BOTM, Yavapai County-Style

[bluesbassdad]

I'm planning to have my weekly drink sometime today, and I'd hoped that I might make it the December BOTM, if I happen to have it on hand.

However, there has been no announcement this month, and now I'm toying with the idea of opening my latest "rare find" here in the high desert of central Arizona. It's a 200 ml. bottle of Heaven Hill, an 80 proof, Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey.

I had intended to open it while my son was here as part of a demonstration on the effect age has on bourbon. The other bottlings would have been Evan Williams Single Barrel, Henry McKenna Single Barrel, Elijah Craig 12 y/o and Elijah Craig 18 y/o.

My disappointment that we never got around to it was compounded when I discovered that I still have a bottle of Evan Williams (NAS), which would have served equally well as an example of minimum aging.

Now I'm wondering whether I will taste any difference between the two bottlings. Maybe I'll splurge and have two drinks.

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

[cowdery]

Heaven Hill is still advertising that Evan Williams is aged "longer," even though they no longer say how long "longer" is. Unless they are flat-out lying, which is unthinkable, Evan Williams must still be significantly older than Heaven Hill. Even if it's not still seven years old, it has to be five or six at least, assuming "longer" means "longer" than the standard 4-year-old, which is what I assume the Heaven Hill is. Since Evan is their flagship, you also assume they're using the most mature (for its age) whiskey they have for Evan, meaning HH would get some that is not quite as mature.

So the Evan should taste a little more mature than the HH and it would be an interesting test.

[TBoner]

I seem to remember a post here about someone getting an e-mail from HH to the effect that EW Black is about 5 years old now...I'll see if I can dig it up.

EDIT: Here's the post.

It appears that, at least per the e-mail Jeff received, there is only a small amount of 5-yo bourbon mixed in, with the remainder 7 years old.

[cowdery]

My point was that it is fair to assume that EW black label, while less than 7 years old now, remains significantly older than a NAS Heaven Hill, which is probably right at 4-years-old.

[TBoner]

Right. I was just following up on how much older it is, exactly.

I think, Dave, that you should be able to use it as Chuck suggested: an interesting midpoint between the very young HH and the older expressions you mentioned.