Table Of Contents

The Details

Rating 90
Style
American Whiskey
Whiskey
Produced In Kentucky
United States
ABV 52.5%
Availability Limited
Price $99.00 
Reviewed By
Reviewed 2025-06-24

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Kentucky Straight Bourbon (2025) Review

Heaven Hill launched its Grain to Glass lineup in 2024 with three initial expressions: bourbon (with rye as a flavor grain), rye, and wheated bourbon, all made with a specific and locally grown corn varietal. The lineup returns in 2025, though instead of getting all bottles at once, it seems the brand is releasing them sequentially. First up is the “standard” bourbon, though based on TTB filings and the brand’s own intel, we know more is on the way this year (including some whiskeys aged in chinquapin oak instead of the more standard white oak).

This year’s bourbon is made from a mash of 52 percent corn, 35 percent rye, and 13 percent malted barley. That corn varietal is Beck’s 6225, which was grown by Peterson Farms Nelson County, Ky., not far from the new Heaven Hill Springs Distillery. (For comparison, all 2024 Grain to Glass expressions were made with Beck’s 6158 corn.) The whiskey was distilled in 2018 and barreled at 107 proof, then aged for six years in rickhouses W5 and W6 at Heaven Hill’s Cox’s Creek warehouse campus.

After aging, the whiskey was bottled at a cask-strength 105 proof, meaning that overall, the batch dropped in proof slightly during aging. The release comes in a 700-milliliter bottle and carries an MSRP of around $100. Starting this year, a portion of all bottle sales (up to $100,000) will be donated toward the nonprofit organization Farm Rescue.

Let’s see how it tastes!

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Kentucky Straight Bourbon (2025) review.

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon 2025: Stats and Availability

Heaven Hill’s Grain to Glass whiskeys made a pretty noticeable splash in 2024 and quickly commanded some markups at retail and the secondary market. While the company didn’t release specific bottle counts, anecdotally, supply eventually seemed to better match demand, with bottles generally being listed closer to MSRP. If last year was any indication, these newest Grain to Glass whiskeys will be accessible, though certainly not as commonplace as the company’s always-on expressions.

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon 2025 Review

As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.

Nose

The nose starts off with heavily spiced nuts, the kind you’d order up hot and sticky from a sidewalk cart: pecans, cashews, peanuts, and almonds, all coated in sweet cinnamon syrup. That’s followed on a second sniff by a big hit of rye spice, as well as green, semi-vegetal notes. Dill, lemongrass, sawgrass, and a tiny element of chives all make their presence known as the nose shifts from sweet and nutty to herbal.

Oak is up next, perhaps slightly richer and deeper than I might expect with a standard six-year Kentucky bourbon. There’s little to no presence of fresh or young wood here; instead, the impact of the wood is halfway between seasoned staves and barrel char. Though it certainly doesn’t nose like Heaven Hill bourbons in the 10-plus year range, tasted blind, I could be convinced this is a slightly older whiskey.

Taste

A first sip is light, sweet, and viscous, slowly but surely coating the palate in maple syrup, cinnamon-coated baked apples, and buttery pastry. The second sip is quite a bit spicier, leaning hard into cinnamon and allspice, along with fennel seed, clove, and peppercorn. Before the midpalate really settles in, the result is a flavor backdrop very similar to Chinese five spice powder.

Just beyond that five spice comes capsaicin-spiked Mexican hot chocolate, and the midpalate itself gains some structure, which I thought the second sip lost due to the bigger-than-expected influence of cinnamon. (For a brief moment, it reminded me of cinnamon chewing gum.) Once the bourbon settles in further, drinkers are rewarded with a chocolatey (though still heavily spiced) dram that gradually folds in more baked apple. That middle act is followed by a back palate that languidly builds on those aforementioned flavors, gradually incorporating a little more oak with each and every sip.

Finish

Gingersnaps, vanilla extract, and almond cookies linger on the finish, which also includes some residual heat that seems a few proof points above the bottled ABV. It’s a pronounced — though not inappropriate — final act.

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon 2025 Rating

90/100

Recap

The newest batch of Heaven Hill’s Grain to Glass seems to follow a slightly different cadence than the inaugural 2024 release. Instead of releasing all the year’s expressions at once, the company is dripping them out, with the hallmark rye-forward bourbon as an opener for 2025. The whiskey itself is a flavorful, punches-above-its proof dram that really finds its footing after a couple sips. I found it a slight improvement on the 2024 version, which could spell good things to come as the company continues tinkering with the various mashbills, grain varietals, and aging environments for this series.

