One of Heaven Hill’s Most Coveted Bourbons, Old Fitzgerald, Is Back
The whiskey news keeps coming fast and furious—first Birthday Bourbon, then a new Michter’s 20 Year, followed by the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection, and then, just yesterday, news about the 2024 Pappy Van Winkle series. Don’t sleep on Heaven Hill either, though, because the distillery just revealed the details about the fall edition of its biannual Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon.
This highly collectible whiskey comes out twice a year, in the fall and in the spring, and last spring’s release was a doozy—two editions arrived, a 10-year-old bourbon and the VVS (Very Very Special) 25th Anniversary Edition, a 13-year-old bottled-in-bond bourbon. Heaven Hill acquired the Old Fitzgerald name in 1999, but the history of the brand dates back to the late 19th century. Pappy Van Winkle himself owned the name for a while and turned it into the wheated bourbon that it still is today, although obviously what’s in the bottle now is very different from what it used to be.
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Since 2018, Old Fitzgerald has been released as the Bottled-in-Bond Decanter Series of fancy bottles containing bourbon made using the same mashbill as Larceny: 68 percent corn, 20 percent wheat, and 12 percent malted barley. As you can tell by the name, it’s bottled in bond, meaning that the whiskey is at least 4 years old, exactly 100 proof, and the product of one distillery (Heaven Hill) and one distillation season. The fall 2024 release is 11 years old (falling on the younger end of the age range for Old Fitzgerald), meaning it was distilled in the fall of 2013 and bottled in the fall of this year.
“Heaven Hill Distillery’s Fall 2024 edition of Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a masterclass in tradition and craftsmanship,” said master distiller Conor O’Driscoll in a statement. “At 11 years old, this release celebrates a first-class legacy within the bottled-in-bond category. As the 14th release in this prestigious series, it reaffirms Old Fitzgerald’s place at the pinnacle of American whiskey, honoring both its storied past and the continued excellence that Heaven Hill brings to every bottle.”
We did not get to sample the whiskey for ourselves, but official tasting notes describe leather, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg on the nose, followed by crème brûlée, ginger, old leather, and toasted oak on the palate, and a warm and dry finish with hints of pepper and char. The suggested retail price for the new Old Fitzgerald is $155, but this is one of those whiskeys you’ll likely have to pay a lot more for on the secondary market. (The spring 2023 edition is selling for about $430 right now at Flaviar.) You can find other whiskeys from Heaven Hill, like Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, available at ReserveBar.
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