Buffalo Trace Just Surprised Us With a Wild 2025 BTAC Addition

Buffalo Trace Distillery’s annual Antique Collection—also known as “BTAC”—hasn’t had an addition to the lineup since 2006, when Thomas H. Handy joined the crew. Today, the Frankfort, Kentucky Distillery confirmed it’s adding a new bourbon to the highly coveted mix for the Fall 2025 BTAC release: E.H. Taylor bottled in bond bourbon.

The E.H. Taylor BTAC bourbon joins an array of Buffalo Trace’s finest whiskeys, most of which honor past industry luminaries behind the distillery’s most sought-after brands. William Larue Weller, George T. Stagg, Sazerac 18 year old, Eagle Rare 17 year old, and Thomas H. Handy comprise the current lineup, so E.H. Taylor will join some esteemed company.

This 100-proof bourbon—a mandated ABV of any bottled in bond product—means E.H. Taylor’s BTAC offering will sit on the lower side of the proof spectrum, adjacent to Sazerac 18 year old rye (typically 90 proof) and Eagle Rare 17 year old bourbon (typically 101 proof). George T. Stagg, Thomas H. Handy, and William Larue Weller bottles typically hit the shelves above 120 proof, with George T. Stagg nearing hazmat levels in 2024, at 136.1 proof.

It’s unclear precisely what the E.H. Taylor BTAC bourbon will taste like, though it’s safe to presume it’ll come from the same low-rye mashbill No. 1 that comprises many of the other E.H. Taylor expressions. It will undoubtedly be aged the longest; expect to see liquid that’s well beyond the 4 year old bottled in bond minimum. We’ll know more when the whiskey is bottled and ready for distribution later this summer or early fall; the BTAC bottles traditionally start releasing around October.

Why E.H. Taylor?

Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor was an integral player who shaped both the bourbon industry and the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Often dubbed the “Father of Modern Bourbon,” it was Taylor who, in 1869, upgraded his Old Fire Copper (O.F.C.) Distillery (now Buffalo Trace Distillery) with copper fermentation tanks—they produced a cleaner and more desirable spirit—better grain equipment, and even a revolutionary steam-heating system used inside the barrel warehouses.

Taylor was at the front of the push for the 1897 enactment of the Bottled in Bond Act, which put in place a number of production and storage standards aimed at protecting the consumer. The byproduct of all of this: Taylor’s whiskey was superior and highly sought-after (some things never change). To honor Taylor himself, the E.H. Taylor BTAC bottle will bear his signature, just as it was for every bottle made under his watchful eye.