The Bourbon Review: Elijah Craig 12 Year Old Bourbon Review

My second foray into the Elijah Craig brand and it’s a discontinued release and a review I've sat on for way too long….the 12 year old, which was finally withdrawn from retail in January of 2016 due to increasing demands on the Elijah Craig stock.

I managed to snag a few bottles in Marks & Spencer’s in 2018 when they were being cleared off the shelves to make way for new stocks. I knew the age statement had been withdrawn and so knew it was a good chance to stock up with two or three bottles before they disappeared for good.

I was already familiar with the 12 year old expression and so was confident that I was buying a quality product that I would enjoy. I nursed my final bottle for a while and it was finally killed off before my move to Florida in 2024. Those of you who frequent my site will know it often takes time for me to transfer my notes from the physical notebook to the virtual notebook and well this has been no exception.

Getting back to Elijah Craig and the 12 year age statement still hasn’t returned to the range. What with the record numbers of barrels in bond in Kentucky these days I will be interested to see if that changes now that demand has tumbled worldwide for whiskey of all kinds.

The current ‘Small Batch’ releases contain whiskey aged for between 8 and 12 years, so on paper at least, they represent good value in the current bourbon world for pretty well aged stock.

Let’s taste!

Elijah Craig 12 Year Old 47% abv

78% corn – 10% rye – 12% barley. £35

Nose: Beeswax and furniture polish. Victoria sponge cake, cherry, sawn oak, pineapple and candy floss. A herbal aspect too – fennel, mint and cardamom. Brown sugar and some leather too.

Palate: A nice texture to this. Cream soda, caramel, licorice, dark honey, vanilla and cherry lips. A little orange in there too. Spicy oak kicks in mid palate moving on to fresh tobacco leaf, cinnamon and cask char.

Finish: Medium length with toffee, vanilla and peppery heat.

Score: 7 out of 10

Overall: A lovely bourbon this. Well worth the entry fee and sadly discontinued with the current range eschewing age statements. I haven’t really explored much more Elijah Craig but I will put that right soon enough and it will be interesting to see if the current NAS releases match up to the quality of the 12 year old.

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