Comments on: Review: Evan Williams Single Barrel Bourbon 2000 Vintage

By: Review: Evan Williams Single Barrel Bourbon 2002 Vintage | Drinkhacker.com

Review: Evan Williams Single Barrel Bourbon 2002 Vintage | Drinkhacker.com — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 03:36:33 +0000

[...] side by side, the 1999 is a bit on the thin side and slightly bitter, then comes the near-perfect 2000, with its amazing balance. 2001 pushes the wood character a bit further, and 2002 continues that [...]

By: Drinkhacker’s 2009 Holiday Gift Guide – Best Alcohol/Spirits for Christmas » Drinkhacker.com

Fri, 06 May 2011 03:13:21 +0000

[...] that will impress your giftee until he's three sheets to the wind. More affordable choices include Evan Williams Single Barrel 2000 Edition, a complete steal at $26, or the always-good George T. Stagg limited edition bourbon; the 2009 is a [...]

By: cange

cange — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 01:55:50 +0000

Best. Bourbon. Ever. If you see this at your liquor store, do not leave without it. I don’t care what you have to do. Do stuff you haven’t done since college. Or pay money for it and make the transaction legitimate. Seriously, if you like bourbon, this will make you about half as happy as celebrating the birth of your first child. That’s still pretty good!

By: Kristian

Kristian — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:28:59 +0000

I bought bottle #481 on a whim and was extremely impressed. Strong hints of butterscotch on the nose, very smooth on the palate, with a mellow spiciness in the finish. I was very pleased to say the least.

Went back to the liquor store and bought bottle #444. Unimpressive. very harsh as other people have mentioned previously. Still hints of vanilla and caramel, but only vague traces accompanied by a strong and overbearing presence of alcohol harshness.

I guess this was an interesting experience for me–experiencing the possible differences between barrels of the same vintage.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 20:17:52 +0000

I just tried a bottle with the following “specs”:
Barreled on: 8-14-00
Barrel No. 339
Bottled on 1-29-10
This is a wonderfully smooth bourbon. No bitterness at all. Sweet, woody aroma. Goes down very easy with no unpleasant aftertaste.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 04:37:34 +0000

My experience was similar to Jon’s. I just got a bottle of the 2000 Single Barrel from my local BevMo, and after tasting it, I’m disappointed. All of the honey, vanilla, caramel, and citrus-y flavors are there, but so is a harsh bitterness, which I find unpleasant. There’s also a weird background flavor, sort of like the ester-y smell of rotting oranges, sort of like turpentine. Granted, it’s a mild undercurrent, but enough the throw the balance of this bourbon way off for me; my palate gets tricked into expecting sweet and floral flavors, only to be fooled by the spirit’s actual astringency and bitterness.

Not bad stuff, but not that good, either.

Chris, if you get a chance to sample from other bottles (or barrels, as it were), would you let us know if any of your thoughts have changed? I’m curious to know if Barrel no. 1 is an anomaly.

The “specs” on my bottle:
Barreled: 3/30/09
Barrel no. 132
Bottled: 11/10/09

By: Jon

Jon — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:06:52 +0000

As a college student, Evan Williams black label has become my fallback for bourbon, at only $23 for 1.75L it’s affordable and delicious. However, I did try a bottle of the single barrel and it really didn’t seem that much better to me.

My question for you is, have you gone to a liquor store and picked up a bottle, that presumably didn’t come from barrel #1? It seems to me that barrel #1 was bottled up and only sent out to bloggers who all gave it awesome reviews, but what I have not seen is a review of some other barrel and how it holds up to barrel #1.