Buffalo Trace brings back rare E.H. Taylor bourbons Four Grain and Cured Oak

Buffalo Trace reopened one of bourbon’s most giftable collector lanes with the return of two scarce E.H. Taylor expressions, Four Grain and Cured Oak. Both bottles landed at a suggested retail price of $79.99 for 750ml, but their real appeal sits elsewhere: instant name recognition, tight availability, and the kind of provenance that makes a bottle feel like a proper milestone gift rather than a routine pour.

Four Grain is the better fit for the serious whiskey collector who already knows the E.H. Taylor label and understands why a release with this much history and limited circulation matters. Buffalo Trace said the 100-proof, small-batch bourbon was first introduced in 2017, distilled in 2015, and aged 10 years. It uses corn, rye, wheat and malted barley, a recipe Buffalo Trace said reflected grains that would have been accessible to Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor Jr. in the 1800s. Harlen Wheatley called it an unconventional “graduated experiment” that proved worthy of becoming an annual limited release, a change that raises both the urgency and the prestige calculus for buyers.

That annual status matters for gifting. A bottle that once appeared only twice, in 2017 and 2018, is still not an easy find, but it now carries a rhythm that makes it easier to plan for executive gifts, retirement presents, and birthdays where the recipient already collects allocated bourbon. Four Grain’s tasting notes, caramel, vanilla, clove and black pepper, give it enough warmth and structure to feel polished without being precious.

Cured Oak is the more dramatic trophy. Originally released in 2015, the 100-proof, Bottled-in-Bond bourbon was aged 10 years in barrels made from white oak staves air-dried for 13 months, more than twice the usual curing time of about six months. Buffalo Trace said those barrels aged in Warehouse C, the building Colonel Taylor constructed in 1885, and the extended curing brought deeper oak character with notes of vanilla, toffee, figs and dry oak. It is the bottle for a serious anniversary, a long-awaited promotion, or the kind of gift that needs to say you knew exactly what to choose.

Four Grain was sold through the Buffalo Trace Distillery and Sazerac House gift shops, plus select retailers in Kentucky and Louisiana, while Cured Oak went out through Sazerac’s network to select retailers, bars and restaurants across the United States. Together, they reaffirm why the E.H. Taylor line remains one of Buffalo Trace’s most sought-after collections: the bottles are rare, the names are recognized, and the gifts arrive with built-in meaning.