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Evan Williams Single Barrel

fruity spicy
3.5
(20)€41United States, Kentucky, Bourbon

Flavours

Whisky character

Fresh
Warm
Mild
Full
Smooth
Spicy

Taste mentions

Facts

Every bottle carries three details you rarely see on a bourbon label. The year the spirit went into oak. The year it was bottled. The serial number of the single barrel, written out by hand. Heaven Hill built the range that way on purpose. Barrels rest in open rick warehouses through the Kentucky seasons, and no two come out alike. Parker and Craig Beam picked the ones that hit the mark. Expect dark caramel and charred wood, then cinnamon and pepper, with apple and orange behind. Roughly seven to eight years in wood, bottled at 86.6 proof.

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About the distillery

Distillery

Evan Williams

In 1783, a Welsh immigrant opened what is remembered as Kentucky's first commercial distillery, on the banks of the Ohio River in Louisville. His name was Evan Williams, and he was a busy figure in the young town. He served as an early city trustee and as Louisville's wharf master. The bourbon that carries his name today is a different story. Heaven Hill launched the brand in 1957 and now distills it in Bardstown, Kentucky, just blocks from where Williams once worked. It has grown into one of the best selling Kentucky straight bourbons in the world. In 2013, Heaven Hill brought whisky making back to Louisville's Whisky Row. The Evan Williams Bourbon Experience opened on West Main Street with a working pot still and a five story bottle on its facade. It became the first stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail inside the city itself.

3.4Average rating

12Whiskies on Distilld

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About the Evan Williams Single Barrel

Evan Williams Single Barrel is a vintage-dated bourbon from Kentucky, produced by Heaven Hill. Each release comes from one cask rather than a blend of hundreds. That makes it a rarity in a category built on batching. The label carries the year the spirit went into oak. Next to it sit the bottling year and the barrel's own serial number. Most bourbon hides all of that. Here it is the whole point. The barrels mature in natural open rick warehouses, stacked high and left to the Kentucky weather. Heat drives spirit into the charred oak, cold pulls it back out again. Parker and Craig Beam oversaw the range as sixth generation master distillers, a father and son working together. They tracked each vintage as it aged in wood. Their job was to keep one year's character close to the year before. Dark caramel leads on the nose, backed by sweet oak and charred wood. Brown sugar sits underneath. The palate turns spicy quickly, with cinnamon and black pepper up front. Apple and orange lift it, and a little cherry follows behind them. At 43.3% the spirit runs warm rather than heavy. The finish is long and unhurried, oak and pepper fading out without any rough edge. The standard bottling is blended for consistency and a keen price. Evan Williams Single Barrel goes the other way entirely. Distillers hand-pick barrels against a set specification, then bottle them at 86.6 proof. Two vintages will never taste quite the same, and that is deliberate. You are buying the work of one cask, not an average of many. The number on the label tells you exactly which one.