Heaven Hill 17 Year Heritage Collection Barrel Proof Bourbon (Spring 2022)

Charred cherry and the finest aged leather. Daaaammnnn smooth.

Banana bread, brown butter, apple, long finish

My favorite

Damn near perfect. I personally only have limited exposure to the btac and pappy line, but from that experience I would say this goes toe to toe with all the variants I've tried. The only bottle I have tried that it doesn't beat is a 18 WLW, but it's close.

This is what EC18 should be. Very similar, but much more balanced and not as oak-heavy. There's a lot of oak and tobacco up front but it's well done with a nice balance of just a touch of all spice and vanilla. The oily mouthfeel and finish is where it really shines for me- where the EC18 just got woodier, this continued to evolve for a long time. I'm not into oaky flavor profiles- but this is a perfect balance between the proof, oak, and sweeter flavors trying to peek through. This is a wonderfully balanced bourbon and if you like oak, this is the perfect pour-- it loses points for the price and secondary hype for me. Between this, ec18, and kc18- the KC18 wins hands down (despite also being overpriced to me).

Nothing but bitterness and oak, very disappointing