Tastings: Evan Williams Black 86 proof

I'm fairly positive Evan Williams is another bourbon I drank on occasion many years ago when mobile phones were still science fiction and the internet was a kind of secret military thing.  I'm also fairly certain I only drank it when it was mixed with a cola of some kind.  It still makes me a little sad that I missed all those nuances that bourbon's really all about by diluting it with something other than water or ice but, as I think of it, a bourbon and coke at a football game was pretty righteous at the time.  I am thankful, however, that with the inescapable passage of time, I've acquired some wisdom as it applies to the enjoyment of one of man's best endeavors.

My last tasting of the 86 proof wonder from Heaven Hill's stable of whiskeys was last night, a sharp cold night in the twenties.  Prior to last night's tasting, my last sampling of E.W. was at a crowded bar in Lexington last fall and it was a completely different tasting experience.  I'm becoming more and more convinced that the environment and maybe time of year in which whiskey or whisky is imbibed has a direct impact on its taste.

The drink I had in Lexington has a very earthy undertone I hadn't noticed before in Evan Williams and it was also missing in the sample I had last night as well.  Both drinks were excellent examples of an excellent bourbon but, they were definitely different.   Now the variables should be minimal because I drank both neat but, I don't remember how similar other things like what and when I had eaten before drinking.  In the future I'm going to have a more controlled lead up to drinking (like having a couple of crackers ten minutes before sampling) to see what impact different seasons of the year and different environments have on the bourbons I drink.  I'd have to think that a bourbon like Evan Williams would be a good one to use because it's been made for a long time in large quantities with the goal of uniformity.

Looks like I've got a lot of work to do.  I'll keep you updated on my progress.