I've seen this recommended as an alternative to Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond, the seemingly untouchable value champion in bourbon. So I gave it a try. To my tastes it's not as quite good as the bonded, but it is good. It's kind of hard for me to compare one bourbon to another because so much of the flavor is the same, and maybe that's even more the case here considering these come from the same distillery. But here goes. The nose has charred wood, vanilla, a bit of cinnamon, and some brown sugar. The taste is relatively gentle, with honey and vanilla along with more char. Maybe like burnt toast with honey spread on it? Cinnamon comes in toward the end and lingers through the long-lasting finish. I guess the main things I notice here compared to the bonded is that this is softer, subtler, and has more charred-wood notes. Its sweetness is also different, with more of a lighter honey dimension and less of the darker brown sugar type notes. I may just be talking nonsense here because it's hard for me to put my finger on the differences, but one way or another they do taste different and personally I prefer the bottled-in-bond to this. At $19 this is a few bucks more than the bonded, but still a good value. It's really just a matter of preference probably. But as for me I'll probably stick with the bonded.