Seasoned oak | Molasses | Old leather | Aged oak | Wintergreen | Anise

Vanilla | Cherry | Leather | Cinnamon spice | Black tea | Oily mouthfeel

Rich charred oak | Cherry cordial | Blackberry | Black pepper

Designed to showcase Heaven Hill’s oldest classic-style American whiskeys, the Heaven Hill Heritage Collection serves as a counterweight to their more experimental Parker’s Heritage Collection. Since 2022, the releases have been aged 17 years or more and feature one of the company's six core mashbills.

According to Heaven Hill, this year’s edition was blended from 270 barrels distilled in February, July, and August 2003 and bottled in December 2025. They were aged on the 5th and 6th floors of Rickhouse Y in Bardstown, Kentucky.

There’s an age-old belief that bourbon can’t be aged over 20 years and still taste good. With so few brands releasing bourbon over 20 years, that belief is generally supported. The reality is that it's extremely difficult, and there is a high chance a barrel will become severely overoaked. With so much time and money wrapped up in aging a barrel that long, few brands are willing to take the risk. But Heaven Hill has been around long enough and is big enough to take this risk. Thankfully, that risk can pay off, as they were able to blend 270 barrels of 22 year old bourbon into something quite remarkable.

Despite being 129.2 proof, the bourbon is surprisingly palatable, which lets you fully appreciate the array of rich flavors it offers. The aroma is precisely layered with scents of seasoned oak, molasses, old leather, aged oak, wintergreen, and anise in perfect measure. The palate beautifully blends vanilla, cherry, cinnamon spice, and black tea, all wrapped up in an oily mouthfeel. The finish features a similar rollout of gentle but impactful notes of charred oak that’s intertwined with aged oak, cherry, dark chocolate, blackberry, and black pepper spice. After a sip, there’s little doubt it all comes together with exacting precision.

Age doesn’t necessarily make a bourbon automatically better, except in the few examples where it most certainly does. The whole bourbon tastes wonderfully complex while still feeling incredibly effortless. Its ability to blend different types of oak with an array of dark fruits, plus cinnamon and black pepper spice, is quite a display of craft on Heaven Hill’s part. Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 22 Years Old Bourbon proves that though the risk of failure is high and some amount of luck is needed, high aged bourbon can be exceptional if everything perfectly aligns.