Editor’s Note: This whiskey was provided to us as a review sample by the party behind it. This in no way, per our editorial policies, influenced the final outcome of this review.
Heaven Hill’s portfolio of whiskeys is impressive. Really. Check the link – it’s basically a list of bourbons that are worth your time. I have to imagine that I’m not alone among whiskey enthusiasts who continue to have a soft spot for Evan Williams in particular, even among this impressive array of premium brands.
It was a revelation to me at 22 years old that I could comfortably afford a bottle of whiskey that tasted good, and that accessibility in both price and flavor of the standard Evan Williams Bourbon was instrumental in the shaky first steps of developing a taste for whiskey.
All that’s to say, you wouldn’t have to twist my arm to get me to visit the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, a stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in downtown Louisville, near the original location where Welsh immigrant Evan Williams opened his distillery. The Bourbon Experience offers tastings and tours featuring a working copper pot still that produces a single barrel daily. After years spent maturing, the whiskey produced at the Bourbon Experience is being made available as Evan Williams Square 6. They explain it much better than I would:
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“Square 6 pays homage to the original plot of land that housed Kentucky’s first commercial distillery, on part of which the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience sits. Since the building of the craft distillery, Heaven Hill has been patiently waiting as the barrels quietly age to maturation. During this aging process, a team of master tasters samples each recipe at various stages until that specific mash bill has been deemed to have achieved a taste profile worthy of bottling”.
Fall of 2022 marked the second release of whiskey produced from the barrels distilled daily at the Bourbon Experience’s pot still and features a mash bill of 63% rye, 23% corn and 13% malted barley that makes the previous High Rye Bourbon (52% corn, 35% rye and 13% malted barley) look downright moderate. The displacement of corn in the mash bill means that this bottle cannot be classified as a bourbon, and really this high rye, copper-pot still juice is sort of a genre-bender.
Tasting Notes: Square 6 High Rye Whiskey
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Vital Stats: No age statement given, 95 proof, $90 MSRP
Appearance: Light body, noticeable clarity, and a mild red hue giving the pour an amber or copper color.
Nose: Strongly bread-y aromas. A mild tingle of rye spice combines with a noticeable but not unpleasant hint of ethanol adding up to buttered corn bread alongside yeasty, rising bread dough.
Palate: Slightly oily mouthfeel. The impression of unbaked bread dough persists but now within a slight oak and vanilla context that fades into chewing-gum cinnamon spice.
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