Evan Williams
Bottled-In-Bond
Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Distilled and Bottled at the Old Evan Williams Distillery
DSP KY-1, DSP KY-31 (Heaven Hill)
Review
Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon is one of my favorite “value” bourbons. A high quality, 100 proof, at least 4 year old bourbon from Heaven Hill for around $15. that’s a tough one to beat!
Evan Williams Bourbon is the second best selling bourbon in the US and the world. How about that?! But do you know why Heaven Hill named this line of bourbons after Evan Williams? He actually had nothing to do with Heaven Hill, or this bourbon. So who was he? Well, Evan Williams was born in Wales in 1755 and emigrated to the US in 1780. In 1783, he founded Kentucky’s first commercial distillery and therefore was Kentucky’s first licensed distiller. So this line of bourbons is named in his honor.
All Evan Williams bourbons are made from Heaven Hill’s standard bourbon mash bill: 78% corn, 10% rye and 12% malted barley, and they are aged in char level 3 barrels. This is presumably the same mash bill and barrels used for JW Dant and JTS Brown BiB, two other value BiB bourbons that I posted about last week, as they are also made by Heaven Hill.
In addition to this BiB, the other Evan Williams Bourbons are: Evan Williams Bourbon 86 proof (Black Label), Evan Williams 1783 Small Batch (90 proof), Evan Williams Single Barrel, a few flavored bourbons, a cider and an Egg Nog. There are also a few other bourbons that may be available in the gift shop, such as Evan Williams 23 Years Old and Evan Williams Red Label (101 proof, 12 years old). Evan Williams Green Label (80 proof) may be available regionally. That’s a pretty large bourbon line up!
Tasting Notes
Let’s taste it:
🛏 Rested for 20 minutes in a Glencairn
👉🏻Nose: Caramel, vanilla, rye spices, jam, cedar, with moderate alcohol
👉🏻Taste: Sweet black tea, char, oak, jam
👉🏻Finish: Some sweet black tea remains, but a fair amount of char, dryness and alcohol build into the finish, which is fairly long with a moderate alcohol burn. Strawberry jam and some sweetness lingers.
Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon has the classic bourbon flavors, although with a fair amount of sweetness. For around 15 bucks in Kentucky, it is another value bottled in bond bourbon that is also worth a try. Have you had this bourbon? What do you think? Cheers!🥃
Want to read about another Evan Williams bourbon? Check out our Evan Williams Square 6 Bourbon review!
Would you like to learn more about distilleries and bourbon? Are you planning a trip to Kentucky Distilleries? Maybe you would like to live the bourbon life vicariously through us?🙂 If any of these are true, then check out BourbonObsessed.com today!