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I don’t normally interject such a personal thing into my reviews, but I’m viewing the Parker’s Heritage Collection with a new set of eyes after a loved one has been diagnosed with ALS this past year. I must admit it’s a disease that I knew very little about up until this moment. One of the most shocking things I’ve observed so far is the amount of assistance that’s made available to those who are afflicted with it. I have no doubt it’s because of the hard work of charitable organizations that provide assistance and continue to research cures and treatments. The Parker Beam Promise of Hope Fund is one such organization that makes this possible. So I’m sending a special “thank you” to Heaven Hill for their support – past and present – for this. Now onto the review.
I generally love the freedom that Heaven Hill gives to the team that creates Parker’s Heritage Collection releases every year. The range of experiments they’ve put out is matched only by Buffalo Trace’s Experimental Collection and the Master’s Collection that Woodford Reserve releases – but I think few would argue that Heaven Hill’s is superior. They might not be for everyone, but at least their innovation shows they’re always willing to take risks and raise the bar.
This year, they’ve definitely cranked that innovation up to “11.” The whiskey in this bottle is some of the wildest I’ve seen yet and seems to take an old idea from the 6th release called “Parker’s Heritage Collection: Blend of Mash Bills” which blended ryed bourbon and wheated bourbon together. Thirteen releases later and we see they’ve returned to that concept by blending not two, but three different mash bills together. And since they’re using different types of whiskey (only one is a bourbon), it can only be called American Whiskey.
Makeup of Parker’s Heritage Collection: 11 Year American Whiskey
So what’s in the bottle? Here’s the rundown:
20% of the blend: 11-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Corn Whiskey (80% corn, 8% rye, 12% malted barley – aka Mellow Corn) – Aged at Deatsville Campus in Rickhouses BB, DD and GG.
40% of the blend: 12-Year-Old Whiskey (50% rye, 50% malted barley) – Aged in Rickhouse Y across from the Heaven Hill Visitors Center
40% of the blend: 15-Year-Old Wheated Bourbon (68% corn, 20% wheat, 12% malted barley – aka Larceny/Old Fitzgerald) Aged in Warehouse A at the old Glencoe Distillery location
The following is just speculation, but it appears that Heaven Hill has been looking for a way to utilize that unique 50% rye/50% malted barley recipe for a while now. It’s an odd mash bill that legally can’t be called anything other than a “whiskey” due to its lack of having any grain make up at least 51% of the recipe. In a way, it reminds me of the story of when Steve Nally made a 48/44/8 (rye/corn/malt) mash bill at Wyoming Whiskey after they asked him to create a straight rye whiskey. Steve’s background at Maker’s Mark making wheated bourbon had him upset at this request so he did the most passive aggressive thing he could do: made a whiskey where rye was dominant, but not 51% or more of the mash bill. Then he left the company. It was only by discovery years later that Wyoming Whiskey found this out and created “Outryder” to use up these useless barrels.
Connor O’Driscoll, Heaven Hill’s Master Distiller, even said there was no existing product this could be put into – so this is a way of using up the stocks. Plus, the space these barrels were taking up inside of Warehouse Y (which is one of the more revered rickhouse’s in Heaven Hill’s arsenal) were probably getting on the nerves of the product planners who fill the ricks inside with a lot of prestige projects.
So what we have here is something akin to a Four Grain Bourbon with some corn whiskey added to it. Will that make it different enough from PHC’s Blend of Mash Bills release I previously talked about? Heaven Hill hopes it will, so let’s see if it has any other surprises up its sleeve. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.
Tasting Notes
Nose: An interesting thing I notice right off the bat is just how “rye-forward” the nose is. There are a decent amount of herbal notes, ground ginger, fragrant tea leaves and Nesquik powder scents within. Other baking spices include allspice, nutmeg and ground cinnamon. If the corn whiskey mash bill has any part in the nose, I can’t tell because otherwise this smells more like a ryed bourbon to me.
Palate: Unlike the nose, the flavors I find on the palate now switch to the wheated bourbon being most dominant. The pleasant spice note feels a lot like the cinnamon Red Hots that I find in a Larceny Barrel Proof or younger versions of Old Fitz decanters. This is followed with notes of Mexican Hot Chocolate, caramel sweetness and crushed walnuts. The rye from the unique mash bill must be responsible for the peppermint candy cane, clove and nutmeg flavors I find in the background. Overall, each flavor is pleasant and the heat is impressively restrained, but I’m not getting the vibe that what I’m drinking is anything special.
Finish: The baking spices are the stars of the show on the finish. They are accompanied by burnt caramel, cocoa powder and grainy corn (there’s that Mellow Corn!) There’s also more crushed walnuts and a touch of some generic herbal rye notes (no mint, though). I’m surprised by the lack of burn on the finish for a whiskey that’s over 120 proof, so kudos on that, Heaven Hill.
Score: 7.3/10
I found this year’s PHC release interesting enough to hold my attention while I dissected each of its notes. I don’t recall finding any off-notes or characteristics that didn’t work well together. I also thought the blend was overall competently done. But there was just something about the overall experience that didn’t do it for me. It was like watching a movie that looked great in the trailers, but you realize it’s not your jam about halfway through. And once it was over, you didn’t really think about it again.
There’s no doubt this release would have made for an interesting proposition if Heaven Hill put it in a different bottle with a $70 price tag, but that would never happen with these specs. It just goes to show that specs alone do not automatically make a good whiskey, great.
Final Thoughts
I’m not a person who has insider knowledge of the inner-workings of any distillery operation, but it feels like PHC 11 Year American Whiskey was the result of a spitballing session where everyone threw out their ideas for the next release. Then they just went with whoever made the most compelling argument. I just hope that it wasn’t the same person who decided to finish bourbon in Orange Curacao barrels years ago, because they shouldn’t be allowed in that room anymore, haha.
2025’s PHC isn’t a bad whiskey, but it doesn’t feel up to the standards that PHC is typically known for. I’m sure enthusiasts will still fight to get a bottle and overpay on the secondary market, but you don’t have to be one of them. This year has had no shortage of excellent whiskies, so I suggest you focus your effort (and wallet) on those instead.