As is common firstly of a brand new 12 months, the whisky releases are off to a quiet tempo. Previous Forester has returned with its 1924 label, following up on final January’s debut. Heaven’s Door is again with a sixth quantity in its Bootleg Collection, and the primary Bootleg launch since 2023. Initially based in Nashville, Heaven’s Door put down stakes within the Kentucky down of Pleasureville in late 2023, with a distillery and plans for opening a customer middle the general public in the summertime of 2024, however summer time handed with no replace. Kentucky bourbon label Wheel Horse has been an rare however extremely profitable non-distiller producer over time, nevertheless it’s again now with a brand new 5 12 months previous. And on the American single malt entrance, Iowa-based Cedar Ridge has a brand new and fairly complicated wine cask-finished launch.
Previous Forester 1924 Bourbon
ABV: 50%
SRP: $120
Availability: Restricted
This January, Previous Forester is bringing again its 1924 expression, which made its inaugural debut final 12 months. The ten 12 months previous whiskey has a mashbill of 79% corn, 11% rye, and 10% malted barley—a distinction to the usual Previous Forester bourbon recipe of 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley. The discharge, out now, pays homage to a time throughout Prohibition (1924, to be precise) when Previous Forester—considered one of simply six distilleries allowed to bottle its current whiskey shares as drugs—purchased barrels of whiskey, all with totally different mashbills, from shuttered producers and bottled it as Previous Forester. The discharge is considered one of 5 labels in Previous Forester’s Whiskey Row Collection, which celebrates the distillery’s roots.
Heaven’s Door Bootleg Collection Quantity VI Bourbon
ABV: 60.58%
SRP: $500
Availability: Restricted
Bob Dylan-backed Heaven’s Door has launched the sixth version of its collectible Bootleg Collection. The brand new straight bourbon is a mix of 12, 13, and 14 12 months previous wheated bourbons, with the ultimate mix completed in frivolously toasted French Limousin “cigar” barrels. The barrels are so named for his or her form—tall and elongated, like a cigar—which permits for extra interplay between the whiskey and wooden, based on grasp blender Alex Moore, who experimented with greater than a dozen totally different barrel sorts earlier than touchdown on these.
Each Heaven’s Door Bootleg bottle options paintings by Dylan, and this launch is not any totally different, highlighting his portray “Favela Villa Candido,” which was a part of his 2015 assortment, “The Brazil Collection.” (The whiskey nods to Brazil by way of its maturation, provided that Limousin cigar barrels are historically used for growing old Brazilian spirits.) Lower than 5,000 bottles of Bootleg VI can be found nationwide.
Cedar Ridge The QuintEssential: Wine Membership, First Assembly American Single Malt
ABV: 59.05%
SRP: $100
Availability: Restricted
Swisher, Iowa-based Cedar Ridge Distillery has rolled out its newest restricted version QuintEssential American single malt. This one faucets into Cedar Ridge’s wine facet, showcasing a number of wine cask finishes. The whiskey includes two parts that have been blended collectively. The primary is a bourbon barrel-matured single malt completed in a mixture of amontillado, moscatel, and tokaji casks. The second is a peated single malt that was completed in pinot noir barrels.
That is the fourth launch within the QuintEssential Particular Releases collection, with every entry that includes an attention-grabbing array of ending casks or an progressive mixing approach. The collection kicked off in 2023 with two expressions named Pete & Sherri—a wedding of sherry cask-finished single malt with a bourbon barrel-aged peated single malt—and Portside, which featured finishes in amontillado, ruby port, and virgin French oak barrels. The third launch, Untitled Cigar Malt Challenge, was completed in madeira-inspired dessert wine, ruby port, virgin French and American oak, and sherry casks.
Wheel Horse 5 12 months previous Double Oak Bourbon
ABV: 50.5%
SRP: $35
Availability: Restricted
Wheel Horse has unveiled a brand new double-barreled bourbon, its oldest bourbon but. It was first aged for 4 and a half years in No.-4 closely charred oak barrels earlier than being transferred into No.-1 mild charred oak barrels for six months. Like a lot of Wheel Horse’s different whiskeys, this one was bottled at 101 proof.
Based in 2019, Wheel Horse is a model owned by Boston-based Latitude Beverage Co. It has been sourcing its whiskey from Inexperienced River Distilling Co. in Owensboro, Kentucky. So far as non-distilling producers go, Wheel Horse is a reasonably quiet one—solely having launched a handful of expressions—nevertheless it has taken house excessive marks from our tasting panel. Its thrice-finished Cigar Mix bourbon lately scored 91 factors. Previous to that, it surprised our tasters with a 2–4 12 months previous bourbon that netted a 94-point ranking and landed a spot on our Prime 20 Whiskies of 2021.
The Inexperienced River facility is a historic distillery on the western finish of Kentucky, about 100 miles west of Louisville, and its well-known model names as soon as included Ezra Brooks, Previous Medley, and Mellow Corn. Like a lot of the bourbon enterprise, it went by way of a chronic droop over the latter a part of the 20th century, and by the early 2000s it was a shuttered shell of its former self. In 2014 it was acquired by Terresentia Company, which restored the place and renamed it O.Z. Tyler Distillery. In 2022 it was bought to present proprietor Bardstown Bourbon Co., and its title reverted to the unique Inexperienced River Distilling Co.
