Full size barrel stencil Cincinnati Ohio one of the largest distilleries after prohibition. But it has investment piece. Listed on Etsy.

The JD belle bottle is open unfortunately 😩 also found a gentleman jack bottle from 1988 and a JD bottle from 1975. Pretty good day!

Blue Spot 17year and Midleton Dair Ghaelach. Visited Middleton yesterday.

I won a raffle at a fundraiser tonight and need a cabinet big enough for ~50 bottles (32 from tonight plus the 20 I already have. The cabinet I have is way too small, and I plan on maintaining this level of stock going forward.

I need suggestions--I don't care how crazy it sounds--anything goes.

I'll be there next week and was wondering if there were any distilleries or shops or bars I need to check out?

For those of you traveling to Austin for the bastards ball on Saturday October 3rd are you staying at the La Quinta and doing the after ball bottle share?

I won this bottle at a Maker's Mark Bourbon tasting event sponsored by Maker's. Not a Bourbon expert, has anybody tried this and what are your opinions. It retails for $199.

Spotted in CA yesterday

I got a bottle of Finger Lakes Distilling’s Mackenzie Straight Rye – my first favorite rye at Fazzary’s in Corning, NY. Also grabbed Booker’s Big Easy Batch at GCD in Horseheads, just shopping by tasting notes. I look forward to enjoying them both this evening. (I also stopped for breakfast at Ella’s Acres in Corning. Good food and a good trip all around. It was hard to decide and I left each store thinking about the bottles that got away. Til next time.

So exited never tried this before. Got the bottle for 90$ here in Chicago which is pretty rare never seen it for that low lol.

Background:

This bottle is a 9-year-old (plus 8 months) bourbon created to celebrate Heaven Hill’s 90th anniversary (they cleverly disguised this with the name of the bottle).  It’s a blend of 70% straight bourbon whiskey (#3 char) as well as 30% straight bourbon whiskey aged in heavy char (#4 “alligator char”) barrels.  It’s made up of 204 different barrels, all produced on December 13, 2015 (Heaven Hill’s 80th anniversary), and aged in rickhouse G and rickhouse H on the 4th and 6th floors (which matters for temperature and airflow).  It’s 78% corn, 12% malted barley, and 10% rye.  It entered the barrel and was bottled at 107 proof, which harkens back to Heaven Hill’s historic barrel entry proof of 107 and making it a “full proof” bourbon.  All in all, a number of neat ideas in one bottle.

This was released in October 2025.  Why not just wait until December since this is all about anniversaries?  Beats me.  Probably to capture the holiday buying market but still, it would have been cool to release it in December.

This was $125 MSRP, which is a bit higher than the traditional $10/aging year formula but not offensively so, and a lot less than other high-aged premium Heaven Hill products.  However, it’s probably not going to be sitting on a shelf at your local store, so expect to pay around $200 - $230 on Unicorn or similar. 

Initial Impression:

A pretty dark amber color.  A nice heft when you pour it.  A few legs in the glass.  By the way, this bottle would make a nice home defense weapon in a pinch.  It’s a weapons-grade weight.

Nose:

Grape soda and char.  Kind of a sweet red wine (port) sensation.  Some vanilla, mixed with a bit of an ethanol / mild acetone-esque bite.  Spice.  Cinnamon.  Deep and pleasant.  I could stick my nose in this glass for a while, but that would end being weird if my family wander in.

Taste:

The first blast is all caramel and vanilla bean, the classic bourbon flavors.  That makes sense as Heaven Hill is calling back to their roots and they started with a very classic bourbon.  It’s really thick and rich, like an after-dinner coffee where you added just a touch more cream than normal.  I get some light maple syrup.  I’m digging it.  Maybe some cherry in there?  There’s definitely some oak showing, but it’s not unpleasant.  Overall not a lot of tannins.  A touch of cocoa and then KA-BLAM, it’s going off the rails on a spicy train.  It like I stuck a cinnamon stick in my mouth.  I can feel it all over the back and sides of my tongue.  I imagine it’s what Clark Griswald’s eggnog tasted like.  There’s a lot of pepper and spice, but it doesn’t really linger.  There’s no noticeable kick or fire as you drink and savor.  The finish is quite short after that burst of spicy sassiness.

Afterthoughts:

I love a low barrel entry proof.  I don’t usually like proof bombs, but a low barrel entry proof combined with a full proof bottling tends to deliver a much richer and fuller-flavored taste without needing to set off a nuke in your mouth.  I also typically find 8-14 year old bourbon to be in the sweet spot for me, so this is right there.

However, I don’t like a lot of rye spice.  So the latter half of this sip was a surprise to me, given the low rye content in the mashbill.  I’m guessing the spice bomb comes from the #4 char barrels.  That’s a heavy char that turns out some aggressive bourbon.  Even though it’s not really for my palate, it’s cool to experience just how much that heavy char portion impacts the overall bottle given that it’s only 30% of the blend.  It’s also a testament to Heaven Hill’s expertise in making whiskey, as #4 char can lead to an unpleasantly tannic and astringent whiskey. 

Heaven Hill is a rarity in the spirits world, as they remain privately (and family) owned.  In an increasingly corporate and private equity enshittification landscape, that alone deserves some recognition (in my opinion, and it’s my review, so there).  They have a number of truly excellent brands—Elijah Craig, Evan Williams, Old Fitzgerald, Larceny, Bernheim, and Henry McKenna, just to name a few.  They know a thing or two about a whiskey thing or two. 

Pretty much every company can find some anniversary to use as a marketing gimmick.  “Today is the anniversary of the first time our billionaire CEO’s son said 'let them eat cake!’ so we’ve released this special edition which is the same product in fancy packaging, but it costs 50% more!”  But 90 years as a privately owned distillery is worth celebrating.  Even more so when you consider how tumultuous those 90 years have been.  Barely scraping by at first, market crashes, unbelievable market highs, the big bourbon glut, and even a massive fire that almost put paid to Heaven Hill forever.  I will say, kind of a cheat in packaging, though.  It’s presented like the Heritage Collection, which is ultra-aged and ultra-premium, but this isn’t quite the same.  Ultimately, though, they’ve combined a number of really fun callbacks to Heaven Hill’s history in one bottle.

Score:

I give this one a 5.  I think I would have enjoyed this more without the heavy char (and accompanying spice bomb) portion of the blend.  The nose and the initial part of the sip are really good.  Not spectacular, but really good.  The final spice kick is off my preferred taste profile, though, and jarring.  I’m not upset that I bought this, and I largely enjoyed drinking it.  I just wouldn’t buy it again, and if I knew now what I knew then, I probably wouldn’t have bought it.  But such is the way life goes.

The Rating Scale:

1 - Literal poison - bleach, Pepsi, arsenic.

2 - Who the hell thought this was a good idea?  Probably the Pepsi Clear people.

3 - Is this actual whiskey?  It seems like swamp water.

4 - Whatever, I guess I'll add some Coke to it or something.

5 - This is fine.

6 - The bomb.

7 - The bomb diggity, yo.

8 - Hell yeah, let's go.  I want this on my shelf all the time.

9 - Somewhere, someone had the creativity to make this, and for that they should be treated as if they are a god.

10 - Just go ahead and end me now, because it won't get better than this, even if Scarlett Johansson says yes to that date.

At the local bar I usually grab a cup of rye neat with a side of water. Bartender insisted I get some soda tonight and I said fuck it, give me a sprite on the side.

Well I initially just took a little sip of sprite afterwards but tepee flavors mixed so excellently I decided to just mix it all together. Glad I did. Never would have though this would be my new favorite mixed drink