Wheated Bourbon Aged 10 Years, New Parker’s Heritage Collection from Heaven Hill Distilleries

Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. tells BourbonBlog.com that they will release  the fourth edition of Parker’s Heritage Collection as a cask-strength non-chill filtered 10-year-old wheated Bourbon in September 2010. This Bourbon uses soft winter wheat instead of rye as the “small grain” to produce a less spicy, rounder Bourbon. This limited annual series of rare, aged American Whiskeys that pays tribute to 6th Generation Master Distiller Parker Beam.

The cask strength, 131.2 proof wheated 10-year-old Bourbon promises to be worthy next entrant in highly decorated whiskey series. This new release marks the first in the Parker’s Heritage Collection to depart from the traditional Heaven Hill rye-based Bourbon mashbill. Instead of the more commonly used corn/malted barley/rye recipe, the newest edition uses corn, malted barley and Kentucky winter wheat. This recipe was first used at Heaven Hill in the spring of 1999, after the company acquired the wheated Old Fitzgerald line of Bourbons.

The new bottling of Parker’s Heritage Collection will mark the first release of Heaven Hill made, extra-aged wheated Bourbon. And it will delight whiskey connoisseurs because not only is it non-chill filtered, but it also is being released in two very small batch dumps at barrel proof. And like the previous three editions, it is being released in very limited quantities—only 52 barrels, kept in high storage in open rick warehouses, were dumped for this edition, yielding approximately 4,800 bottles for the United States and limited international distribution.

This new release is priced at $79.99,  considerably lower than previous releases, which carried an average national retail price of $150 for last year’s “Golden Anniversary” bottling and$200 for the 27-year-old Bourbon released two years ago. Whiskey aficionados will also appreciate that the natural esters and fatty acids, which are by-products of whiskey distillation and aging, are not stripped away from the Bourbon in a process known as chill filtering, but are left in the whiskey to provide a fuller taste profile and richer mouthfeel.

Packaged in the same upscale 750ml bottle as the previous three editions, the Parker’s Heritage Collection Wheated Bourbon is available in a three bottle case that should start hitting retail shelves during September, nationally recognized as the start of the Bourbon season.

“I am genuinely excited to introduce a nicely aged, cask-strength wheated Bourbon for this next version of my Parker’s Heritage Collection,” Heaven Hill Master Distiller Parker Beam tells BourbonBlog.com. “At this age and barrel-proof, is how a wheated Bourbon shows best…it has the caramel and smoke notes that only ten years in the top floors of our rickhouses can produce. And it has the long, smooth finish that I always look for in a Bourbon, with that softness that wheat brings to the recipe. I am very pleased that we now have wheated Bourbon that I feel has aged long enough to wear my name on the label.”

This new release follows last year’s “Golden Anniversary” Bourbon edition, which captured the “American Whiskey of the Year” award from Malt Advocate Magazine, in addition to being named “World’s Best New Release” in Whisky Magazine’s annual 2010 World Whiskey Awards. The 2009 release, a 27-year-old Bourbon, was the first American Whiskey to ever win “Best of Show, Brown Spirits” at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Only Heaven Hill Distilleries, with the world’s second largest inventory of aging Bourbon and over 50% of the world’s supply of Bourbon barrels over 8 years old, could bring such rare and aged whiskeys to market. Parker Beam, along with his son Craig, oversees one of the world’s most highly esteemed distilling operations, where renowned brands such as Elijah Craig, Old Fitzgerald, and Evan Williams, the world’s second largest selling Bourbon, are produced according to Parker and Craig’s seven-generation-old family recipe and yeast strain.

Founded in 1934, Bardstown, KY-based Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. is the nation’s largest independent, family-owned and operated spirits producer and marketer and the world’s second-largest holder of Kentucky Bourbon. Heaven Hill’s diversified portfolio of brands includes The Christian Brothers Brandies; Evan Williams and Elijah Craig Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskeys; Burnett’s Vodkas and Gin; Hpnotiq Liqueur; PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur; Lunazul and Two Fingers Tequilas, and Dubonnet Aperitif.