E.H. Taylor, Jr. Small Batch is the featured bottle in Issue No. 002 — Take Nobody’s Word For It.
Buffalo Trace states a proof of 100 and names the recipe “Mash Bill #1,” but publishes no grain percentages — any numbers you have seen attached to this bottle are enthusiast inference. The bottle carries the Bottled-in-Bond designation, which fixes a great deal by law: one distilling season, one distiller, one distillery, at least four years in wood, exactly 100 proof, nothing added but pure water, and the plant number printed where you can check it.
That fixed proof is what makes it such a good teaching bottle. Pour it against Buffalo Trace at 90 proof — same distillery, ten points of difference — and ask only whether the Taylor tastes hotter or fuller. Those are different sensations, and they are confused constantly.
The brand is also the clearest example in bourbon of a historical argument becoming a modern luxury: a designation invented so that ordinary buyers would not have to trust anyone is now frequently sold by lottery and well above its suggested price.
The Ledger Score is 9.3/10. Full nose/palate/finish tasting notes have not been written up separately — Issue No. 002 works this bottle as a teaching exercise more than a tasting review.