I stopped by Total Wine for one reason and one reason only: Early Times.

(Quick aside, because this matters. The Brown-Forman barrels of Early Times are apparently gone, and the first Sazerac-produced bottles—distilled by the 1792 folks—are now hitting shelves. Early reviews haven’t been kind. That prompted a little light hoarding on my part: seven one-liter bottles purchased over the past two days. Not all for me, I swear. At about $14 per liter, it felt like the right move.)

Since I was saving a good bit of money on the Early Times run, I decided I had room in the budget for a “reasonable” extra bottle. That’s when I noticed something new on the shelf: Kentucky Beau 6-Year.

The Total Wine employee nearby mentioned it had been flying off the shelf. The bottle looked fine, the age statement didn’t hurt, and curiosity did the rest. After a little digging, all signs pointed toward this being produced by Heaven Hill, even though the label credits the Kentucky Beau Distillery. That alone made it interesting enough to justify a side-by-side.

So I set up a quick blind tasting:

• Kentucky Beau 6-Year — about $40

• Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond — typically $40–$50

• Henry McKenna Bottled-in-Bond — anywhere from $52 to $70, depending on the store and the day

Equal pours. Three Glencairns. Glasses mixed up. No scoring. Just nose, sip, and instinct.

And honestly? They were all pretty close.

They shared a similar flavor profile—no outliers, no curveballs. One glass felt a little thinner. Another leaned slightly leathery but had more viscosity. And the third? Like Goldilocks said: just right. Buttery. Creamy. A touch more richness than the others. None of them were blowing me away with complexity, but that third glass clearly stood out.

Naturally, I assumed that was the Heaven Hill.

I was wrong.

Glass #1 was Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond.
Glass #2 was Henry McKenna Bottled-in-Bond.
Glass #3—the one that hit the sweet spot—was Kentucky Beau.

At roughly the lowest price of the three, that’s a result worth paying attention to.

So yes, I have a new Cheapskate Hero.

I’ve already got plans for a bigger 100-Proof Challenge—all Bottled-in-Bonds, true 100-proofers, and a handful of bourbons that land within a proof point on either side. It’ll be interesting to see how this newcomer holds up when the field gets crowded.

But for now, this was a reminder of why I keep doing this series: sometimes the bottle you didn’t plan to buy ends up stealing the show.