Review #970 - Evan Williams 8 Year Single Barrel Vintage 2015
While the Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage release from Heaven Hill has seen limited availability in the past, since 2024, it's become more available nationally. This is a single barrel bourbon with a distillation vintage and a reasonable price tag: around $28, which is even cheaper than the $35 it cost when we reviewed another vintage last year. It's made with Heaven Hill's standard mashbill: 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley.
These days, these single barrels are generally bottled at 7 or 8 years old; our bottle today contains bourbon matured for 8 years and 2 months, and it was distilled and barreled back in 2015. Heaven Hill bottles these single barrels at a standard strength of 43.3% ABV (86.6), which is lower than we generally choose to enjoy; however, we found the last version to still carry very nice flavors. So, how does this 2015 Vintage version stack up?
Evan Williams 8 Year Single Barrel Vintage 2015
USA - Bourbon
Price: USD 28 (2026)
Age Statement: 8 Years
Strength: 43.3% ABV
Details: Barrel 446; barreled December 4, 2015; bottled February 29, 2024
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 3 times over 2 years; bottles at 90%, 60%, and 50% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a nosing glass each time, rested 15+ minutes
Nose: Dry oak, brown sugar, and soft caramel; some light nutty notes build, specifically almond. Hints of mint, vanilla, and a cherry skins arrive, and we also get orange peel and a bit of leather. The scents have good density for the strength.
Palate: The mouthfeel is medium-thin; brown sugar, peanut oil, and some almond butter arrive first, but we also find orange juice, cherries, and a bit of wood spice. More spicy notes build: pepper, a hint of licorice, more drying oak. That brown sugar note becomes quite dominant.
Finish: Softer, with baking spices of clove, brown sugar, cinnamon, and dry vanilla. Peanut oil adds to the nutty side again, and we get a subtle tannic bite and some interesting notes of oats and arroz con leche. It's a medium length finish.
Final Note: This is a very solid bourbon with some interesting nuances, and that's pretty impressive considering the price and the proof point. You do get some of those classic notes from modern Heaven Hill distillate: nutty, vanilla, a hint of a red fruit here and there. This bourbon is also nicely balanced, and while it shows a decent peppery oak bite, it never feels over-oaked.
The value here is just amazing - this reinforces what we found on the 2016 Vintage version. We think this is one of the best ways to spend $25 to $30 on bourbon, and we love the nuance that you get with this being a single barrel product. Highly recommended, we think this is a great offering.
Our Rating: 6.4 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 8.37
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
