Parker’s Heritage 10-Year-Old Cask Strength Rye Whiskey (2023) Review

In recent years, Heaven Hill’s line of annual Parker’s Heritage limited release whiskeys has favored an experimental outlook on the American whiskey world, often reflecting unique secondary maturations or barrel finishes, or novel aging techniques. This has yielded such efforts as three straight years of “heavy char” experimental releases in the three most important Heaven Hill mashbills–bourbon, wheated bourbon and rye whiskey–along with everything from malt whiskey to whiskey finished in orange curacao barrels. Now a full 17 years into the series, one wonders how they see it continuing to evolve, especially given the introduction a few years ago of the more traditionally rooted complement in the Heaven Hill Heritage Collection. Perhaps we haven’t seen the wildest experiments yet from Parker’s Heritage, but 2023 is not going to be the year they venture out or get truly wild. Instead, this year’s newly announced batch is actually quite conventional: A well-aged, cask strength rye whiskey.

Conceptually, this is pretty much as safe as these picks get, but the reality is that many American whiskey geeks probably get most excited about conventional releases anyway. And it’s not as if cask strength rye whiskey from Heaven Hill–or more Kentucky distilleries, in fact–is that easy to come by. In fact, unlike its ever-popular Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Bourbon lineup, or the now well-established Larceny Barrel Proof (wheated bourbon), the company has no regularly releasing cask-strength rye whiskey. The closest thing is the admittedly sturdy Pikesville Rye, which weighs in at 110 proof and carries a 6-year age statement. But fans of Heaven Hill know that the company’s age statements and proof points are capable of climbing far higher than that.

Enter, Parker’s Heritage 10-Year-Old Cask Strength Rye Whiskey, made from the company’s classic Kentucky 51% rye mash bill. This release is composed of 10-year ryes that were barreled in Aug., Oct. or Dec. of 2012, and then aged on the first floors of Rickhouses H1 and H2, the fifth floor of Rickhouse FF, the third and seventh floors of Rickhouse BB, and the second floor of Rickhouse DD. The non-chill filtered whiskey was bottled at a commanding cask strength of 64.4% ABV (128.8 proof). Suffice to say, there hasn’t been a chance to drink a Heaven Hill rye of these dimensions in a while. Like every Parker’s Heritage release, this one is dedicated to the memory of the late Parker Beam, Master Distiller Emeritus of Heaven Hill, and a portion of proceeds will continue to support ALS research and patient care. To date, sales of Parker’s Heritage have raised more than $1.2 million toward ALS research and care.

So with that said, let’s dive into this classic extra-aged, extra-strong Heaven Hill rye.