. Almost tart, but upfront you get that cherry and that pecan and a little bit of that ginger. Uh, it does get peppery on the back end. It definitely, you feel that alcohol, that ethanol, you feel that burn all the way through. Uh, it does present a lot of different notes. Um, but it's overall, it's a very powerful and bold bourbon.

It's the finish is sticking with me. And for that, I gotta say, it's got a long finish. It is the sweetness of sticking there, the pepper sticking there, that hug sticking with me. So, you know, I'm going to give this a long finish on this. Um, I love it. Um, this is definitely not, as you always say, a session whiskey. This is not a session whiskey folks. I don't think you can sit down and have a whole lot of this.

Yeah. Don't sit down with a bottle of this with a buddy and see if you can't make it go away. That would be a big mistake. This is one to have a couple of pores of and move on to something else.

Yeah. Yeah. Most definitely. Well, Jim, man, a great review. I, this is a buy for me. If I see it at 69 99, you can guarantee you're going to see a bottle in my hands.

Absolutely. Well, fortunately for us, we didn't have to buy this bottle. Thank you. Heaven Hill for mailing it out to us. It's always been, uh, it's always been our habit to hunt the barrel proof bottles and get one every time. But it looks like we don't have to do that anymore, Mike. It looks like Heaven Hill's happy to send us one. So thank you again to Heaven Hill for sending it. It certainly doesn't change our opinion of the bottle. We always talk truthfully about what we have on the show, but we certainly appreciate not having to go out and find it this time. Thank you.

Well, Jim, where can people find us on the Internet?

Well, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. You can even find us on TikTok. But probably the best place to find us is on our private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. We'd love to have you come and check it out and join the group. It's a place where like-minded people, uh, like to chat about the whiskeys they're drinking, share pictures, share bottles. Um, we certainly don't allow any selling on there, but we do love to get together and drink each other's whiskey. Don't we, Mike?

That that's the truth. God's honest truth. And we're, we're fixing the. Be at an event, Jim, where our roadies can drink with us. We're going to be at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival this weekend. I'm excited, Jim. Are you excited?

I'm very excited. Actually, I didn't get to go last year, Mike, but I did come back from Puerto Rico and have to listen to all the wonderful stories that you told about being there. And I'm really excited this year. We both have VIP passes, so we're going to be bouncing around, having a great time, attending as much of the goings-ons as possible. Hope to see a lot of roadies out there. Hope to see a lot of listeners in general. If you're going to be anywhere near Bardstown, Kentucky this coming weekend, make sure you get out to the Kentucky bourbon festival. Just go to the kentuckybourbonfestival.com and buy yourself a pass. Come out and enjoy the day.

Yeah, listeners, like Jim said, we're going to be out there. I'll have a backpack with me inside the backpack. We might have some stuff to give away, but we also will have a recorder with us. We'd always like to make an episode out of our visits to these festivals. So if you'd like to get on the show, come up to me, talk to me, who tell you who you are. If you're wearing a bourbon bullshitter t-shirt or bourbon road shirt, then we don't even have to ask. I'm just going to get that backpack out and we'll start recording. That's right.

That'll be pretty awesome. Mike. I can't wait to see it happen. Never never fails that we run into some roadies out there and, uh, have some great conversation and share a few boards in the, in the case of the Kentucky bourbon festival. The bourbon is going to be flowing everywhere.

Yes, indeed. Yes, indeed.

Well, every week we do two shows. We do a craft distillery Monday episode like today's episode where we kind of focus in on one expression from a craft distillery. Now I know Heaven Hill's not exactly a craft distillery putting out 1300 plus barrels a day, but Mike and I did want to highlight the Elijah Craig barrel proof edition from this fall. So It did make it in the show and I hope you appreciate it. I hope you liked our tasting notes on it But every Wednesday we do a full-length episode where we'll have a guest on we'll drink through a couple of expressions We'll deep dive a topic sometimes Anyway, it'll be a full hour to 30 minute half. So we'll get you to work and get you home But every week two episodes and Mike, what do they have to do not to miss one? I

Listeners, you want to scroll on up to the top of that app, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign. The app is going to tell you, hey, these two jokers have an episode out today and you need to listen to it. Once you listen to it, we want you to scroll on down to the bottom of that app, hit that five star review, leave us some comments because you know what's going to happen if you don't. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to come to your house with this Elijah Craig barrel proof. We're going to drink it all night long. We're going to make it a session for sure. By the end of the night, you're going to give us that five star review and some comments. But seriously, those comments, those reviews open up doors to distilleries. It gets great whiskey in our hands like this Elijah Craig barrel proof C922. We really do appreciate it.

Mike and I are very approachable and you'll see us out and about. You'll see us at distilleries. You'll see us at events like Mike mentioned earlier. You'll see us at liquor stores. Heck, you might even run into us at Walmart. You never know. But when you do run into us, make sure you step up and introduce yourself. Shake her hand. Let us know that you've listened to the show. We love to hear that. Mike and I got egos as big as the world. We love to hear that. Don't we, Mike? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. But we'd love to meet you and hear your bourbon story. So make sure you reach out to us. You can always reach out to us online. We have a website and on that website, it's called the bourbon road.com. We've got a contact us page. You can always go there and shoot us a note. Uh, ask us questions, send us a recommendation for a show or a bottle. We get them all the time. So you wouldn't be just the first person to do it. We get them all the time. We get people sending us emails that I'm Jim at the bourbon road.com. He's Mike at the bourbon road.com. We always respond. We're very approachable. Mike and I love our listeners. We love our roadies and we're always eager and waiting to talk with you in person. So make sure you reach out to us. But like we always say, probably the best way to reach out to us, help our DMS on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon 63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief, and we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.