…a 10 year old, non-chill filtered, cask strength wheated bourbon! (Heaven Hill whiskeys usually utilize a rye-based mashbill rather than wheat.)

This is the fourth in a series of annual releases. So far, they’ve all been pretty amazing. (Last year’s  “Golden Anniversary” was Malt Advocate’s “American Whiskey of the Year” for 2009.)

There will be two very small batch bottlings of this year’s Parker’s release. The first “dump” is being bottled at 63.9%. (I will be getting a review sample shortly.) It will ship in late August and be priced at $80.

Here’s more detailed information, for the serious bourbon enthusiasts out there. I am quoting my contact at Heaven Hill Distilleries:

Parker and all of us feel that this release is significant not only because it is of course an excellent Bourbon, but also because it marks the first release of extra-aged wheated Bourbon that we produced at our Bernheim Distillery since we acquired it and began producing the wheated Old Fitzgerald line in 1999.  (The Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12-year-old product that we inherited is of course still United Distillers whiskey, since it predates our acquisition.)  And the decision to release it at barrel proof and non-chill filtered really makes this a special bottling.  As in past releases, the new 10-year-old Wheated Bourbon edition of Parker’s Heritage Collection is being offered in very limited quantities—52 total barrels will be dumped for a national release that will only yield about 4,800 750ml bottles.

The barrels used for this release were pulled from the fourth, sixth and seventh floors of our Rickhouse A, where they have rested since the summer of 2000.  Like the previous three editions, once the 1,600 three bottle cases sell out, it’s gone forever.

I am very excited to try this! (Oh, and in case you were wondering, the second batch will be dumped and bottled in September.)