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90
POINTS
Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Kentucky Straight Bourbon (2025)
Heaven Hill launched its Grain to Glass lineup in 2024 with three initial expressions: bourbon (with rye as a flavor grain), rye, and wheated bourbon, all made with a specific and locally grown corn varietal. The lineup returns in 2025, though instead of getting all bottles at once, it seems the brand is releasing them sequentially. First up is the “standard” bourbon, though based on TTB filings and the brand’s own intel, we know more is on the way this year (including some whiskeys aged in chinquapin oak instead of the more standard white oak). This year’s bourbon is made from a mash of 52 percent corn, 35 percent rye, and 13 percent malted barley. That corn varietal is Beck’s 6225, which was grown by Peterson Farms Nelson County, Ky., not far from the new Heaven Hill Springs Distillery. (For comparison, all 2024 Grain to Glass expressions were made with Beck’s 6158 corn.) The whiskey was distilled in 2018 and barreled at 107 proof, then aged for six years in rickhouses W5 and W6 at Heaven Hill’s Cox’s Creek warehouse campus. After aging, the whiskey was bottled at a cask-strength 105 proof, meaning that overall, the batch dropped in proof slightly during aging. The release comes in a 700-milliliter bottle and carries an MSRP of around $100. Starting this year, a portion of all bottle sales (up to $100,000) will be donated toward the nonprofit organization Farm Rescue. Let’s see how it tastes! Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Kentucky Straight Bourbon (2025) review.

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon 2025: Stats and Availability

Heaven Hill’s Grain to Glass whiskeys made a pretty noticeable splash in 2024 and quickly commanded some markups at retail and the secondary market. While the company didn’t release specific bottle counts, anecdotally, supply eventually seemed to better match demand, with bottles generally being listed closer to MSRP. If last year was any indication, these newest Grain to Glass whiskeys will be accessible, though certainly not as commonplace as the company’s always-on expressions.

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon 2025 Review

As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.

Nose

The nose starts off with heavily spiced nuts, the kind you’d order up hot and sticky from a sidewalk cart: pecans, cashews, peanuts, and almonds, all coated in sweet cinnamon syrup. That’s followed on a second sniff by a big hit of rye spice, as well as green, semi-vegetal notes. Dill, lemongrass, sawgrass, and a tiny element of chives all make their presence known as the nose shifts from sweet and nutty to herbal. Oak is up next, perhaps slightly richer and deeper than I might expect with a standard six-year Kentucky bourbon. There’s little to no presence of fresh or young wood here; instead, the impact of the wood is halfway between seasoned staves and barrel char. Though it certainly doesn’t nose like Heaven Hill bourbons in the 10-plus year range, tasted blind, I could be convinced this is a slightly older whiskey.

Taste

A first sip is light, sweet, and viscous, slowly but surely coating the palate in maple syrup, cinnamon-coated baked apples, and buttery pastry. The second sip is quite a bit spicier, leaning hard into cinnamon and allspice, along with fennel seed, clove, and peppercorn. Before the midpalate really settles in, the result is a flavor backdrop very similar to Chinese five spice powder. Just beyond that five spice comes capsaicin-spiked Mexican hot chocolate, and the midpalate itself gains some structure, which I thought the second sip lost due to the bigger-than-expected influence of cinnamon. (For a brief moment, it reminded me of cinnamon chewing gum.) Once the bourbon settles in further, drinkers are rewarded with a chocolatey (though still heavily spiced) dram that gradually folds in more baked apple. That middle act is followed by a back palate that languidly builds on those aforementioned flavors, gradually incorporating a little more oak with each and every sip.

Finish

Gingersnaps, vanilla extract, and almond cookies linger on the finish, which also includes some residual heat that seems a few proof points above the bottled ABV. It’s a pronounced — though not inappropriate — final act.

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon 2025 Rating

90/100

Recap

The newest batch of Heaven Hill’s Grain to Glass seems to follow a slightly different cadence than the inaugural 2024 release. Instead of releasing all the year’s expressions at once, the company is dripping them out, with the hallmark rye-forward bourbon as an opener for 2025. The whiskey itself is a flavorful, punches-above-its proof dram that really finds its footing after a couple sips. I found it a slight improvement on the 2024 version, which could spell good things to come as the company continues tinkering with the various mashbills, grain varietals, and aging environments for this series.

