4-Shot – March 17, 2019

The Complete Buying Guide to Buffalo Trace Whiskey: Important Brands and Bottles Explained

There is perhaps no American whiskey maker more respected or awarded as Buffalo Trace Distillery. The flags flying under its umbrella are some of the biggest names in whiskey — Pappy Van Winkle, E.H. Taylor, Weller and so on. But the shuffling and mass coalescing of major whiskey brands can make it strenuous to know your Pappys from your Wellers, and harder still to recall the $1,000 difference between Antique Weller 107 and the Antique Collection’s William Larue Weller. That’s why we’re here. From impossible-to-find grails to $10 mixers, Buffalo Trace offers it all. Here’s your cheat sheet.

Mashbills

All Buffalo Trace whiskey comes from one of four recipes. In whiskey-making patois, recipe means mashbill, or the specific levels of corn, malt, rye and barley combined to distill the beginnings of every bottle.

The catch? The distillery has marked the exact balance of barley, corn, wheat and rye as proprietary (though many try to crack the code). So we know which bottles start as which mashbills, but we don’t know specific percentages of each ingredient. Some one-off expressions — like Van Winkle’s Family Reserve Rye — are exceptions to the rule.

Mash #1: a low-rye bourbon mash (Buffalo Trace, Eagle Rare, E.H. Taylor, George T. Stagg, Benchmark)
Mash #2: a higher-rye bourbon mash (Blanton’s)
Wheated Mashbill: replaces rye content with wheat (Pappy Van Winkle, Weller)
Rye Mashbill: mash made with a little more than 50 percent rye (Sazerac)

Pricing

Bottles from brands Pappy Van Winkle and W.L. Weller can cost hundreds of dollars, if you can even find them, but Buffalo Trace isn’t the one to blame. The distillery distributes all of its whiskey with longstanding suggested retail prices (SRP). Take Pappy, a brand with bottle prices that climb well into the four-digit realm. In an honest world, you’d be able to find one for as low as $60.

Prestige

The whiskey landscape is run almost entirely by a handful of conglomerates and mega-corporations, and Buffalo Trace Distillery stands out. Names like Van Winkle, Weller, E.H. Taylor and Blanton’s are some of the most sought-after bottles of brown on the planet, and that’s before mentioning the coveted Antique Collection and O.F.C. Vintage releases.

While all those names carry weight with collectors and award show judges, its humbler mainline bottles are no less noble. Dating back to 2000, Buffalo Trace and Eagle Rare — the brand’s two most available brands — have earned more awards than are worth counting.

How to Score Bottles

All Buffalo Trace Distillery whiskeys are distributed “on allocation.” This means there’s a specific number of bottles allocated to each state throughout the year across its whole catalog. This is done to ensure retailers, restaurants and consumers in every state get a shot at some.

Your best shot at nabbing prized bottles comes down to being a good customer, which starts with communication. Frequent the shops in your area and talk to the person behind the counter. Ask when they usually get the bottle you’re hunting for and reward information with your patronage. Remember that if you’re looking for something (especially a Buffalo Trace Distillery whiskey), others are too — they don’t have to give you information, but they may be more inclined to do so if you’re a regular.

Beyond that, know your release periods. Bottles of Pappy are allocated October 1 and typically hit shelves mid-October to early December. The Antique Collection is also distributed in the fall. Most other regularly distributed bottled arrive on shelves in the first week of the month.

Notable People

None of the names you see gracing bottles in the Buffalo Trace catalog were made up. They refer to real people from the distillery’s past. Here’s the short list:

William Larue Weller: The inventor of wheated bourbon whiskey. Much of Weller’s work — whiskey education, distilling and tinkering — was done in the early to mid-1800s. Bottles of Weller became so popular he’d dip his thumb in green ink and print it on each bottle to ensure authenticity.

E.H. Taylor, Jr.: Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor was a mid-19th-century banker turned bourbon hero. Taylor laid funding down for a number of distillers and later opened the O.F.C. Distillery. He was also instrumental in the legitimizing of the bourbon industry, playing a key role in getting the Bottled-in-Bond of 1897 through Congress.

George T. Stagg: Stagg worked hand-in-hand with Taylor in the creation of O.F.C. and later bought it off him. He re-named the distillery after himself and it remained the way for almost 100 years before being renamed again. This time the newly minted distillery was called “Buffalo Trace.” Now Stagg’s name appears on just one bottle in the Antique Collection that’s one of the most collectible whiskeys in the world.

Albert B. Blanton: Blanton took over George T. Stagg’s distillery in 1921 and steered it through both the Great Depression and Prohibition (he convinced the government to let them continue making “medicinal whiskey”). He’s perhaps most famous for his stature as the founding father of the single barrel bourbon.

Julian Sr. “Pappy” Van Winkle: The cigar-toting man plastered on every bottle of Pappy is Pappy himself. Co-founder of the forward-thinking Stitzel-Weller Distillery, Pappy, along with the Wellers, showed the world the power of old, wheated bourbon.

Elmer T. Lee: Blanton’s protégé. Lee joined the distillery in 1949 and became its first Master Distiller. He’s credited as one of the people responsible for bourbon’s return to form in the ’70s and ’80s, along with other bourbon legends Booker Noe, Jimmy Russell and Parker Beam.

