Buffalo Trace Distillery · Frankfort, Kentucky
Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr.
Uncut · Non-chill filtered · Sixteen bottlings, 2012 to 2025
Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Barrel Proof is Buffalo Trace's uncut, unfiltered bourbon, released once a year since 2012 at whatever strength the selected barrels held — between 127.2 and 135.4 proof across sixteen bottlings. The labels carry no batch numeral, so a bottle is identified by the proof printed on the face and the laser code etched into the glass.
The Line at a Glance
Six collection factsSixteen bottlings across fourteen years, 2012 to 2025 — one a year until Batch 14 was issued at three proofs.
Proof range 127.2 to 135.4. Only four releases have cleared 130.
Uncut and non-chill filtered on every release; every bottling left the barrel above the 125-proof legal entry maximum.
No batch numeral on any label. Proof plus laser code, L12 through L25, identifies a bottle.
Three figures repeat: 127.2 in 2015 and 2025, 127.3 in 2021, 2024 and 2025, and 129 in 2014 and 2022.
Buffalo Trace publishes no age, no outturn and no mash bill for the line.
Sixteen Bottlings, Fourteen Years
2012 to 2025The line opened in 2012 with the 134.5-proof inaugural release and went higher the following year with the 135.4-proof ceiling that still stands, then fell more than six proof points in 2014 and never returned. From there it settled into a band between 127 and 131 that held for a decade — taking in the 127.2 floor enthusiasts still rank first in 2015 and the 2023 bottling at the top of the modern range. In 2025 Buffalo Trace abandoned the single annual bottling and issued Batch 14 at three proofs, which is why the 2025 release that split into three is listed here under three handles. Every release shares one construction: hand-selected barrels, no water, no chill filtration, and no published age, outturn or mash bill. Buffalo Trace prints no batch number on any label — the numbering collectors use is a convention applied afterwards, and the three 2025 bottlings are numbered inconsistently across the trade. Each page below gives the proof, the laser code and the twins to watch for. The bonded expressions this line sits beside are in the full Colonel E.H. Taylor range.