Background:
Heaven Hill is a renowned distillery. It boasts several brands in it’s portfolio: Old Fitzgerald, Elijah Craig, Larceny, Henry McKenna, Parker’s Heritage, Evan Williams and more…
but their eponymous brand, “Heaven Hill”, is what bears the name and lately, the heritage of the largest family owned distillery in Kentucky (Brown-Forman is publicly traded) and the second largest holder of bourbon inventory on the planet.
This expression is true to that heritage…
but before I dive-in to the whiskey review (which you can skip to below) I want to celebrate that heritage for just a moment.
This won’t be a comprehensive distillery review and history lesson. That review will come in our annual 2025 trip to Kentucky where we deep-dive into the distillery’s history in-person.
But I must shout out a few quick facts about HH that I think all of us whiskey lovers can appreciate.
- Heaven Hill has been around for nearly 100 years as a family owned company. It all began very shortly after prohibition was repealed when a group of investors, including several members of the Shapira family funded the operation.
- The first master distiller was Joseph L. Beam. This last name should immediately ring a bell. Joe was the first-cousin of the great Jim Beam, the legendary distiller in the bourbon hall of fame.
- The original name of the distillery was “Old Heavenhill Springs”
- In 1996, Heaven Hill’s production plant was all but destroyed by an uncontrollable fire that began in an aging warehouse and spread to the other buildings. Nearly 100,000 barrels of bourbon (more than 19 million bottles) became fuel for the fire.
- Heaven Hill survived by outsourcing production to Brown-Forman and Jim Beam, however after purchasing Bernheim from Diageo in 1999, they resumed complete control of operations.
- Since 2010, Heaven Hill has invested more than $100m in distillery expansions, warehouse construction, and Bourbon tourism.
Those are just a handful of interesting facts/history about HH.
I also distinctly remember that they began a “Grain to Glass” program a couple of years ago or so, where they would essentially be the only distillery in America with complete control of supply chain and production from the planting of the seed just across the street from their Bardstown rickhouses to the sipping of the whiskey in your glass (AKA “bottling”).
Now with all of that said about the distillery, let’s talk about this whiskey.
The Heritage Collection is new concept based on a proven formula for HH.
Each year, HH plans to pull from it’s oldest barrels to provide a new Heritage Collection release to the public.
In 2018, HH pulled from this extra-aged juice collection to release the Heaven Hill 27-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon.
They did it again in 2020 for their 85th Anniversary bottling.
The success of those bottles inspired Heaven Hill to repeat this process yearly, and this bottle that we reviewed back in May of 2023 is the first of these bearing the name “Heritage Collection”.
This one is a Straight Corn Whiskey. It’s doubtful that used barrels were used to age it given the descriptions on HH’s website, so the distinction as a “Straight Corn Whiskey” as opposed to a “Straight Bourbon Whiskey” is likely due only to corn making up at least 80% of the mashbill.
(See the diagram below for regulations on “Straight Corn Whiskey” and “Straight Bourbon Whiskey” in the Code of Federal Regulations.)
Let’s dive in.
The Review
Age: 20yrs
ABV: 57.5% (115 proof)
Mash Bill: 80% Corn, 8% Rye, 12% Malted Barley
Rickhouse: Bernheim
Appearance: Amber, unusually translucent.
Nose: smoked sausages, brown sugar, oak is surprisingly subtle given the age, hint of vanilla, cumin on the release (see retronasal olfaction)
Palate: full bodied, dry and somewhat poorly balanced. The oak is now dominant, a little cherry on the rear, but overall not very complex.
Finish: Medium length, hazelnut, pecans, still dry flavors are not harmonizing…
Rating: 6.9/10
Comments: Overall underwhelming, although water may do this justice. Based on the nose, I think that there are some interesting phenols yet to be discovered. I do have a “neck pour” for what that’s worth.
1 Drop Water:
N: A little more feinty, but that can be a good sign for a high corn bill… I’m more so searching out the flavoring congeners from the rye and barley on the palate.
P: Clear improvement. spice from the 4VG is much more apparent and quite pleasant.
F: More or less the same, NSTR.
Rating: 7.1/10
Let’s try one more drop:
2 Drops Water:
N: graham crackers, yum!
P: NSTR
F: Noticeably less dry. This is the spot.
Rating: 7.5/10
