I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing this review sample with no strings attached.
I’ve been having a rare string of good luck when it comes to timing lately. I recently upgraded my tired 2015 MacBook Pro to one of the colorful new iMacs. In the process, I got a much larger internal hard drive, allowing me to free up an external hard drive. Not 30 minutes after that external drive was reformatted and freed up for use, I got a notification that my aging backup drive had just failed. I'll never be happy a drive failed, but the timing of that failure saved me days of waiting for an Amazon shipment to bring me a new hard drive. I’d been planning to fill the newly free drive with the contents of a different rickety old hard drive and usually, I’d have had the failure right after I’d spent hours copying that data over.
And the other example of my good timing is exemplified by tonight’s bourbon review. Quite a while ago, I got a reader request for an If You’ve Had… post centered around the various forms of Evan Williams. I started planning this post back in December, but one thing led to another and I finally had it scheduled to be published this week.
Well, until this bottle of Evan Williams 1783 arrived on my doorstep from Heaven Hill. At first, I was pleased because I’d get updated packaging for the article’s photo. But then, as I read the press release, I noticed that the revamping extended to the whiskey inside the bottle as well. What used to be 86° proof was now 90° proof. I like seeing proof bumps for low-proof whiskeys so I figured a full review was in order. Especially since I haven’t done a full review on the expression since 2013.
Evan Williams 1783 Small Batch Bourbon, 90 proof
Purchase Info: This bottle was supplied by the distillery for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $19.99 for a 750 mL bottle.
Price per Drink (50ml): $1.33
Details: 45% ABV.
Nose: Like the smell of the Angel's Share in a rick house. There is wood, caramel, vanilla, and nutmeg.
Mouth: Sweet and bursting with baking spices. Strong cinnamon and nutmeg notes hit first, followed by caramel, tangy fruit, and oak.
Finish: Medium length and warmth. Lingering notes of cinnamon candies, oak, and mint.
Comparison with the 86° proof it replaced: The 86° proof version shows a few more dried grain notes on the nose. The mouth is thinner on the 86° proof version and once again shows more grain at that dilution level.
Thoughts: This is a better bourbon at 90° proof than it was at 86° proof. The added dilution of the previous 86° proof (small as it is) really seems to have dropped the richness of the bourbon. The 90° proof is brighter and richer in flavor and shows much less grain in the mouth.
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