I seem to have this problem with single barrel whiskeys, they seem thin to me. I’ve talked about it before, here and in the online bourbon forums. If a bourbon is taken from a single barrel it tends to be incomplete. I think small batch is a much better way to go if you are looking for a great bourbon that has an overall complete flavor profile. See what Small batch does is they take anywhere from 40 to 80 barrels, typically from the sweet spots in the rickhouses and blend them together prior to bottling. This ends up filling out the bourbons and making them more flavorful. See this way if one barrel imparts a very sweet flavor, and another a lot of spice, and a third a longer finish, and a fourth a great heat, when you belnd them together you are essentially getting all the great qualities of each of those barrels.
What happens when you drink a single barrel bourbon, you take a gamble. See somewhere out there is that elusive “Honey Barrel”, and that is what bourbon drinkers are searching for when they take a chance on single barrel bourbons. Well, I thought I had it nailed, a sure thing with my latest bottle of Evan Williams Single Barrel…
As you can see this Bourbon was almost 10 years old, so it was nicely aged, and it was from Barrel number 7! That is right lucky number seven, I though what are the odds that I would get a bottle from barrel number seven. I even looked at the other bottles on the shelf, and the were both from barrel number 41. What is lucky about the number 41? Nothing. So I had to get this one, I thought based on Vegas odds this was a shoe in. If the Liquor store had the lotto machines I would have picked up a powerball ticket I was that sure of this bottle.
As you can see the color was great, a rich deep golden hue that I was so greatly anticipating. The time was right, and I cracked the wax seal and poured a glass of this 86.6 proof or 43.3% ABV bourbon.
The nose on this bourbon was very promising. It was a combination of apples, pears, and cherries, with a mild oakiness and just a touch of alcohol.
As I swirled this around my glass it had a great legginess to it, with lots of the little translucent drips falling back into the glass from the wet sides.
Then I took a sip, and it had a very nice flavor. Sweet with pears and apples up front with a good kinda slick mouthfeel and some cherries and a little bit of caramel from the barrel char bringing up the rear.
The finish was decent and could be felt around mid chest for around 30 seconds, but where was the burn? There wasn’t any! I kept sipping expecting that there would be a glimmer of beautiful burn that all us bourbon drinkers long for, and it never appeared!
Well lets do a quick review anyway.
Neat
Good flavor Blah blah…No Burn!
On the Rocks
This actually brought out more of a pronounced finish which was surprising to me as ice usually tames the beast, this one flared up a little when cooled.
With a Splash
It was good, but it was a little like drinking a bourbon flavored Kool Aid. It opened up the barrel notes with a more caramelly flavor which was great, unfortunately this barrel missed a very critical element in the overall bourbon experience which left me a little jaded and somewhat frustrated with the whole Single Barrel concept.
-Don
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
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[…] that other bourbons had. It seemed incomplete. The last Single Barrel Bourbon I reviewed was Evan Williams Single Barrel. This is an 86.6 proof bourbon that I thought had serious flaws. It was missing large spectrums […]