William Heavenhill 17 Year Old Small Batch Bourbon Review

William Heavenhill is a Kentucky-only brand created by Heaven Hill to showcase some of its most carefully curated stocks of straight bourbon. The name honors the original landowner of the grounds that the distillery was built upon. The company decided to honor his name by putting it on their rarest release. Unlike Heaven Hill Select Stock (another Kentucky-only release), there will never be any finishing cask treatments or blends. What you see is what you get.

These releases – commonly referred to as “WHH” in enthusiast groups – have typically been bottled between 12 and 19 years old. Sometimes they are bottled at barrel proof, sometimes they are bottled according to the standards of the Bottled-in-Bond act (100 proof, product of one distilling season, etc) and sometimes they only wear the description of “Small Batch.” That last one has left some room for speculation as to if they’re truly cask strength or not. Most people believe that this release has been proofed down prior to bottling. All I know is that the words “Barrel Proof” don’t appear in any of the literature put out for this release. Decide for yourself by looking at their release chart located here.

The 10th Edition of William Heavenhill

First released in the Fall of 2023, the 10th Edition of William Heavenhill is comprised of 32 barrels all plucked from the first floor of Warehouse 1G. What makes Warehouse 1G so interesting is that it’s located on the campus grounds of Bernheim Distillery in Louisville. The 7 warehouses are all multi-story brick warehouses and are the only aging facilities owned by Heaven Hill made from brick.

Why does any of that matter? Because barrel aging in brick warehouses requires a different approach compared to wooden or metal-clad warehouses. Aging tends to be slower with less heat to create the oak and liquid interaction that bourbon is known for. Humidity can also get trapped inside more easily and the conditions inside aren’t nearly as drafty. As such, Heaven Hill has mainly relegated the warehouses to aging Christian Brothers Brandy.

The brick rickhouses at Bernheim

It is said that Parker and Craig Beam both disliked the brick warehouses on Bernheim and tended to avoid doing any sort of projects with them. This is why you may not have even been aware that Heaven Hill used barrels from those warehouses at all. Connor O’ Driscoll has no issues with their maturation style because he has no previous bias against them. This may be one of the reasons why we’ve seen some recent releases claiming to be from these warehouses.

Perhaps the biggest factor in where the barrels were selected from for this edition of William Heavenhill rests with Tawnie Gootee – the head of the Sensory Team that selects barrels for small batches and single barrels. She liked the bourbon that came from Bernheim mainly because it contained so many different notes compared to barrels aged in more traditional warehouses on their other campuses.

Another recent limited release was also born from barrels harvested from Bernheim – Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 18 Year Old Bourbon. These sibling releases might taste slightly different from the standard Heaven Hill profile because of where they spent their life. Do you taste anything different in them?

Now that you know the backstory behind this batch, let’s dive into how it tastes. A special thanks to my friend Mike for his help with this review. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Scents of sweet oak, seasoned oak and butterscotch give me a fantastic greeting. I also find toasted marshmallows which is interesting because there were no toasted barrels involved in the production of this bourbon. Other sweet notes include raisin bread pudding with vanilla creme on top. I also find some cherries. Chocolate notes come courtesy of Cadbury Creme-Filled Eggs. An underlying scent that I pick up on about halfway through my session is toasted almonds. No note is out of place and it ticks every box I have for a premium Heaven Hill product – and then some.

Palate: Flavors of antiqued oak and some varnish along with some chocolate and toffee. The 120 proof delivers some nice heat that never gets carried away but is always noticeable. I’m picking up on a bit of citrus fruit rind and random jelly bean flavors. Spices pick up with peppercorn and cinnamon, but there’s a smooth transition to vanilla bean latte afterwards. This is a really nice, layered bourbon that seems like it was pulled at the right moment for the oak to not cover up these extra flavors. 

Finish: The finish delivers a nice Kentucky Hug with its heat. The tannins from those 17 years in a barrel are becoming much more noticeable with seasoned oak, pipe tobacco and some milk chocolate. The spices die down to where I’m only tasting residual cinnamon. Sweetness comes from rich caramel and vanilla creme. It’s not the most complex finish, but it’s very nice for what it is.

Score: 8.5/10

This William Heavenhill release is an all-around great example as to the heights that Heaven Hill can achieve with their bourbon. It’s got all of the classic flavors and scents I’ve come to expect and it does everything almost perfectly. My score might seem a little low for something I’m speaking so highly of, but sometimes I felt as if the complexity was missing a little bit. This is such an easy and satisfying sipper that it almost doesn’t make you work to get any of the notes.

Final Thoughts

William Heavenhill is such a limited, obscure release that it’s hard to not recommend it if you have the chance to buy one. But there’s a caveat to what I’m saying – I only recommend it at retail price (a not-so-cheap price of $275). You can only buy this in the Heaven Hill gift shop to my knowledge and that’s the only place you should be buying it. It’s too expensive on the secondary for what you get – even though I’ve rated it very high.

While scarcity goes a long way towards making the drinker think that this is something special, there is still the nagging suspicion that something else is out there that is equal to or better than this bottle at a price that also makes it a better value. And that’s true, there is. It’s Jim Beam’s Hardin’s Creek Kentucky Series. All three bottles have the same age with roughly the same proof (they’re all 110 proof) and they all could likely beat or tie this bottle in a blind tasting. And to really hit the nail home, all of those Hardin’s Creek releases are on the secondary market for around $225.

So if you ever get the chance to buy a WHH at the gift shop, by all means do it. But if you can’t, then don’t go chasing it on the secondary for ridiculous prices. It’s great that Heaven Hill puts out a release like this, but it’s not the end-all, be-all you might have been led to believe.