Table Of Contents
The Details
| Rating | 88 |
| Style |
Bourbon American Whiskey Whiskey |
| Produced In |
Kentucky United States |
| ABV | 53.5% |
| Availability | Limited |
| Price | $99.00 |
| Reviewed By | |
| Review Updated | 2024-07-24 |
Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Kentucky Straight Bourbon (2024) Review
In the summer of 2024, Heaven Hill’s new Grain to Glass series debuted with three cornerstone expressions: bourbon (with a high rye mash bill), wheated bourbon, and rye. The lineup is the brainchild of executive chairman Max Shapira, with grain development and farming collaborations with Indiana-based Beck’s Hybrids and Kentucky-based Peterson Farms.
The general concept is such: Heaven Hill’s team works with Beck’s Hybrids to cultivate unique corn varieties, which will change each year. Peterson Farms then grows the corn at one of two sites within a few miles of Heaven Hill’s facilities in Nelson County, Ky. In 2024, that varietal is Beck’s 6158. In 2025, the line will expand to six expressions to include versions aged in woods other than the traditional new charred American white oak (Quercus alba).
Today, we’re looking at the first Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon with a high-rye mash bill. This bottling is made from a mash of 52 percent corn, 35 percent rye, and 13 percent malted barley. Though the project highlights different corn varieties, it’s worth noting this expression contains more than three times the rye of the famed Heaven Hill recipe that makes expressions like Elijah Craig and Evan Williams (78 percent corn, 12 percent malted barley, and 10 percent rye).
After barreling, the 2024 Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon was aged for just over six years at a rickhouse site in Cox’s Creek. (Fun fact: the specific warehouse sits on the highest point in Nelson County.) It was then bottled at 107 proof without chill filtration; the 700-milliliter bottles come with a suggested retail price right around $100.
Let’s see how the first expression in this lineup tastes!
Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon: Stats and Availability
Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon is a limited annual release with a suggested retail price of $99. (Of note: That’s for a 700-milliliter bottle, and Heaven Hill has been open about its plans to expand this lineup for international distribution.) Though Heaven Hill hasn’t released specific bottle counts, the entire release is already limited by the relatively small amount of locally-grown corn used in the mash bill. Indeed, all barrels across the 2024 Grain to Glass series were aged on the third, fourth, and fifth floors of a single rickhouse.
Anecdotally, I’ve already seen bottles in the Grain to Glass series go for $20-$50 over suggested retail pricing. However, the somewhat young nature of the whiskey may be keeping prices closer to retail than some other limited Heaven Hill products. Personally, I’d be surprised to see these bottles going for double MSRP.
Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon Review
As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.
Disclaimer: I originally sampled these expressions on a brand media trip to Heaven Hill facilities. However, for the purposes of this review, I revisited the expression in the same controlled environment where I taste all spirits for VinePair reviews.
Nose
The early nose serves an interesting balance between delicate fruit and slightly above-its-proof ethanol; the impact is initially similar to a high-proof apple brandy. Green apple skins, fresh apricots, and red plum jump out of the glass with gusto, carried by heat that brings both alcohol and an undercurrent of rye spices.
Blackcurrant jelly is up next, and the nose quickly gains even more fruit-forward sweetness as that ethanol dies back slightly. Spice shifts to vanilla extract and wood shavings; the wood smells aren’t overpowering and teeter in a space almost exactly between freshly milled and deeply toasted wood.
Notably, a pronounced apple note — though gradually less and less tart — remains as a true constant while other aromas evolve. As such, that apple brandy character gradually gives way to apple juice. Ultimately, this bourbon has a remarkably light and fruity nose with a bit less in the realm of traditional rye spice than I anticipated given the mash bill. I wouldn’t have minded some darker oak character, but it’s a pretty satisfying start nonetheless.
Taste
A first sip is intensely fruity and plenty sweet enough to keep the apple juice comparison apt. If I have one early criticism, it’s that the initial taste is almost cloying, though the sweetness levels off by the third sip.
It also features a viscous mouthfeel that sticks around the front of the tongue a tick longer than most bourbons under 10 years old. Spice is more abundant here in the form of freshly grated cinnamon sticks. Together, the fruitiness, viscosity, and pronounced spice evoke a rustic apple sauce. It’s certainly unique among Heaven Hill distillates I’ve sampled recently!
Fruity tartness eventually dials back as clove-infused caramel builds along the midpalate. Here, apple sauce transitions to homemade apple butter as spice — usual suspects cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and allspice — accumulates and intensifies.
Light honey syrup takes the reins toward the back of the palate, that initial green/sour/tart apple subsiding almost completely by the end of the sip. Oak is present but light at this juncture and never quite reaches the same rung of forcefulness as the aforementioned fruit and spice.
Finish
The finish is long and dry, far and away the oakiest phase with a touch of pipe tobacco as a tannic bookend. To my palate, it’s this whiskey’s most composed phase, showcasing more depth than either the nose or palate expressed individually.
Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon Rating
88/100
Recap
From the start, Heaven Hill’s Grain to Glass Bourbon feels distinct from other whiskeys in the company’s portfolio. It’s remarkably fruit-forward, bringing a combo of flavors that leans quite sweet despite the relatively low-corn mash bill. Though not superlative compared to other bourbons on the market today, it’s a satisfying dram with unique character and a fascinating pedigree. And given the use of different corn — along with inevitable variations in the distilling and aging process — it’s practically guaranteed to bring something different next year.
*Image retrieved from Heaven Hill
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