In my time swimming in bourbon, I've split the multiple labels into three categories. There's the high-end ones–your Van Winkles and Willets and Hudsons and other boutique labels that get the hipsters aflutter. Then you got the mainstream ones: Woodford Reserve, Maker's Mark, Bulleit, Angel's Envy and others that middle-class warriors buy when they want to appear in the know.
And then you have the stuff no one boasts of drinking: Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, Cabin Still, Old Crow, and Evan Williams. Of these, Evan Williams is definitely the king of the paupers.
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Not just because of its pedigree (the namesake was reputedly one of Kentucky's first distillers) and owner of a black-and-white label as starkly beautiful as Jack Daniel's, but because it's a damn fine bourbon: sweet, spicy, brilliant. And its smarty-art version, the Evan Williams Single-Barrel Bourbon Vintage? Even better.
The Drink
Hi-Time, of course, has it, and my Mexiclan gave me a bottle for my bachelor's party, but I was able to truly appreciate it when I visited the Evan Williams Experience in Louisville. It has a light feel due to its 86 proof but starts hot and strong. It settles down into a tangy finish and deserves to be drunk neat–definitely not a mixer. Serve it to your friends, see their initial snicker–then laugh as they drink themselves into a merry stupor.
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