Henry McKenna Straight Bourbon

NOSE: Alcohol, brassy vanilla, grass, honey, scorched grain, something musty, butterscotch. MOUTHFEEL: Slightly creamy. TASTY: Caramel, dusty honey, butter, brown sugar. FINISH: Short, with grass, faint oak, and alcohol. This isn't the worst bourbon I've ever had, but I'll not buy it again. It's merely mediocre.

Rating: 11/23 N: Lots of limestone minerality. It's a light nose that gives me a watery vibe. I'm getting plenty of barrel spice as well, with some light, musty corn. Hints of tangerine. It's a pretty boring, watery nose. Not bad, but definitely bottom shelf stuff. P: Watery with minerals. It's thin, but there's some nice corn sweetness turning into just slightly undercooked caramel with interesting herbaceous flavors that aren't overly bitter. There's a nice amount of barrel spice that doesn't take over nearly as much as I'd expected. Ginger, cinnamon, clove. It's actually a fairly sweet palate and is easy to drink, but there's some spicy heat from the barrel spices. Oh, there is quite a vanilla presence in here. It's nice. It doesn't take over too much and fits in naturally with the wood. F: Lingering sweet corn dipped in light caramel with faint herbaceous complexities. The barrel spices pop in from time to time, but mostly show up as a nice tingling. A lingering layer of thin vanilla sits underneath it all. - Conclusion - There's actually a lot to like here. I'm getting some good complexity with no bitter flavors from over-aging or weird vegetal or chemical flavors from under-aging. This certainly isn't your mature, contemplative dram, but it's fairly complex and quite approachable. The spices are a bit hot for the 40% ABV, but the level is just about right. The problem is that the rest of this is thinner. Maybe they were right to water this down to 40% ABV so the spices don't take over. This might be a bit too expensive to be a cheap mixer and a bit too mellow to be a more expensive one, but it's really not bad. No shame keeping this one around. Evan Williams Bottled In Bond (/23) is bolder and fuller with more peanut flavor, but also a lot more ethanol and burn. This is more approachable and easy sipping, as well as more complex. They're pretty close in quality though. I might lean toward a higher rating for this, but I'd probably re-buy the Evan Williams because most likely it's better for mixing and I'm not drinking booze neat if it isn't at least good (unless I'm working on a review). Evan Williams 1783 (11/23) is more mature with nice sweet vanilla, toffee sweetness and wood. I think that the Evan Williams 1783 is the clear winner here. I might have it rated a bit low at 11/23. This is going to be a 10 or 11. The big question is whether the good points of the Evan Williams Bottled In Bond outweigh its bad points to make it better than this. I'm thinking that this is an 11.

I love Heaven hill products! This one is so budget friendly and such a great everyday sipper/mixer! Enjoy

Color: pale gold Smell: vanilla, caramel, smokey Taste: ok, smooth, weak, no heat Cheap bourbon

Unrefined, unbalanced

Scent: sweet, caramel Taste: smooth, vanilla, oak, oily, late bite, lingering burn

Great for the price. 19.80 for a bottle with handle. Whisky of choice lately.