What Does John Know?

Parker’s Heritage Collection, 27 year old, 48%, $200
Very well balanced and mellow on the nose and palate.  Sweet notes of mature dark rum, toffee, nougat and candy corn dovetail with dried apricot, golden raisin, hot cinnamon, soft mint tea, and vanilla. Polished leather and tobacco leaves on a long, contemplative finish. This is what an ultra-mature bourbon should taste like: all the depth and complexity that comes with this much aging without all the excessive oak. The wood is there, but it never crosses the line. The next closest Heaven Hill bourbon in age is the Evan Williams 23 year old for the export market. There’s no comparison. This PHC has it easily beat. The EW 23 is way past its prime. In fact, this PHC shows less oak and lethargy on the finish than the 129.6 proof expression of last year’s inaugural 1996 vintage PHC, a whiskey less than half its age. (There were three different expressions, and I thought the other two were outstanding.)

Advanced Malt Advocate magazine rating: 96

(Parker Beam chose these whiskeys from the third floor of Warehouse U. Given that the whiskeys were low in the warehouse, the average summer high temperatures were 6-10 degrees cooler than the top floor, helping to slow the aging process, along with the oak influence).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 9:41 am and is filed under Reviews, Bourbon. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.