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VIEW OUR DISTILLERYHeaven Hill Distillery. Bardstown, KY © 2024
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Each year as part of the Parker's Heritage Collection, we select a special whiskey to be released in the name of our late Master Distiller Parker Beam. The barrels selected for this series include Bourbon, Rye, and Wheat Whiskeys, among others, and are some of the finest and most diverse American Whiskeys ever produced. They are a fitting tribute to the expertise of Parker Beam.
Proof: Varies by Release
Age: Varies by Release
The 14th edition of Parker's Heritage Collection features Heaven Hill’s traditional rye Bourbon mashbill, aged in specialty barrels that were charred for a full minute and a half, as opposed to our traditional 40 seconds. These "Level 5" barrels were aged for a full 10 years, where the heavier char allowed the Bourbon to penetrate further into the barrel, bringing forth caramel and maple sweetness. These 102 barrels were aged on the sixth floor of rickhouse Y, and developed a pleasant smokiness after 40 Kentucky seasons of maturation. It is bottled without chill filtration at 120 proof.
“We have the original email to the cooperage,” says Chris Briney, Director of New Product Development. “I found a message to Independent Stave Company from Craig Beam, who was Parker’s son and also a Master Distiller at Heaven Hill. It was from February 2008, and the subject line was just ‘Heavy Char.’ It said something like ‘Hey Jimmy - following up on that conversation we had with my dad last week. I’d like to place an order for custom Level #5. Blast them for a full 1 min. & 30 seconds.’” Briney pauses and smiles. “And then he wrote, ‘And could you be sure to mark them so they don’t get mixed up with our regular barrels? Don’t want to lose them!” In the world of premium Bourbon, exciting releases like these don’t come from this year’s most cutting-edge technology. But rather, for something like Parker’s Heritage Collection 14th Edition, they can be more than a decade in the making. “Bourbon has always been a long game. It’s our job to be leaders in thinking about what our fans are going to enjoy 8, 10, 15 years from now.” When is it time to share these with the community? Briney says, “With projects like this, the challenge is always: has it been long enough? We sample these experiments many times over their life cycle, sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly, sometimes yearly. We knew this whiskey was really good, and the timing was right to put it into play now as it passed the ten year mark.” Parker’s Heritage Collection is Heaven Hill’s hallmark lineup of exploration in premium innovation. “We are both nurturing the future and protecting heritage and honoring the past. We are in a special position with our large aging stock and having produced five unique mashbills. We have the capacity to do the experimental stuff without compromising the consistent quality of the offerings that got us here.” Briney laughs. “You just have to be really patient when you work on whiskey innovation projects. And really organized. Thank goodness for calendar reminders.”
Parker’s Heritage Collection is Heaven Hill’s hallmark lineup of exploration in premium innovation. “We are both nurturing the future and protecting heritage and honoring the past. We are in a special position with our large aging stock and having produced five unique mashbills. We have the capacity to do the experimental stuff without compromising the consistent quality of the offerings that got us here.” Briney laughs. “You just have to be really patient when you work on whiskey innovation projects. And really organized. Thank goodness for calendar reminders.”
Chris Briney
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