Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 18 Year Old Bourbon Review

It seems as if the rickhouses on Heaven Hill’s Bernheim campus are having their own “Glow Up” of sorts. Ugh, I feel so dirty trying to use this new slang. But in all seriousness, these brick rickhouses located at Bernheim have always been neglected by Heaven Hill. They were included with the purchase of the New Bernheim Distillery when Heaven Hill purchased it from Diageo in 1999.

Prior to that, Heaven Hill’s 6 other campuses were comprised of only wood or metal-clad rickhouses. This made maturation easy to predict and understand for the tasting experts. But brick rickhouses were a different beast. The maturation style is different. For example, barrels may take on oaky characteristics more slowly than traditional rickhouses. They might even develop softer and more mellow flavors throughout their time in the barrel. More interestingly, the barrel proof may drop over time.

Heaven Hill Heritage Collection and the Bernheim Campus

All of these factors led to Heaven Hill to relegate Bernheim rickhouses to focus more on aging Christian Brothers Brandy inside rather than strictly bourbon. But something changed recently and Heaven Hill has become more open to showcasing Bernheim barrels. Last year we saw the 2023 Evan Williams Hero Edition list its warehouse selection on the necktag and they were 1E and 1J. They also picked the 17-year-old barrels from Rickhouse 1G for the 17-year-old William Heaven Hill release as well.

Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 18 Year Old Bourbon

Heaven Hill has bottled a bourbon every other year since 2018 for their Heritage Collection. This year sees an 18 year old release coming from Rickhouse 1I. More specifically, 133 barrels were picked from that rickhouse’s third floor. The bourbon was batched together and bottled at 120 proof on the dot, but nothing on the outside of the bottle seems to indicate that it was bottled at barrel proof. That means we’ll have to assume that it has been proofed down somewhat. Ironically, it’s the same proof as WHH17 was also bottled at. Still, 120 proof is right in the sweet zone for many enthusiasts – including yours truly.

If these 133 barrels weren’t special, then I’m not sure why Tawnie Gootee – the head of Heaven Hill’s sensory team – would have picked them. So let’s find out what she saw in them. Thanks to my good friend Brad, I’m able to sample this bottle. And just like my other reviews, I’m drinking it neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Smelling this, it’s easily apparent there is a heavy oak body coupled with barrel char. It’s rich and mature, but not so much so that the lighter notes like vanilla, caramel and melted butterscotch can’t reveal themselves. I also find chocolate and cherries (cherry cordial!), too. Spice notes mainly consist of ground cinnamon and a little bit of nutmeg. Overall, it’s the sweet notes and the wood notes that fight the most for your attention

Palate: Oak and wood varnish stick out like a sore thumb. A mild amount of tobacco leaf also ups the maturity factor. But it’s not all tannins on the tongue because I am also finding notes of cherry cough syrup, wildflower honey and chocolate sauce. Surprisingly, some rye-forward notes stick out to me even though I don’t typically find a lot of rye in Heaven Hill products. I’m detecting wildflower honey, peppermint stick and spices like cinnamon and allspice. The typical Heaven Hill nuttiness shows itself more as a hazelnut spread than anything. It’s a very layered bourbon to partake.

Finish: Upon completion of the sip, the dark notes finally come out to take control. Notes of dark chocolate, wood varnish and Ferrero Rocher, ummm, “balls?” What’s everyone calling those these days? Anyway, the finish continues on this trend with more lingering notes of Vanilla Frappuccino, cinnamon powder and scorched caramel. It’s truly a rich and dessert-like finish to the dram.

Score: 8.6/10

The first thought that comes to mind is just how similar this is to the 17 Year Old William Heaven Hill Bourbon I just reviewed a few days ago. These were released about 8 months apart from each other – but why would Heaven Hill release two nearly-identical bourbons that close together? I don’t have an answer to that, but maybe it was to let everyone who couldn’t get a bottle of WHH17 at the gift shop experience the magic of these Bernheim-aged barrels.

The sensory team must have been onto something here. The bourbon I just tasted is off-profile just enough to make you wonder if it’s a Heaven Hill product or not. It’s nowhere near as nutty and it seems to taste almost like 10% more rye was added into the mash bill compared to other Heaven Hill products. I also wasn’t expecting as much oak as I ultimately found. I will warn you beforehand if you’re oak-adverse, you might not like this bottle as much as I did.

Final Thoughts

Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 18 Year Bourbon is a bourbon that will stick out in my mind for being so unique. It’s not your typical Elijah Craig Barrel Proof or 18 Year Single Barrel bourbon. It’s powerful while being understated and has layers of flavors that you might not always expect from their products. I’m excited that the Sensory Team threw tradition out the window by selecting these barrels and hope that they’ll be back for another kind of release in the future.

Beware on overspending for this bottle. While it is very good, it might not be worth the secondary values I see it at. Even at retail ($300), it was a hard pill to swallow. I think it has the chops to earn that retail pricetag, but any higher and I’d probably leave it alone. But if you can find a way to taste this, you’re going to be in for a real treat.