William Heavenhill Signature Bourbon

[wheatfield]

I recently got this bottle. It's labeled 8/175. I believe this was a 2012 bottling but there's very limited information out there. it looks like it was released at least twice, it's aged for 18.9 months and was only available in the gift shop. I can only describe the packaging inside the box as "bird's nest". Anyone know whether this was in fact bottled multiple times? I'm very intrigued by it, it's probably the coolest bottle I have!

[petrel800]

http://www.whiskyadvocateblog.com/2008/09/16/heaven-hill-introduces-new-rare-bourbon-for-their-visitors-center/

Found this article, but it states there was 225 bottles. I'm assuming that yours might be a separate dump, but I could be wrong. What is the proof?

Just curious, was the retail really what the article states? I saw it at HH the last time I went there, but didn't pay it much attention just due to the pricey nature of the gift shop there.

[squire]

My understanding is this bottling is a limited one off as it marked the anniversary of a specific date and at over 18 years and 127+ proof it must be a whopper. Is it still priced at $500 a bottle?

[Wryguy]

Looks like you got the first edition, though it is hard to make out from the picture. I'm basing it off of the age you stated and the number of bottles produced. There have been two editions so far, with the second being much younger (13 years), with 113 bottles produced, at about $150 less MSRP than the first edition, @127.6 proof. That's about all I know about that.

[squire]

Oh, so there was a second release, I thought it was limited to 225 bottles though it's not something to which I've really paid much attention.

[Wryguy]

Oh, so there was a second release, I thought it was limited to 225 bottles though it's not something to which I've really paid much attention.

At that price I'd want a taste first, but I'm still probably not biting. Only time I've seen it was at Bourbon in DC, they had the first edition, it was $75 a pour IIRC. So, I guess I'm not tasting either. For that kinda scratch I'm going toward an older rye instead. Or just wait til I get home.

[fishnbowljoe]

Not sure if there was more than one dump, but the pic below is from 2008.

[Wryguy]

Not sure if there was more than one dump, but the pic below is from 2008.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15393[/ATTACH]

Nice! What did you think of it? I'm getting my info on this second edition from HH Distillery's Bourbon Heritage Center FB page. They announced the second edition on June 15 last summer, and apparently according to their FB page it sold well, within two weeks they were down to 28 bottles!

[squire]

Oh, don't tell the Pappy23 fanatics that there is something even more rare.

[wheatfield]

Looks like you got the first edition, though it is hard to make out from the picture. I'm basing it off of the age you stated and the number of bottles produced. There have been two editions so far, with the second being much younger (13 years), with 113 bottles produced, at about $150 less MSRP than the first edition, @127.6 proof. That's about all I know about that.

The bottle I have is from a 175 bottle run, I have bottle 8/175. It's 127 proof, I believe, not having the bottle in front of me. The color of the bourbon itself is notably dark, kind of a rich mahogany, almost plum like, darker than Van Winkle 15. I was told it's a 2012 but the resources online don't mention separate bottlings of this -- just that this is a special anniversary bottle.

Anyone know if it's still for sale at the gift shoppe?

[c2walker]

I can say for certain that a few bottles made it out to retailers. I passed on a bottle priced at $400 about a year ago in a big city.

[callmeox]

Nice! What did you think of it? I'm getting my info on this second edition from HH Distillery's Bourbon Heritage Center FB page. They announced the second edition on June 15 last summer, and apparently according to their FB page it sold well, within two weeks they were down to 28 bottles!

I regret that we tasted it after the BTOTY competition and my palate was pretty fried, so I don' recall tasting much.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

No longer for sale at gift shop. EW23, EC21 and 20 are the super premiums available there.

[wheatfield]

No longer for sale at gift shop. EW23, EC21 and 20 are the super premiums available there.

Can you confirm how many times this was bottled? Any big difference between the releases?

[Wryguy]

Can you confirm how many times this was bottled? Any big difference between the releases?

[callmeox]

I recall the 225 as a reference to the age of the bourbon in months and not the number of bottles but 175 sounds about right.

[Virus_Of_Life]

There must have been at least a second release, I believe my bottle is aged 225 months and was the same number of bottles, but I will go grab it to find out for sure.

225 bottles is what mine stated, and the box fell apart so I don't think I kept the info brochure, but am about 90% sure it stated this was aged 225 months as part of the 225th anniversary of something.

Edited May 17, 2013 by Virus_Of_Life

[TomH]

I regret that we tasted it after the BTOTY competition and my palate was pretty fried, so I don' recall tasting much.

[squire]

Seems like I got the 225 bottles from an article Hansel wrote but I guess it doesn't matter now.

[wheatfield]

So a pretty reliable source told me this is the 2012 bottling, at 175 bottles. Apparently over half of the batch went to Japan!

[Wryguy]

Alright just got off the phone with the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center. The first edition was 225 bottles, the second was only 113 bottles, the labels say out of 175 bottles because the labels were produced before the actual whiskey was dumped and bottled. They have bottles 1 of 225 and 1 of 175 on display at the Heritage Center, they are not for sale, but the gentleman assured me that the 113 bottle number is the correct number of bottles produced for the second edition. (Between this and the mislabeled PHC there seem to have been mix ups in the labeling department at HH this past fall). He also confirmed that half of the bottles from the second edition went to Japan. He also told me that there will be a third edition released this fall, and while he didnt know the MSRP, age, proof etc. he did inform me that it will definitely be a BiB.

[wheatfield]

Alright just got off the phone with the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center. The first edition was 225 bottles, the second was only 113 bottles, the labels say out of 175 bottles because the labels were produced before the actual whiskey was dumped and bottled. They have bottles 1 of 225 and 1 of 175 on display at the Heritage Center, they are not for sale, but the gentleman assured me that the 113 bottle number is the correct number of bottles produced for the second edition. (Between this and the mislabeled PHC there seem to have been mix ups in the labeling department at HH this past fall). He also confirmed that half of the bottles from the second edition went to Japan. He also told me that there will be a third edition released this fall, and while he didnt know the MSRP, age, proof etc. he did inform me that it will definitely be a BiB.

[Wryguy]

The Japanese love everything American, and they also have a long established whisk(e)y culture there, and relative cost to them isn't as high considering the cost of living over there. The thing that baffles me is that the EW23 does so well there. The gentleman on the phone at the Heritage Center assured me that they have one Japanese customer who picks up 20+ bottles of EW23 every couple months and goes through it at his restaurant. We both shared a chuckle over that one. Even he seemed to think that was kinda nuts.

[squire]

HH has a long history of selling overaged Bourbon in Japan, stuff they didn't even try to sell here.

[wheatfield]

HH has a long history of selling overaged Bourbon in Japan, stuff they didn't even try to sell here.

According to an earlier post in this thread the 2012 batch, half of which was sold to the Japan market, was a 13 year bourbon, while the other one was 18.9 years. Still fairly old but not THAT old.