What's your favorite DSP 31 (Heaven Hill)?

[oldironstomach]

Now that it's been 10 years since the big HH fire, I've been thinking that it might be time to grab a few of the current 10 year old expressions while DSP-KY-31 product is still plentiful and relatively inexpensive...although obviously there will be more aged expressions like EC12/18 for some time to come. Not to diss new HH (Bernheim) production...just to bunker a bit of history before it's gone. Obviously the latest EWSB 1997/2007 will have already switched. And I noticed on my last shopping trip that Very Rare Old Heaven Hill 10 yr BIB seemed to be rather low in stock.

Which 10 year old HH bourbons would you choose to stash? VROHH 10 BIB? EWSB 1996/2006? Henry McKenna SB 10?

[nor02lei]

Now that it's been 10 years since the big HH fire, I've been thinking that it might be time to grab a few of the current 10 year old expressions while DSP-KY-31 product is still plentiful and relatively inexpensive...although obviously there will be more aged expressions like EC12/18 for some time to come. Not to diss new HH (Bernheim) production...just to bunker a bit of history before it's gone. Obviously the latest EWSB 1997/2007 will have already switched. And I noticed on my last shopping trip that Very Rare Old Heaven Hill 10 yr BIB seemed to be rather low in stock.

Which 10 year old HH bourbons would you choose to stash? VROHH 10 BIB? EWSB 1996/2006? Henry McKenna SB 10?

Dave,

For me it would`t be a bourbon but rather Rittenhouse 10 years BIB. Almost sold out though so next time will be the last for me.

Leif

[ratcheer]

I'm not sure if this fits your question, but my favorite is Henry McKenna 10-yr old single barrel.

Tim

[mozilla]

The only HH product, that I can be sure of , from DSP 31 is my recently purchased bottle of Heavan Hill 4yr. It has a bottle date of 1994. Very smooth and easy to drink. Austin doesn't have many dusties form HH. I am not sure how many of the regular bottlings came from DSP 31, since they don't list the DSP on lower proof versions. I would like to try the EC 18 but have not ponied up the dough yet.

Jeff Mo.

[OscarV]

Very Special Old Fitzgerald 12yo and Elijah Craig 12yo.

That is a good idea about bunkering some, I think I will.

[JDutton]

Ewsb 1995

[straightwhiskeyruffneck]

Ewsb 1995

I secod that!

[cowdery]

No Fitzgerald whiskey or wheated bourbon of any kind was ever made at DSP 31, so far as I know.

I tend to think the EWSB is consistently the best bourbon Heaven Hill makes, and 1994 is the best of the recent vintages. The 1997, which should start to appear in stores soon, is the first post-fire whiskey, made at Beam's Clermont distillery. Everything prior to 1996 is DSP 31.

[OscarV]

I just assumed that VSOF12yo was made in Bardstown since it is Heaven Hill's.

I checked the label and there it is, Louisville.

So now I have a question, did Heaven Hill always have 2 distilleries,(before the Bardstown fire), or did they buy Bernheim later on?

[cowdery]

They bought Bernheim after and because of the fire, although there's a little more to it than that.

Top executives at Heaven Hill have told me they probably would not have bought the distillery if the overall deal had not included several desirable brands, prominent among them Old Fitzgerald bourbon but also such non-bourbon products as Christian Brothers Brandy.

That begs the question of what they would have done in the alternative, but since they did buy Bernheim, we can only speculate. At the time, they were making whiskey at Jim Beam and Brown-Forman, both of whom had spare capacity. Today, Jim Beam is operating at full capacity and investing about $120 million to increase capacity, so Beam probably would have kicked them out some time ago.

Brown-Forman still has spare capacity and, last I heard, Heaven Hill was still using it, since they are now operating Bernheim at capacity.

Of course, Bernheim is a nice, new distillery (despite some problems) so it probably would not have been idle for long. Either Heaven Hill or someone else would have bought it, probably Heaven Hill, but maybe a couple of years later.

[TNbourbon]

I like quite a few Heaven Hill products (for example, I'll nod to Leif's choice of Rittenhouse 10yo as one I pondered), but for pure, simple enjoyment, I think my favorite has been the Evan Williams 15yo, a couple of which have made the round-trip to Japan and back.

[oldironstomach]

Interesting comments, gang...thanks!

Chuck's note on the EWSB was particularly interesting, because it's less likely to hang around as a dusty. I think the prominent vintage-dating causes store owners to put old-stock up front to rotate it out. Obviously there's a lot of 1996 out there, and still a fair amount of 1995, but I've seen only one 1994 and I pounced on it last month.

Where is this elusive Rittenhouse 10 yr bonded rye sold, and how is it priced (hopefully far more affordably than the 21)? I had no idea they offered such an expression, but I love the regular BiB!

[Ubertaster]

Interesting comments, gang...thanks!

Where is this elusive Rittenhouse 10 yr bonded rye sold, and how is it priced (hopefully far more affordably than the 21)? I had no idea they offered such an expression, but I love the regular BiB!

I just got some Rittenhouse 10 BIB from Binny's at $11.99. I bought a case so they are probably out. :grin: :grin:

bj

[TNbourbon]

I just got some Rittenhouse 10 BIB from Binny's at $11.99. I bought a case so they are probably out. :grin: :grin:

bj

You sure that's the 10yo? If it doesn't say so, the standard Rittenhouse BIB is 6 years old. I don't believe the 10's sold domestically, except by accident.

[cowdery]

If I remember correctly, the 10-year-old was done as a one-off for a distributor in France. A bottle or two has shown up here and there, but it isn't really available.

[ThomasH]

It has been said before that HH distills for KBD so the bottle of Old Bardstown 10yr. is more than likely a HH product and definitely from the HH Bardstown distillery!

Thomas

[jsgorman]

How about a Old Fitzgerald that was distilled in DSP 16 and Bottled in DSP 31?

[Ubertaster]

You sure that's the 10yo? If it doesn't say so, the standard Rittenhouse BIB is 6 years old. I don't believe the 10's sold domestically, except by accident.

Sorry I stand corrected. My bottle doesn't say so I guess it is the standard 6 yo. Now I have to get a new one. :grin:

bj

[jspero]

Rittenhouse BIB. It has become one of my favorites since Stoopsie introduced me to it last year.

Jay