Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Wooden Cork Private Barrel 125.6 Proof

Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Wooden Cork Private Barrel 125.6 Proof. Heaven Hill Distillery, Bardstown, Kentucky — a single barrel of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof hand-selected exclusively for Wooden Cork, aged 9 years in new charred American oak and bottled at 125.6 proof without water reduction or chill filtration — the only place in the world this specific barrel is available.

Private barrel selections are the highest expression of a retailer's relationship with a distillery. Heaven Hill grants retailers the opportunity to visit the rick houses, evaluate individual barrels from their aging inventory, and select a single cask to be bottled exclusively under that retailer's name. Wooden Cork's selection of this barrel represents our team's judgment about what constitutes exceptional Elijah Craig Barrel Proof character — the specific proof, age, and flavor profile we identified as the standard worth putting our name on.

This barrel was aged 9 years — toward the upper end of typical Elijah Craig Barrel Proof age statements — and bottled at 125.6 proof, reflecting the specific evaporative concentration of this individual cask over nearly a decade in the Heaven Hill rick houses. Non-chill filtered and no water added, the 125.6 proof is exactly what came out of the wood. No other retailer has this barrel. Once it sells out, it is gone.

Tasting Notes

• Nose: The 9-year upper rick house aging delivers concentrated caramel, dark fruit, and toasted oak at full 125.6 proof intensity. Rich and complex with the depth that extended aging in Heaven Hill's rick houses produces.
• Palate: Dense and full-bodied with deep caramel, vanilla, oak tannin, and warming spice. The 9-year age statement and 125.6 proof create a weight and complexity that younger Barrel Proof batches at lower proof cannot match.
• Finish: Long and warming with dark caramel, leather, and spice persisting through the close. The 9 years of aging sustains the finish well past what shorter-aged barrel proof bourbons achieve.

Specs

• Distillery: Heaven Hill Distillery, Bardstown, Kentucky
• Selection: Wooden Cork Private Barrel
• Mash Bill: 78% corn, 10% rye, 12% malted barley
• Age: 9 years
• ABV: 62.8% (125.6 Proof)
• Filtration: Non-chill filtered; no water reduction
• Size: 750ml
• Availability: Exclusively at Wooden Cork

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Frequently Asked Questions

• What makes a private barrel selection different from a standard release? Wooden Cork traveled to Heaven Hill, evaluated individual barrels from their aging inventory, and selected this specific cask based on its quality and character. Standard Elijah Craig Barrel Proof releases blend multiple barrels selected by Heaven Hill's own team. A private barrel is a single cask, selected by us, available only here.
• Why is private barrel bourbon more interesting than standard releases? No two barrels age identically. Private barrel selections allow enthusiasts to taste the specific character of a single cask rather than the averaged profile of a blended batch — the specific proof, the specific flavor, the specific aging trajectory of one barrel chosen by one buyer for one retailer's customers.
• Is this the same bourbon as standard Elijah Craig Barrel Proof? Same distillery, same mash bill, same barrel type and aging program. The difference is the specific barrel: Wooden Cork selected this individual cask, and its 9-year age and 125.6 proof reflect the specific character we identified as exceptional when we made the selection.