Reviewed On: 06-24-2025
90
POINTS
Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Kentucky Straight Bourbon (2025)
Heaven Hill launched its Grain to Glass lineup in 2024 with three initial expressions: bourbon (with rye as a flavor grain), rye, and wheated bourbon, all made with a specific and locally grown corn varietal. The lineup returns in 2025, though instead of getting all bottles at once, it seems the brand is releasing them sequentially. First up is the “standard” bourbon, though based on TTB filings and the brand’s own intel, we know more is on the way this year (including some whiskeys aged in chinquapin oak instead of the more standard white oak). This year’s bourbon is made from a mash of 52 percent corn, 35 percent rye, and 13 percent malted barley. That corn varietal is Beck’s 6225, which was grown by Peterson Farms Nelson County, Ky., not far from the new Heaven Hill Springs Distillery. (For comparison, all 2024 Grain to Glass expressions were made with Beck’s 6158 corn.) The whiskey was distilled in 2018 and barreled at 107 proof, then aged for six years in rickhouses W5 and W6 at Heaven Hill’s Cox’s Creek warehouse campus. After aging, the whiskey was bottled at a cask-strength 105 proof, meaning that overall, the batch dropped in proof slightly during aging. The release comes in a 700-milliliter bottle and carries an MSRP of around $100. Starting this year, a portion of all bottle sales (up to $100,000) will be donated toward the nonprofit organization Farm Rescue. Let’s see how it tastes! Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Kentucky Straight Bourbon (2025) review.

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon 2025: Stats and Availability

Heaven Hill’s Grain to Glass whiskeys made a pretty noticeable splash in 2024 and quickly commanded some markups at retail and the secondary market. While the company didn’t release specific bottle counts, anecdotally, supply eventually seemed to better match demand, with bottles generally being listed closer to MSRP. If last year was any indication, these newest Grain to Glass whiskeys will be accessible, though certainly not as commonplace as the company’s always-on expressions.

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon 2025 Review

As with all of VinePair’s whiskey reviews, this was tasted in a Glencairn glass and rested for at least five minutes.

Nose

The nose starts off with heavily spiced nuts, the kind you’d order up hot and sticky from a sidewalk cart: pecans, cashews, peanuts, and almonds, all coated in sweet cinnamon syrup. That’s followed on a second sniff by a big hit of rye spice, as well as green, semi-vegetal notes. Dill, lemongrass, sawgrass, and a tiny element of chives all make their presence known as the nose shifts from sweet and nutty to herbal. Oak is up next, perhaps slightly richer and deeper than I might expect with a standard six-year Kentucky bourbon. There’s little to no presence of fresh or young wood here; instead, the impact of the wood is halfway between seasoned staves and barrel char. Though it certainly doesn’t nose like Heaven Hill bourbons in the 10-plus year range, tasted blind, I could be convinced this is a slightly older whiskey.

Taste

A first sip is light, sweet, and viscous, slowly but surely coating the palate in maple syrup, cinnamon-coated baked apples, and buttery pastry. The second sip is quite a bit spicier, leaning hard into cinnamon and allspice, along with fennel seed, clove, and peppercorn. Before the midpalate really settles in, the result is a flavor backdrop very similar to Chinese five spice powder. Just beyond that five spice comes capsaicin-spiked Mexican hot chocolate, and the midpalate itself gains some structure, which I thought the second sip lost due to the bigger-than-expected influence of cinnamon. (For a brief moment, it reminded me of cinnamon chewing gum.) Once the bourbon settles in further, drinkers are rewarded with a chocolatey (though still heavily spiced) dram that gradually folds in more baked apple. That middle act is followed by a back palate that languidly builds on those aforementioned flavors, gradually incorporating a little more oak with each and every sip.

Finish

Gingersnaps, vanilla extract, and almond cookies linger on the finish, which also includes some residual heat that seems a few proof points above the bottled ABV. It’s a pronounced — though not inappropriate — final act.

Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Bourbon 2025 Rating

90/100

Recap

The newest batch of Heaven Hill’s Grain to Glass seems to follow a slightly different cadence than the inaugural 2024 release. Instead of releasing all the year’s expressions at once, the company is dripping them out, with the hallmark rye-forward bourbon as an opener for 2025. The whiskey itself is a flavorful, punches-above-its proof dram that really finds its footing after a couple sips. I found it a slight improvement on the 2024 version, which could spell good things to come as the company continues tinkering with the various mashbills, grain varietals, and aging environments for this series.

Reviewed On: 06-24-2025