I read a very good book, Heather Greene’s Whiskey Distilled, which convinced me that I had gotten unnecessarily hoity-toity about my whiskey too quickly. My thought was “if there’s good whiskey and bad whiskey and average whiskey, why not only drink good whiskey?” This reasoning seems sound, until I consider that many distilleries have their own unique processes not duplicated anywhere and though reviews may not be kind, a unique experience may nevertheless be afoot in giving some of them a chance. I decided to set my biases aside, buy small bottles of the original or core offerings from several bourbon brands and give them a try. I did this in 2 flights: 1. See first of all if I could distinguish between very cheap, poorly reviewed bourbon (Jim Beam original), well reviewed but inexpensive bourbon (Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage) and high end bourbon (Elijah Craig Small Batch Barrel Proof). I started by diluting the ECraig down to roughly the same ABV as the others. 2. Compare 4 similarly priced and similarly reviewed core offerings from different distilleries, all Kentucky Straight Bourbons. These included: Bulleit, Knob Creek, Woodford Reserve, and Maker’s Mark. First I’ll review the first flight: I nosed and tasted all three first and made notes, but did 2 blind tastings, noting my guess after both nosing and tasting and comparing those guesses to reality. I was gratified to find I nailed all three in both blind tastings. Here’s my conclusions: 1. Jim Beam, objectively (meaning blindly considered) is bottled shit. The nose is weak and vaguely like sweet lacquer. A second nosing produced an unpleasant apple soap aroma. The taste isn’t terrible, like cinnamon candies (the discs, not the intense Atomic Fireballs), and there’s slight cinnamon on the finish, which is gone in like 3 seconds. 1 Star. 2. Evan Williams Single Barrel is very good bourbon, especially for the price of $27. Prominent butterscotch, with vanilla and hazelnut on the nose, cinnamon and clove join the mix when you sip. Cinnamon persists on the medium to long finish with a hint of oak. 4 stars. 3. The Barrel Proof Elijah Craig is beautiful. There were notes I’ve never noticed before, perhaps teased out by the other bourbons. Egg nog and butter brickle graced the nose and continued into the palate, where cinnamon joined the sweet harmony. The notes lingered in a long warm finish. 4.5 stars.