Here we go! Let’s get down to the competitions. I hope that you guys are as excited by this as I am. Round 1 of the 2022 BourbonGuy.com Bottom-Shelf Brackets opens with Division 2 Number 1 seed Evan Williams 1783 versus Number 4 seed Winchester.
These are two newcomers to the contest, at least in their current forms. Evan Williams 1783 recently went through a reformulation that gave it a proof bump. And for its opponent, well, I’ve never allowed a TerrePURE product in previously. In fact, I almost disqualified Winchester right up to the moment of our tasting because of the TerrePURE process. But then, I remembered that TerrePURE claimed early on that they were not trying to make high-end bourbons, but were instead looking to compete with budget whiskeys. In that case, then there was no contest they belong in more.
So, first up is the small-batch version of the number two selling bourbon in the country. Looking good in its svelte new outfit, and competing under the name Quark Juggler, we have Evan Williams 1783!
And their opponent is a collaboration between Total Wine and TerrePURE. Aged for two years before being subjected to fancy scientific processes, please welcome Winchester Bourbon!
All of the competitions this year were tasted blind and we knew the winner of the competition prior to any reveal. Notes, thoughts, and conclusions were all from before we knew what was what. Needless to say, some of my conclusions were surprising to me. Tasting notes may be a little unusual since they were being tasted at the same time and could have influenced the perceptions of one another.
Quark Juggler (Evan Williams 1783)
Purchase Info: $29.99 for a 1.75-liter bottle, MGM Wine & Spirits, Burnsville, MN
Price Per Drink (50 mL): $0.86
Details: 45% ABV.
Nose: Mint, orange, cinnamon, and a dusty note.
Mouth: Cinnamon candies, oak, and honey.
Finish: Warm and of medium length. Notes of oak and cinnamon.
Thoughts: Warm with lots of spicy baking spices. Tasty.
Horse Jacket (Winchester)
Purchase Info: $34.97 for a 1.75-liter bottle, MGM Wine & Spirits, Burnsville, MN
Price Per Drink (50 mL): $1.00
Details: 45% ABV. Aged 2 years.
Nose: Wintergreen, caramel, vanilla, and almond.
Mouth: Smokey brown sugar and wintergreen.
Finish: Robust and kinda bitter. Very perfumey.
Thoughts: It's a minty bourbon. some people love those, some hate them. I'm mostly ok with them. This one however just feels off somehow. It's as if all the pieces for a tasty bourbon are there, they were just put together in the wrong order.
Winner: I feel like this had the opportunity to be a very close matchup. Because there is so much inconsistency at the lowest end of the price scale, we often get a powerfully flavored 90° proof versus an 80° proof that is thin and watery. But not here. Both of these were full-flavored, robust bourbons. The problem was in the nature of that robust flavor. Horse Junkie was so minty that it felt just weird in the mouth. Very reminiscent of Pepto-Bismol. Just way too overpowering on the wintergreen note.
Quark Juggler doesn't so much win this as Horse Jacket loses it. Quark Juggler or Evan Williams 1783 is advancing to round 2.
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