Well, here we are again. Once again we’ve nearly made it to the end of the Bottom-Shelf Brackets competition. I hope everyone was playing along. And if not, that you’ve had enough of these to play along in your mind. It really is a fun exercise each year to sit down and pit inexpensive bourbons against each other. I say inexpensive instead of “bad” because there isn’t one of these that will be dumped out when this is done. I will use every one in some way or another. Either neat on its own, in a cocktail, or even as the base of a blend. They are all good bourbons, some are just better than others in my opinion. You’re welcome to form your own opinions as to whether I’m right.
But anyway, let’s get on to round two and see who advances. Both of these matchups feature a 1-seed versus a 2-seed. There haven’t been any upsets so far. Let’s see if that continues.
Round 2a: Whiskey 1 (Ezra Brooks) vs. Whiskey 2 (Evan Williams)
Thoughts: Very similar on the nose. Both are decent on the mouth. Vibrant cinnamon spice in each. The finish of #1 shows peanut where #2 Shows a zesty spice. #2 wins on the strength of a nicer and tastier finish.
Round 2b: Whiskey 1 (Very Old Barton) vs. Whiskey 2 (Wild Turkey)
Thoughts: Once again the nose on each of these is similar with only slight differences to delicate notes. So the nose is a push. #1 has a nice mouthfeel with citrusy notes to go with the spicy notes. #2 was a little thin at first with a blossom of flavor after a few seconds in the mouth. Lots of baking spice notes in that blossoming. The finish is nice on both this time. I think I need to go with #2, but it is really close.
I’m not going to lie, I was very surprised to find out that Wild Turkey and Evan Wiliams won their rounds. As I stated above, we hadn’t had an upset yet and it was surprising to find not one, but two when all of the names were revealed at the end. I was especially surprised that the lower proof entry won each time.
Let’s see who our winner is.
Championship Round: Whiskey 1 (Evan Williams) vs. Whiskey 2 (Wild Turkey)
Whiskey #1: Mint, cinnamon, citrus zest. Not too hot, but not bland. Tasty finish.
Whiskey #2: Sweeter. Brown sugar, baking spices. Spicier but a little rough in its spice by comparison.
Winner: #1 wins this one. Once again very close but #1 has a touch more complexity.
If you could have seen my face as we revealed which alphanumeric code was which bourbon, you wold have laughed. I went into this fully expecting Very Old Barton to win. I mean it had won previously, right? The fact that it didn’t even make it out of Round 2 caused my jaw to drop. And it dropped even further when I saw it had been beaten by one that I said probably wouldn’t win against stiffer competition just the round prior.
But the biggest shock of all was Evan Williams winning it all. I know that a lot of you saw that coming. But I certainly didn’t. Which is weird since I know that Evan Williams is good bourbon. Due to the nature of the need for content on the site, I almost never buy it. But it is good stuff. And super inexpensive as well. It just goes to show that even those of us who have been tasting bourbon for a lot of years have our biases and preconceived notions.
And to be honest, it is fitting that Evan Williams won. I started this series of posts talking about “Finding Joy in the Ordinary.” And Evan Williams could be the patron saint of ordinary bourbon. Notice I said ordinary, not bad, bourbon. Evan Williams is good, plentiful, inexpensive and available in multiple styles and proof levels. I couldn’t have planned a more thematically accurate winner. I think that’s pretty cool.
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