Availability…It is, but it isn’t!

Highly recommended

For the details…

I am, unabashedly, a single malt Scotch drinker first and foremost and a more general whisky/whiskey drinker only secondarily. I started drinking single malts in my late teens, and only came to other types of whisky/whiskey a little later, when I was in my early 20s and attending university. My earliest experiences with whiskies not from Scotland were not especially positive, and for the most part, I steered clear of them even as I enthusiastically consumed any single malt I could find.

As an enthusiastic malt consumer, I was also an enthusiastic consumer of whisky books and magazines, and over the years, the idea that bourbon and other American styles could be tasty, exceptionally made products slowly trickled into my consciousness, and I started to be curious about experimenting beyond the most widely available–and frankly, bottom shelf–products. The name I kept coming across as a quality, widely available bourbon that would show the category in a better light than Ten High and similar products was Buffalo Trace, so I marched off to my local liquor store and picked up a bottle for the princely sum of about $21, a happy change of pace from Scotch, which even at that time would have run me at least $40-45 for a remotely decent bottle.

It proved to be a revelation, blowing any bourbon I’d tried before (and no small number of single malts!) out of the water in terms of flavor and enjoyability.

The bourbon hails from the eponymous distillery in Kentucky’s capital city, Frankfort. There seems to be some confusion on exactly when the distillery was founded, although there were at least some whiskey-related activities on the present site in the early years of the 19th century, perhaps dating back to the last decades of the 18th century. At the very latest, a small distillery was on the site by 1858, and that site was acquired in 1870 by Col. Edmund Taylor. Col. Taylor, who built a new modern distillery on the site in 1872, continues to lend his name to one of the distillery’s more celebrated expressions. 

Despite mishaps–more than one fire, changes in ownership, and the bane of the American industry, prohibition–the distillery continued to thrive. It was one of only a handful of American distilleries permitted to produce medicinal whisky during prohibition, and perhaps as a result, emerged from that bleak chapter relatively unscathed.

Buffalo Trace has been in the hands of the family-owned Sazerac Company since 1992, and under their stewardship has become one of the most storied, celebrated, and sought-after American whiskey distilleries. In addition to regular old Buffalo Trace, it produces various special releases under the Buffalo Trace moniker, and various other brands including the aforementioned Col. E.H. Taylor, George T. Stagg and Blanton’s (after two subsequent key people at the distillery), Sazerac Rye, and more.

The distillery has been so sought after in recent years that it has recently worked to up its capacity; until that change fully kicks in, many Buffalo Trace products, including the core expression reviewed here are distributed under allocation–the demand so far outstrips supply that finding Buffalo Trace products can be difficult. That said, I’ve never been disappointed by anything I’ve had from the distillery, and coming from Scotch, they tend to remain absolutely fantastic value for the price, assuming you can get your hands on them at all.

I generally see Sazerac Rye out on shelves, but even the basic Buffalo Trace–by far the most easily available of the distillery’s most celebrated bottlings–tends to be elusive. The most recent bottle I bought, I needed to ask a rep at the liquor store if he had any. Even at that, the price was still under $30.

Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey 45% abv

Nose: Caramel, candy corn, smoke, alcohol.

Body: Full, somewhat oily.

Palate: Big, flavourful—wax, mango, smoke, peach. Powerful.

Finish: Long, smoky (but not peaty!), some syrup, oilcloth.

Score: 90/100

Who should buy it?: Anyone who likes whisky, or even distilled spirits, should probably at least try Buffalo Trace, and given the exceptional bang for your buck, it’s a safe bet to purchase a bottle.

Overall thoughts: A great, easy-drinking whiskey with a ton of character. Always enjoyable, and a great thing to show any people who still regard bourbon as a cheap, poorly made product–it will change any open mind.

Bottling Information:

Expression: Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey 45% abv

Bottler: Proprietor

Range: n/a

Bottle Code: M0991012:40

Presentation: Unspecified

Details: n/a

Price: $25-30

Availability: Allocated, but you can usually find a bottle if you’re willing to look and ask.

Distillery Information:

Region: US – Kentucky

Location: Frankfort, KY

Geography: Inland

Date Founded: Early 19th century

Owner: Sazerac Co

Website: https://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/

Capacity: 10,000,000 liters

Plant Summary: ?

Total expressions sampled: 7

Overall distillery score: S

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