Whisky Advocate notably named the first batch of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Rye as their “Whisky of the Year” for 2025, and the newly-released 2026 version is even better. It’s been a powerful last few years for Elijah Craig’s rye mashbill. When the original rye launched in 2020, it was generally well received, as was the Toasted Finish version that debuted in 2024. Barrel proof hit it big, though, debuting in September 2025 and securing a very prestigious first place before the calendar year expired.
That bottle — coded Elijah Craig Barrel Proof A925 — was delicious: fudgy, vanilla-forward, with buttery little hints of toasted orange. It was complex, too, hinting at mint, little pearls of brûléed sugar, and caramel. It’s incredibly well balanced and flavorful, with a perfect dryness. There may be an obvious reason that this bottle performed so well in competition, too. While other high-strength American ryes on the market lean spicy, dark, and full of anise and mint and dill, Elijah Craig’s barrel proof has skewed sweeter and creamier thanks to a mashbill with just 51 percent rye — the bare minimum.
It’s a mashbill that ages well and handles high proof points, making it a perfect fit for barrel-proof releases. It helps to look at the states in comparison. The award-winning 2025 release clocked in at 12 years and 3 months, with a proof of 108. Batch one of 2026 is just 11 years 11 months old, but it brought the thunder with a proof point of 120.4. Numbers aren’t everything, of course, but you’d rightfully expect this second release to be aggressive, hot, mean on the palate, and still a bit rough around the edges — at least in comparison. It may lean less on those baking spices in some subtle ways, but while the proof difference was noticeable, it wasn’t noticeable at the expense of balance.
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Batch A126 showed more grain character, and is slightly more lemon-forward in comparison with the orange-centric citrus of its predecessor. But with rich baking spice flavors, peanut butter, black pepper, and candied cherry, it balances that heat with equivalent depth, and a distinct and lingering finish evokes cinnamon redhots in the most pleasant way. It’s a great bottle, arguably better than the won that won the top spot in December. At $75, it’s also acceptably priced for what it is on paper, and if you like it as much as the critics do, it’s worth stockpiling what you can. But as much as I think you should try and track down these first two batches, you should also keep an eye out for what’s next.
The Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Rye line has the potential to keep getting better from here with each new batch. At the moment, batches of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Rye are scheduled to appear on the same schedule as the bourbon: three a year, in January, May, and September. Heaven Hill is generally pretty great at keeping to a schedule when they announce it, so I suspect we’ll see two more releases, on time, in 2026.
Hopefully, we’ll see at least one HAZMAT-proof (something over 135, ideally), or an age closer to 13 years by the end of 2026. We may even see both, possibly in the same bottle. I’m not a big fan of numbers for the sake of numbers, but as Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Rye builds an identity, seeing the extremes will be exciting, especially when it has skipped the so-called sophomore slump with its second bottle. We’re still figuring out what the limits of this line will be, and so is parent company Heaven Hill, most likely. But the good news is that you and I don’t have to worry about what’s next — at least, not until we run out of stock on these first two releases.
G. Clay Whittaker is a Maxim contributor covering lifestyle, whiskey, cannabis and travel. His work has also appeared in Bon Appetit, Men’s Journal, Cigar Aficionado, Playboy and Esquire. Subscribe to his newsletter Drinks & Stufffor whiskey reviews and trends, perspectives on drinks, and stuff.
