Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 2024 — 18 Year Bourbon Review

Three years in, the Heaven Hill Heritage Collection has more of less coalesced on an identity for itself–where the Parker’s Heritage series is free to be more experimental and free-wheeling in its annual explorations of whiskey maturation, the Heritage Collection is designed to convey exemplary, classic versions of any mash bill that crosses its path. In its first year back in 2022, that was a 17-year-old classic bourbon from Heaven Hill’s typical rye bourbon mash bill, one that went on to be included in our list of the best whiskeys of 2022. Last year, the company changed things up by switching to one of their far less known mash bills, the “corn whiskey” recipe used to make the likes of Mellow Corn, but what was actually found in the bottle was still an extra-aged expression of something that Heaven Hill has made for a long time. Now in 2024, the Heritage Collection is back to bourbon once again with an inspiring new 18-year-old expression–there’s nothing that quite gets the whiskey geek/collector interested like a big age statement and elevated proof.

It’s safe to say that this release can boast both. Drawn from a batch of 133 barrels distilled in Dec. 2005 and aged on the third floor of Rickhouse 1I, this is the traditional Heaven Hill bourbon mash bill of 78% corn, 10% rye and 12% malted barley. It weighs in at 60% ABV (120 proof), a new high for the series. It should surprise no one that the MSRP is also at a painful new high of $300.

So with that said, all that remains is to dive into tasting this new Heaven Hill Heritage Collection expression.

On the nose this is warm, toasty and suggestive of every bit of its 18 years inside the newly charred oak barrels. Toasted bread and more deeply roasted almond butter establish a very Heaven Hill-esque baseline, combined with deeply caramelized sugars and hints of rye spice, brightened by orange zest. There’s a maltiness evocative of strong black tea, but the leading headline is its delicate interplay between elements of toastiness/caramelized sugars and subtle herbaceousness and leather. More fudge emerges over time, in a nose that seems to progressively get sweeter. There’s just enough ethanol, meanwhile, to hint at the advanced proof.

On the palate, this is complex but fairly dry, perhaps a bit drier than one would expect from the profile suggested by the nose. There’s an especially tart fruitiness present that evokes blackberry and currant, met by lots of roasted oak and darkly caramelized sugars. Roasted nuts and toasted pumpernickel bread merge with herbal rye and floral vanilla, while the actual residual sweetness is pretty restrained for this proof. You do feel the proof in a pretty sturdy way here, along with plenty of pepper spice and waves of spicy oak. Mild to moderate drying tannin combines with a little tea-like astringency to complete the somewhat dry finishing sensation to each sip.

All together, this Heritage Collection release is complex and accented deeply by dry-leaning oak and roast. All in all, I like it perhaps just a tad less than the previous 17 year old, but it’s still a great, extra-aged showcase for the kind of profile you’d expect of Heaven Hill. With that said, I hope the distillery doesn’t feel compelled to continuously increase the age statement of the bourbons in this series for the sake of consumer interest, or it could potentially run itself into objectively “over-oaked” territory in the future.

Distillery: Heaven Hill
City: Bardstown, KY
Style: Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey
ABV: 60% (120 proof)
Availability: Limited, 750 ml bottles, $300 MSRP

Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.