Evan Williams Single Barrel 2002

This Evan Williams is from Barrel no.1049 barreled on 4-11-02 and bottled on 11-21-12.

Nose: Charred barrel, melted caramel and molasses. It's accompanied by some leather note and brown sugar. But, the predominate smell is the barrel char and leather. This Bourbon takes time to open up for the other notes to come through and balance out the leather and barrel.

Taste/Palate: Light body, good heat. Sweet taffy entry, very leathery, oaky, more barrel char, cinnamon, spice, and molasses. Very controlled deliver. Starts sweet and delivers everything the nose promises. Excellent.

Finish: Dry, sticky finish. Medium length finish. Oak predominates, it's peppery, with some leather.

This is a Bourbon that manages to deliver the leathery note on the nose and taste on the palate, in a balanced fashion. Usually I dislike the leather. At times it overpowers a Bourbon. But here, it's excellently balanced with the other smells and flavors. It predominates, but it's never so in control that it swamps the Bourbon. You get a little bit of everything. The leather and barrel char really are fighting to dominate this Bourbon and during their squabble the other flavors and smells are also adding their say. It's an interesting dram.

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