The expert review ranking of 96 here strikes me as hyperbolic. If it wasn't a single barrel, I'd even go so far as to say that ranking is absurd, but I'm not drinking from the same trough as the expert reviewer here, so I'll try to show some humility. Maybe an excellent single barrel of this is worth a 96? As is, I think I got a very good barrel. If I was ranking by the expert metric here, I'd be tempted to go 88. Thing about this is, Evan Williams Single Barrel, at least my bottle, represents everything you'd want from a bourbon. There's a good balance on the nose of oak and sweetness, leather and vanilla, spicy cinnamon and cotton candy, and what follows on the tongue is much of the same with maybe a bit of milk chocolate and cherry pie thrown in. You get a decent finish, and overall, it's about as complex as you're going to get from a $30 bourbon. Truth be told, if you offered me this or Eagle Rare, I might go 50/50 on it, half the time choosing Eagle and half the time choosing this. Of course, the question then becomes, is this really so much better than other $30 bourbons like Knob or Elijah Craig or even Wild Turkey 101 that are more widely available? Are we elevating the Evan Williams Single Barrel because of its relative scarcity and single barrel credentials? Well, we likely always elevate something we can't get our hands on as easily, and it's probably better than Wild Turkey 101 and Elijah. I've always had a soft spot for Knob, especially now that it's back to having an age statement. But Evan Williams, being a single barrel and being more difficult to come by, feels like more of an occasion bottle. But then, sipping it, you also can't help but wonder, what would this taste like at a higher proof, and the answer I come by is that it would actually probably taste more like Old Tub. In the end, you can't help but feel that a higher proof would benefit this whisky, and having tasted Evan Williams 1789, you get the sense that, while the single barrel is more interesting, the higher proof with the 1789 gives the umph you're looking for with this for $10 less. In the end, this is the best Evan Williams I've had, but with the availability of 1789, the new proofs of 90, and the fact that it's $10 less, that's the one I'm likely turning to more often. And the comparison between that and this makes me glad that 1789 exists and that they've tuned it up as well as they have. Still, if I see this out there, I'm buying it, and I'm enjoying it. Is it a 96? Hell no. But it's a damn fine lower proof lower price option. So even if I disagree, I can maybe see where the expert is coming from.