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This time of year, just about all of the Heaven Hill bourbons are on sale. The Evan Williams Single Barrel is a great example!

Not quite as good as the 1994 expression, but still worthy of purchase.

ima buying, and drinking!

gotta love it!

ima -

Oh Lord, bunghole, quit giving me ideas of something I ort to try. I have the '94 version, ain't that enough? I gots mo whisk(e)y now than I can say 'grace' over. I know, I know, you gone say something like 'a man can't have too much whiskey'!

And, as to the '94 EW, that is a very, very good whiskey!

Well Mike,

It's always a good time to stock up on the outgoing vintage in anticipation of the new 1996 offering.

That way you'll have plenty of 'tasting stock' on hand with which to compare.

The newest vintage always shows up around the end Feb. or early March, and shares shelf space with the last few bottles of last year's release. This makes for easy A-B tastings.

I like to stock up this time of year as the sales are good for a socialist liquor state.

Never, ever, pass up up a chance to drink better bourbon for less!

The only thing better is free pu$$y!

ima

No matter what it tastes like, I think the 1996 EWSB may well be the most special bourbon ever. Think about it: there isn't going to be a 1997 vintage. When Stitzel-Weller closed, or Yellowstone, or Henry McKenna, or Glenmore... they knew ahead of time. But the greatest family-owned and run distillery since the repeal of Prohibition vanished without warning in a ball of fire on November 7th, 1996 and (as Parker and Craig will agree) all the Bernheims in the world won't bring it back. It's gonna be a spooky feeling, knowing that the single barrel my bottle of 1996 Evan Williams came from might have been the very last barrel of bourbon ever distilled at DSP 31. Surviving barrel, that is; the LAST barrels were probably still in the distillery building, ready to be taken to the warehouse in the morning.

It never crossed my mind John, but you're right. This will make these 1996 bottles that much more special to me. Thanks for your insight.
Joe

Tonight I saw a lonely bottle of EWSB 1988 vintage on the shelf with all the 1995's.

I haven't seen anything prior to 1990 dicussed here. Any opionions? How does this one rate against the others? If it is really good I'll go pick it up.

Thanks, Mike

Have any of you guys done blind tasting of any of the EWSB? against any other similar aged products? I've tried the 89, 91, and 94. While they have improved over time, I personally don't get what all the excitement is about. I don't mean to sound negative, that's just my opinion.

John brought up an interesting point. What is going to happen to that very last barrel of bourbon that left the KY DSP-31 distillery before the fire consumed the building. Now, I am sure that Heaven Hill knows exactly which barrel this is and where it is. They had to account for all the losses for the insurance companies and they use a computer system to keep track of all the barrels.

So I was wondering if Heaven Hill has a special use for that barrel? That is, if it already has not been dumped for some nondescript bottom shelf bourbon. Assuming it has not been dumped yet, wouldn't it be nice if it was used for a special bottling of Evan Williams Single Barrel 1996. These bottles could be donated or whatever to all the fire companies that worked the blaze in November of 1996. To distinguish it from all others, they could change the label to something like this. (please refrain from making fun of this artist's rendering. He has no artist ability, he is only a bourbon enthusiast) This is supposed to represent singeing of the label edges. Now I know that one minute after it is donated, at least one bottle would show up on E-Bay, but what are you gonna do? But I think that it would be a grand gesture on the part of Heaven Hill to show some more appreciation to the fire companies that worked that fire.

I suspect that's not going to happen...Heaven Hill hardly even acknowledges the fire these days...but I would hope someone gets to enjoy that final barrel.

Mark