Harlen Wheatley: A four-time James Beard award nominee, Buffalo Trace’s Master Distiller since 2005 probably wouldn’t include himself in this list, but everyone else would. Since his ascension, Wheatley has led the distillery to unprecedented consistency in competition results year after year. He’s also spearheaded Buffalo Trace’s innovative initiatives like the new Old Charter Oak and Warehouse X.

Buffalo Trace Distillery Whiskey Brands

Buffalo Trace

SRP: $25
Recipe: Mashbill #1
Age: Aged at least 8 years
Notable: Named Gear Patrol’s Best All-Around Bourbon

Buffalo Trace’s namesake whiskey is the distillery’s second most-affordable bottle, behind Benchmark, which makes the value all the more remarkable. The bottle is cut to an easy-drinking 90 proof and, because its made alongside your Staggs, Wellers and Van Winkles, every bottle is a lottery ticket. You could wind up with a normal bottle of Trace or something a little more special. Caramel and vanilla do the heavy lifting on the palate while an oaky brown sugar finish rolls in nice and slow. It’s a rare affordable bourbon that checks boxes for ability to drink neat or in cocktails.

McAffee’s Benchmark Old No. 8 Brand

SRP: $12 SRP (Most affordable Buffalo Trace Distillery whiskey)
Recipe: Mashbill #1
Age: Aged at least 36 months
Notable: 2018 Gold Medal Winner at Los Angeles and New York Spirit Competitions

Just call it Benchmark. With a suggested retail price of $12, Buffalo Trace Distillery’s cheapest juice has earned a place in the hearts of whiskey writers, cash-strapped bourbon drinkers and anyone trying to avoid party guests drinking the good stuff. Its ultra-low price makes it a strong choice for a punch mixer, and the slightly watery 80 proof mean neat drinking is relatively easy (don’t bother watering it down further). Served straight, it hits you with honey and a bit of orange peel on the nose and a medium-strength slow burn on the tongue. Expect a lightly oaky, fairly cherry-forward follow through.

Eagle Rare

SRP: $30
Recipe: Mashbill #1
Age: Aged at least 10 years
Notable: Jim Murray’s 2019 Best Bourbon, Under 10 Years

Amid a shrinking market of well-aged, realistically priced bourbons, Eagle Rare keeps its feathers above water. The 90-proof bottle separates itself by retaining its exceptionally rare 10-year age statement and a retail price below $50. On top of its small mountain of awards, it was named the best bourbon whiskey (up to 10 years) you can buy by whiskey’s single most important reviewer, Jim Murray. In a whiskey world where transparency is disappearing and exclusivity is burgeoning, Eagle Rare is positioned as a affordable luxury for the everyman.

Eagle Rare bourbon can generally be described as a richer, deeper, better Benchmark. Made from the same mashbill, it follows much of the same beat – a honey-orange peel nose and manageable burn, especially. Once its coated the palate, things change: expect less fruit, more wood, undercurrents of toffee and a bit of spice.

E.H. Taylor

SRP: $40 to $70 (varies with individual expressions)
Recipe: Mashbill #1
Age: Aged at least 4 years (Bottled-in-Bond requirement)
Notable: All bottles (except Barrel Proof) are Bottled-in-Bond

Carrying the name of one Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr., Buffalo Trace Distillery’s E.H. Taylor collection has a bottle for every whiskey drinker. By virtue of hosting such a wide range of expressions — small batch, single barrel, barrel proof, straight rye and a host of valuable one-offs — the brand rides the line between everyday drinkers and bottles worth getting into a fistfight over. Generally speaking, the order of value for regularly allocated E.H. Taylor goes like this: Small Batch, Straight Rye, Single Barreland Barrel Proof.

Head and shoulders among the group of one-offs is a legendary bottle known as Warehouse C Tornado Surviving bourbon. With “1st and Only” scrawled under the masthead, this bottle is the product of a warehouse ripped apart by a tornado, the barrels inside open to the elements of a sticky Kentucky spring. The result is a bottle rife with weirdness and nearly impossible to find — that is, unless you’re willing to drop close to $3,000 for it.

It’s difficult to nail down tasting notes for E.H. Taylor because it comes in such variety, but there are some throughlines: unless it’s rye, it carries a corn-driven sweetness, vanilla notes throughout and a buttery mouthfeel and finish.

Pappy Van Winkle

SRP: $60 to $270 (varies with individual expressions)
Recipe: Wheated mashbill
Age: Aged 10 to 23 years
Notable: A bottle of 23-Year-Old Pappy Family Reserve was gifted to the Pope by a Kentuckky priest

The flagbearer for those that roll their eyes at those willing to spend a months (or multiple months) rent on a little bottle of alcohol. Other than its stuffed trophy cabinet and sickening price tags, it’s known for its use of wheat — the famed wheat mashbill that all its whiskeys (except the rye, obviously) start as — and very high age statements. Though the Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve line is the most coveted (and the only one with “Pappy” included in the name), you’ll be hard-pressed to find a bottle for less than $1,000.

But how does it taste? Though ages differ rather dramatically from bottle to bottle, Van Winkle bourbon’s defining trait is its wheated mashbill, which makes for a soft sipping, low burn, enormously rich glass. There is citrus, sherry, wood, leather, pepper and cherries, too. That blend of impossible smoothness and mind-bending depth are what Pappy is known for.

Weller Full Proof May Be Near

Cheers!

-Chris Brantley