Parkers Heritage 2012

[doubleblank]

Wade, Tom and I tried the new PHC at Tales in New Orleans with Rob Hutchins. It's a blend of their rye and wheated bourbons. About 11 yos blended 70/30 rye/wheat. A four grain so to speak. 130.7 proof. A balanced whiskey with none of the menthol that comes with many HH bourbons. Retails about $75. Need another taste to see if I'll, purchase, but a worthy addition to PHC line.

Edited July 30, 2012 by doubleblank

[HP12]

Wade, Tom and I tried the new PHC at Tales in New Orleans with Rob Hutchins. It's a blend of their rye and wheated bourbons. About 11 yos blended 70/30 rye/wheat. A four grain so to speak. 130.7 proof. A balanced whiskey with none of the menthol that comes with many HH bourbons. Retails about $75. Need another taste to see if I'll, purchase, but a worthy addition to PHC line.

Great advanced intel. Any word on how many different batches will be released?

[doubleblank]

All Rob would say is that there will be multiple batches....but not how many.

[Tony]

Thanks for sharing, this sounds like something I would enjoy, will have to find it.

Best regards, Tony

[Gillman]

Finally someone has done this, smart thinking. I can't think of another brand, whether from distillery or non-distilling merchant, which stated in square terms they were mingling rye- and wheat-recipe bourbons. Some of the early Corner Creek bottles seemed to suggest they were such a combination, but this was never confirmed IIRC.

High West has combined different straight whiskeys in interesting ways but I don't think in this particular way.

Buffalo Trace would be a natural for this type of essay, I think it would offer more fruitful results in fact than different woods or mashing regimens.

Gary

[Gillman]

Postscript to say there were one or two 4-grain (or more) bourbons which used both wheat and rye, I think Beam had one, that 7-grain sold internationally, and one of Don Outterson's bourbons had both grains in the mash I think. WR had one too I believe. But these were mashed from the outset, i.e., were not minglings of finished bourbons IIRC.

The idea is so intuitive, and can result in a such a great flavour, that I'm surprised it hasn't been done until now.

Gary

P.S. Try it on your own, take any wheater, combine with any rye-recipe bourbon. It's not rocket science and the idea is to soften the rye hit and add complexity to the wheater. Today's wheaters are particularly suitable for this IMO.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Gillman

[p_elliott]

Postscript to say there were one or two 4-grain (or more) bourbons which used both wheat and rye, I think Beam had one, that 7-grain sold internationally

Gary

That was a 6 grain, there was a bottle on the table at the last sampler gazebo. I gave it a go nothing to write home about, had the usual JB yeast twang.

[wadewood]

Attached is the flyer HH handed at at event at TOTC. My initial small taste is that I liked it, but that was at 10.30am after consuming too much the day before - need to revisit.

[p_elliott]

Attached is the flyer HH handed at at event at TOTC. My initial small taste is that I liked it, but that was at 10.30am after consuming too much the day before - need to revisit.

Wade you wouldn't consume too much would you??? I certainly wouldn't :slappin:

[Gillman]

Just my thinking too, Paul.

Thanks both for this input and I agree fully also, Paul, re that Beam multi-grain, it seemed quite typical of the Beam flavor profile.

Gary

Edited July 30, 2012 by Gillman

[Gillman]

Actually guys, now I'm not sure. The ad copy Wade posted suggests the mashes were combined and then one distillate made presumably and aged. Is that it, or were finished barrels of bourbon of each type mingled?

If it's mixed mashes, that is an interesting spin on it and something new to me.

Gary

[doubleblank]

What was said by Rob Hutchins at HH is that the barrels of rye bourbon were from the upper floors and the wheated barrels were from the fourth floor or lower. Blended in approximately a 70/30 ratio rye/wheat. All barrels about 11 years old.

[Gillman]

Well, that's pretty clear. The blended mashes wording is a more elaborate or poetic way of saying this, therefore..

Gary

[White Dog]

Between this and Larceny, HH certainly has my attention going into the fall.

[MacinJosh]

Looking forward to trying this one as always with any PHC release.

I've yet to be disappointed......

[cowdery]

No one else has done this and, when you think about it, who else could? Especially at that age. There just isn't that much wheater around. BT could, of course, and Beam theoretically could, but taking any Maker's Mark product away from the Maker's Mark brand would be a hard sell. Good for Heaven Hill. The PHC has been a first-rate series.

[Tucker]

From John Hansell:

"Just in from my friends at Heaven Hill: The new Parker's Heritage Collection release will come in around a whopping 143.6 proof for the first dump! Have some water handy..."

[doubleblank]

That's interesting. IIRC, I was told the first batch was 130.7 proof. The HH print ad says 132 proof. Now Hansell has a different proof.

[GaryT]

Nice! As a fan of high proof stuff, looking forward to this one more and more each day :grin:

[sob0728]

Has anybody tried this experiment at home (admittedly not a barrel strength) by vatting a bottle of VSOF and EC12 together?

[Tucker]

That's interesting. IIRC, I was told the first batch was 130.7 proof. The HH print ad says 132 proof. Now Hansell has a different proof.

...and now the bottle reviewed on bourbonblog.com is 127 proof.

[TomFischer]

We just published our review of Parker’s Heritage Master Distiller’s Blend of Mashbills. This is always an anticipated time of year for all of us that enjoy the Limited edition releases.

Been enjoying reading the comments here on this thread.

Master Distiller’s Blend of Mashbills is sweeter than previous PHC releases, drinks lower than 127 proof - which this particular bottle is bottled at that we have. There will be 3 dumps which will likely vary in proof released over the course of 4-6 months.

It is more approachable, well-balanced with the wheat and rye. At the $80 price point, a very nice release. However, I wouldn't mind seeing a higher price tag on future PHC releases that could offer something similar to Golden Anniversary .

From what Heaven Hill has told us the last few years, they've wanted to keep a price point that is easier on the pocket book for whiskey lovers.

For those of you who mentioned in this threat you were at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans recently, awesome to hear you were there and great seein' ya for those of ya we ran into.

Including a photo below with Josh Hafer and Rob Hutchins of Heaven Hill from Tales plus the new bottle.

See y'all at KYBF soon!

[TomFischer]

Tucker, thanks for that! You must have posted that just as I was finishing up the review and post here on SB.

I got up at 7 am and starting reviewing it...a great Friday already, cheers!

Tom

[White Dog]

Thank you, Tom. Your reporting is always objective to a fault.

[JohnHansell]

It is indeed bottled at 127 proof. Got a review bottle today. Not sure why they told me 143.6 a little while back. But then again, I'm not sure why the press release that came with it states it's bottled at 131.6 proof. They had everyone guessing--even themselves!