Since 1935, Heaven Hill Distillery has been dedicated to crafting the highest quality Kentucky Whiskeys. This led us to start at the very beginning - the seed. Each year, our Master Distiller partners with fellow family-owned seed company Beck's Hybrids to hand-select the unique corn seed varietals that best grow in Kentucky's unique terroir and historical weather patterns.

Each release is a testament to our continued commitment to quality, sustainability and craft, and honors the multi-generational partnerships that were built on handshakes, not contracts.

It appears that Heaven Hill is bringing us a new and very special series - the Heaven Hill Grain to Glass!

Now you might've gotten wind of this series - it originally started in 2017, and Heaven Hill has periodically done updates on how the project is progressing. Up till now, it's never been revealed when the fruits of the project will be bottled and released (given that the project only started in 2017, it would take a couple of years at least for the whiskies to be aged sufficiently for bottling, which is why we've not seen an official bottling till now) - but now it's here!

___

___

As Heaven Hill detailed in a 2019 (the last we heard of the project!), each year unique corn strains are specially grown on a family-owned farm just across Heaven Hill's Bardstown headquarters just for the project and tested for yield and flavour. With each harvest, three different mashbills are created to test these small batch corn - a High Rye Bourbon, a High Wheat Wheated Bourbon and a High Rye Rye Whiskey. After distillation, they're aged at the Cox's Creek Barrel Preserve.

Each is then tasted and tested. Let's take a look at what's to be bottled!

Heaven Hill Grain To Glass Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Beck's 6158

First up! We've got a Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey distilled in 2017, using corn seed varietal Beck's 6158 (which as we've seen in the table above from Heaven Hill, has never been used by a distillery before, making it a completely unique American Whiskey ingredient).

The Bourbon has been aged for 7 years, using a 35% Rye, 52% Corn and 13% Malt mashbill, which follows the distillery's High Rye Bourbon recipe that produces the likes of Rittenhouse Rye and Pikesville. It's bottled at 53.5% ABV (107 Proof).

Heaven Hill Grain To Glass Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey Beck's 6158

Next up! Also leveraging on Beck's 6158 corn seed varietal, is the Heaven Hill Grain To Glass Rye Whiskey. This is also distilled in 2017, aged for 7 years, using a 63% Rye, 24% Corn and 13% Malt mashbill which follows the distillery's very new High Rye Whiskey mashbill, from which we've only seen used in the 2022 release of the Square 6 High-Rye Rye Whiskey expression from the experimental Fred B. Noe Distillery, and was sold as part of the Evan Williams Experience.

In any case this High-Rye Rye Whiskey expression is bottled at 62.5% ABV (125 Proof) - sure to excite folks! This is definitely going to be very interesting and popular!

Heaven Hill Grain To Glass Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon Whiskey Beck's 6158

Finally, also based on Beck's 6158 corn seed varietal, we've got the Heaven Hill Grain To Glass Kentucky Straight Wheated Bourbon Whiskey. This is also distilled in 2017, aged for 7 years, using a 35% Wheat, 52% Corn and 13% Malt mashbill which we haven't seen before from Heaven Hill.

Another highly likely super popular pick from the Grain to Glass series!

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team