EH Taylor Barrel Proof Batch 1, 134.5

Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Barrel Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey — Batch 1, 134.5 Proof

Price

$3,499.95

✔ Authenticated by the house — seal, fill level, and label inspected before release
✔ Documented provenance on every bottle
✔ Climate-safe, collector-grade packaging

Age: NAS (Estimated 8–10 Years) | Region: Frankfort, Kentucky, USA | Proof: 134.5

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Vault-to-door shipping

Adult signature (21+) at delivery

134.5

Proof

67.25%

ABV

None

Age

2012

Year

750 mL

Format

L12

Code

Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Barrel Proof Batch 1 is the 2012 inaugural release, bottled uncut and unfiltered at 134.5 proof, 67.25% ABV. It is the release that put a barrel-strength expression into a brand built entirely on the Bottled-in-Bond Act — the law Colonel Taylor campaigned through Congress, which fixes bourbon at exactly 100 proof. Only one release in the fourteen years since has been stronger.

Nº 01

The Elemental Distinction

134.5 proof, 67.25% ABV. Only Batch 2 the following year has ever gone higher.

The first release. Everything numbered after it is measured against the standard it set.

The moment the Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. brand stopped being exclusively about the bond.

Buffalo Trace has never published how many bottles were made.

Planned as a spring annual release — a cadence the line did not keep.

The only batch whose proof no other release comes near: nothing else in the run sits within four proof points of it except Batch 2.

Nº 02

Barrel Proof, Explained

Barrel Proof Batch 1

Buffalo Trace launched this in 2012 as the first permanent high-strength member of the Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. range, after two one-off experiments — the reconstructed Old Fashioned Sour Mash and the storm-damaged Warehouse C barrels — had established that the brand could carry limited releases. Barrel proof means no water between the barrel and the bottle: 134.5 is the strength the selected barrels held, not a figure anyone chose. Non-chill filtration leaves in the compounds that cloud whiskey when cold, and with them the weight that separates this line from the bonded bottlings. The original intention was a spring annual release. In practice the line has moved around the calendar and, in 2025, produced three separate proofs under a single batch number. Buffalo Trace has published neither an age, a mash bill nor an outturn for any release including this one.

Nº 03

The Identifiers

What separates this release

Strength

Barrel proof

Uncut, not proofed down

Filtration

Non-chill filtered

Batch numeral on label

None

Colonel E.H. Taylor labels carry no batch number.

Batch

Batch 1

The inaugural release

Nº 04

Sensory Profile & Strategy

Distiller notes & position

Sensory Profile

What 134.5 proof does: At 67.25% ABV the alcohol is a structural component rather than a background heat. Nothing in this bottle is subtle by design, and the distillery made no attempt to make it so.
On the absence of a note: Buffalo Trace publishes per-batch notes for almost nothing in this line, and none exists for the 2012 release.
What is reliable: The strength, the year, and the fact that it was bottled straight from hand-selected barrels with nothing added and nothing filtered out.

Strategic Position

The Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. brand is an argument about a federal standard. Taylor spent years pushing the Bottled-in-Bond Act through Congress, and the expressions bearing his name — Small Batch, Single Barrel, Straight Rye — are all bonded at exactly 100 proof because the law says they must be. Batch 1 is where Buffalo Trace deliberately stepped outside that. It put out a Taylor bottling at 134.5 proof, which is to say a Taylor bottling that could not legally carry the designation the brand exists to celebrate. Whatever you think of the whiskey, that is a genuinely odd thing for a distillery to do, and it worked well enough that the barrel proof release has run annually ever since. It opened the barrel-proof releases that came after it, and it sits at the opposite pole from the bonded Taylor at exactly 100 proof.

Nº 05

Collector Note & Index

Vault provenance

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Collector Note

This is the easiest release in the line to authenticate and the hardest to find. Easiest, because 134.5 is a number no other E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof carries — every later batch sits between 127 and 132, and the only one above it is Batch 2 at 135.4. You do not need the laser code to rule out a substitution, though L12 confirms it. Hardest, because the 2012 release predates the secondary market's interest in the line, which means most of it was opened. Buffalo Trace has never said how many bottles existed, so scarcity here is a matter of survival rather than outturn. Price it as a first edition rather than as a whiskey: what you are paying for is the position, and the whiskey inside is thirteen years past the point where anyone can tell you what it was like new.

→

How to Taste It

Water, and more of it than you think. At 134.5 proof the first neat sip is mostly information about alcohol, and the interesting question is what sits underneath — which only emerges with dilution. Work down in stages rather than guessing, and use more water than you would on a 127-proof batch, because the gap between this and the rest of the line is roughly seven proof points. If the bottle has been open for years, taste it before assuming it needs the same treatment; high-proof whiskey that has sat with air in the bottle moves considerably.

Collector IndexMW VAULT

Distillery: Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, Kentucky
Class: Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Batch: Batch 1
Release year: 2012
Proof: 134.5
ABV: 67.25%
Age statement: None

Nº 06

Technical Specifications

Specification	Detail
Class	Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Batch	Batch 1 — the inaugural release
Release year	2012
Proof	134.5
ABV	67.25%
Strength	Barrel proof — uncut, not proofed down
Filtration	Non-chill filtered
Laser code	L12
Batch numeral on label	None. Colonel E.H. Taylor labels carry no batch number.
Age statement	None. Buffalo Trace publishes no age for this line.
Mash bill	Not disclosed. Buffalo Trace does not publish mash bills for its brands.
Outturn	Not published by Buffalo Trace.
Region	Kentucky
Distillery	Buffalo Trace Distillery, Frankfort, Kentucky
Brand owner	Sazerac Company
Format	750 mL

Nº 07

Records & Assurance

Authentication & Vault Preservation

Every bottle sold through Midnight Whiskey is sourced as an authentic, sealed product and inspected before it ships. Orders are packed with padded, glass-rated handling and require an adult signature (21+) on delivery; we do not ship to anyone unable to verify legal drinking age. For our full sourcing and handling protocols, see our editorial and authentication standards.

Frequently Asked Questions

What proof is E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof Batch 1?

134.5 proof, or 67.25% ABV. It is bottled uncut and unfiltered, so the figure is the natural strength of the barrels selected in 2012 rather than a dilution target. Only Batch 2, released the following year at 135.4 proof, has ever been stronger — every other release in the line sits between roughly 127 and 132.

Why is Batch 1 significant in the E.H. Taylor range?

Because the Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. brand is built on the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897, which Taylor campaigned into law and which fixes bourbon at exactly 100 proof. The standing expressions — Small Batch, Single Barrel, Straight Rye — are all bonded for that reason. Batch 1, released in 2012 at 134.5 proof, was the first Taylor bottling issued outside that standard, and it established the annual barrel proof release that has continued since.

How do I identify E.H. Taylor Barrel Proof Batch 1?

By its proof. Colonel E.H. Taylor labels carry no batch numeral, so identification depends on the figure printed on the face and the laser code etched into the glass. 134.5 is unique in the line — no other release shares it — and an L12 code confirms a 2012 bottling. That makes Batch 1 one of the few releases in the range that the proof alone can identify.

Midnight Whiskey · The Vault Barrel Proof Batch 1

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E.H. Taylor, Jr.

The Elemental Distinction

Barrel Proof, Explained