New Heaven Hill premium collection will have some of the distiller’s oldest bourbons
When you have almost 2 million barrels of bourbon sitting around Kentucky aging, you have to figure out something big to do with them.
So Heaven Hill has unveiled a new premium — and pricey — bourbon with a very long name.
Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 17-Year-Old Barrel Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is the first edition of a new Heaven Hill Heritage Collection that will be released each spring.
The highly limited bourbons will be some of the 87-year-old distillery’s oldest whiskeys drawn from one of six mashbills, according to a news release.
The first version was made from 78 percent corn, 10 percent rye and 12 percent malted barley, and bottled at 118.2 proof. According to Heaven Hill, the barrels have been aging in warehouses on the main campus in Bardstown as well as in Deatsville, Glencoe and Schenley, some for as long as 20 years.
The first edition of the new collection will launch at stores nationally this spring on a limited basis, with a suggested retail price to buy of about $275 per bottle.
The experimental Parker’s Heritage Collection will continue to be released annually in the fall, the company said.
“Over many years, we have been quietly aging some exquisite whiskeys to be introduced under a new collection within our Heaven Hill Distillery portfolio,” said Max L. Shapira, Heaven Hill President, in the release. “Of our 1.9 million barrels resting across six rickhouse sites, our master craftspeople have kept watchful eyes on this limited stock of special barrels and we are finally ready to release the first edition.”
The Kentucky distillery was founded by the Shapira family in 1935 and is home to some of bourbon’s biggest brands including Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, Larceny and Old Fitzgerald, as well as an extensive bottled-in-bond label collection. The distillery has 63 warehouses of spirits throughout Nelson and Jefferson counties.
