Buffalo Trace is reviving the pioneering spirit of one of bourbon’s greatest figures with its latest release: Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Distiller’s Council. This ultra-premium, 100-proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon is a limited-edition tribute to the man known as the Father of Modern Bourbon, crafted using equipment and techniques that Taylor himself invented more than a century ago.
The inspiration for Distiller’s Council dates back to 1996, when Buffalo Trace gathered a group of bourbon legends—retired master distillers and warehousemen among them—for a tasting session that would shape its future. As they sampled whiskeys, one voice cut through: “We don’t make whiskey the way we used to.” That single observation led to a deep dive into E.H. Taylor’s original methods, uncovering processes long lost to modern production.
“Colonel Taylor didn’t just shape a distillery – he helped shape the entire bourbon industry,” Andrew Duncan, Global Brand Director at Buffalo Trace, said during a media tasting of the whiskey. “He had a reputation for doing nothing but the best in the best possible way, sparing no expense. He built the world’s most expensive distillery, ran it until it burned down, and then built it even bigger and more expensive.”
The ‘father of the modern bourbon industry’
Taylor wasn’t just a distiller; he was a businessman and marketer who understood bourbon’s place in America’s economic engine. “At the time, whiskey was the number one tax revenue vehicle for the federal government,” Duncan explained. “So it was not only an important industry for consumers, but got a lot of federal and regulatory attention, as it does today.”
His connections helped, too. “His cousin was President Zachary Taylor,” Duncan added. “That network played a role in his advocacy for the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, which was the first consumer protection law in the U.S., establishing quality standards that eliminated fake or dangerous whiskey.”
What made Taylor stand out wasn’t just his influence, but his transparency. “He wasn’t hiding what he was doing,” Duncan said. “He published books detailing his methods, from how he jump-started fermentation to why he used copper mash tubs lined with expensive, hard-to-procure pure copper. Decades before tech founders were open-sourcing their code, Taylor was open-sourcing bourbon.”
Buffalo Trace has brought back his techniques for this release. This expression revives Taylor’s sour mashing process, combined with modern expertise, to create a whiskey nearly identical to what he produced in the 1880s. Even the packaging nods to history: the bottle is a vintage-style Grecian glass decanter modeled after a 1950s Old Taylor ad, underscoring the brand’s long-standing dedication to heritage.
“This is the closest thing we think we can find to what Taylor made,” Duncan said. “Some of his techniques were so ahead of their time that they’re still used today. For example, steam-heated barrel warehouses—he pioneered that. We still use it, and it costs an extra two to three million dollars per warehouse to build, but it’s worth it.”
The Distiller’s Collection follows the announcement earlier this year of E.H. Taylor Bottled-in-Bond— the first add to the Antique Collection in nearly two decades.
Aged 15 years
As for the question ever bourbon lover has on the tip of their tongue, while the bottle doesn’t officially have an age statement, we actually know how old this one is.
“Once the liquid entered the barrel, we tasted it frequently, waiting until just over 15 years to declare it at peak maturity and ready for bottling,” Duncan told me over email.
As for how it tastes, Buffalo Trace says “this 100-proof bottling stands as the closest modern interpretation of the fine bourbons produced under his leadership at O.F.C Distillery (now Buffalo Trace) during the 19th century.” The whiskey has a nose of vanilla and caramel with that iconic caramel corn sweetness bourbon lovers have grown accustomed to with EH Taylor along with some herbaceous undertones and a finish with cinnamon and spearmint notes.
Taylor’s fingerprints remain on American bourbon today, from production innovations to consumer protection standards. As Duncan put it, “He was very much a product of his time in his approach to brand building and marketing—spare no expense, nothing but the best. That spirit is exactly what this release celebrates.”
E.H. Taylor Distiller’s Council is set to hit shelves this month at a suggested retail price of $1,499.99 and is positioned as a collector’s release. Like most Buffalo Trace releases, supplies will be super limited and will also be allocated.