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Some good friends were visiting from OH and brought a gift of a bottle Evan Williams Single Barrel 2002 Vintage. (These are good friends.) I hadn't had it before, and was really taken at how terrific it tasted. A few weeks later, and half the bottle had evaporated from just my wife and I.
I know there was a previous (closed) thread on the Evan Williams Single Barrel from, I think, the 1999 Vintage . I was wondering how the the two different years compare? Thanks.
For some reason the 2002 expression stands out in my mind, I want to say it was good.
Without dealing in absolutes, the general consensus is that 2000 was the best of the recent years.
Oddly enough, I visited my local store recently and they received a new shipment of the 2000. They had 2001 and 2002 in recent visits so it must have been random deadstock from the distributor.
If you guys see the 2003, pick it up. It's pretty darn good, imho.
Come to think of it I don't recall if 2002 was the year it was bottled or the year I bought it. One of the advantages of age is you can blame any mis-speak on a senior moment.
I have a bottle of the 2002 that I like quite a bit. If I remember correctly it's rich with a sort of sweetness similar to rum rasins. Definitely worth $25.00 or so.
The thing about single barrel offerings is that they can differ quite a bit between bottles within the same vintage even. The 2000 bottles I had from a barrel chosen by a private retailer were hands down my favorite. I had a '99 from the same retailer, and it literally tasted like a fist full of wheatgrass. The '02 was quite good, actually. Not as nuanced as the '00, but more delicately balanced than the '01.
I think the general consensus you will find is that the EWSB is a great value pour. I can't say I've had a bad bottle yet. Some are more complex than others but I've found them all to be enjoyable pours.
2000 stands out in my mind as one of the best, but I've got a 99 open right now that is just fun and easy going. Go ahead and grab a few and grab different barrels and enjoy them all.
The critical backstory on the current run of EWSBVs is the evolution of HH's whiskey-making at Bernheim. They took over the distillery in 1999, but they tell me there are few if any Bernheim barrels in the 1999 release, so 2000 is the first chance to taste Bernheim whiskey made there by the Beams, but 2000 was the year they made a lot of changes. We can look at 2001 as them settling into making the bourbon their way. The 2002 and upcoming 2003 are a continuation of that.
It shows in the whiskey, as they have gotten progressively better overall. If you like certain flavors, you might disagree. By 'better' I mean fuller, richer, and more balanced.
Buffalo Trace has its 'Holy Grail.' Heaven Hill merely aspires to make the best bourbon they can and the best examples of what they consider their best effort go into EWSBV.
I've had 2001, 2002, and 2003 in heavy rotation for the last couple weeks, upon which I base the conclusions above. The wild card, of course, is that being single barrels, some barrels age out better than others. Which means you need to try several bottles from each vintage. Oh well.
Tough work I know but the job has to be done.