Parker’s Heritage 15th Edition, Heavy Char Wheat Whiskey Review

This year’s Heaven Hill Limited edition is the Parker’s Heritage 15th Edition – Heavy Char Wheat Whiskey, the third in the “Heavy Char Barrels” series they’ve been doing. It started with the rye, moved to the bourbon and is now turning to their wheat whiskey. They have 6 total mash bills at Heaven Hill and it’ll be interesting to see if they go through all of them.

Though to make it through all of them, they’ve have to do the corn whiskey in used Heavy Char, so maybe the rye casks they dumped with the first edition. Hmm that could be incredibly interesting. Imagine a Mellow Corn aged for 4+ years in heavily charred ex-rye casks, I bet it would be amazing.

Circling back to this Heavy Char Wheat Whiskey, it was fun to re-reading my review of the old Parker’s Heritage Wheat while sipping on a glass of this. Besides the obvious oak increase, a whole new profile emerged that was darker, richer and dirtier; sooty almost. Though we’ll get more into all of that when we jump down to the review below.

Parker’s Heritage 15th Edition – Details and Tasting Notes

 

Whiskey Details

Cask Strength | Non-Chill Filtered | Natural Color

Style: Wheat Whiskey
Region: Kentucky, USA
Distiller: Heaven Hill

Mash Bill: 51% Wheat, 37% Corn, 12% Malted Barley
Cask: New Charred Oak (#5 Heavy Char)
Age: 11 Years
ABV: 61%

Batch: 15

Parker’s Heritage 15th Edition Price: $140* (MSRP)

Related Whiskeys

Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey
Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey 7 years
Parker’s Heritage Wheat Whiskey
Parker’s Heritage Malt Whiskey
Parker’s Heritage Blend Of Mashbills

“The 15th edition of Parker’s Heritage Collection features the same mashbill as Bernheim Wheat Whiskey, but aged in specialty barrels that were charred for 90 seconds, as opposed to our traditional 40 seconds.” – Heaven Hill

 

Parker’s Heritage 15th Edition Tasting Notes

EYE
Polished oak

NOSE
Oak, cherry-heavy dried dark fruit, roasted nuts, spice, slight farmy and biscuity notes.

The oak DOMINATES the aroma, but not to the point of being one-dimensional.

PALATE
Oak, cherry-heavy dried dark fruit, roasted peanuts, cinnamon-heavy spice, leather, pepper, clove and bits of cornbread and vanilla taffy.

More complex and, slightly, less oaky than the aroma. Still an oak monster to be sure though.

FINISH
Log -> Oak, dried dark fruit and peanuts fade to spiced oak.

BALANCE, BODY and FEEL
Decent sense of balance, full round body, slightly dry and tannic.

Parker’s Heritage 15th Edition – Overall Thoughts and Score

I’m astounded this isn’t a complete mess. The regular Bernheim Wheat is pretty good, and the old Parker’s Wheat was awesome, but they’re not super robust whiskeys. Conceptually, I thought giving it the heavy char treatment would result in a tannic, over-oaked, mess on such a delicate mash bill; I was wrong. It’s an oak monster for sure, it’s definitely dry and tannic, but it has a decent balance to it. Picture Groot swaying his way down a tightrope.

This Heavy Char Wheat Whiskey starts tight and needs a bit of time and air to help it blossom, but when it does… yum. Velvety darkly sweet notes and rustic earthy notes emerge, collide and work well well together. The more it opens the more I like it, especially with a bit of water. Adding a few drops to open it further reveals more spice and a slightly metallic and slightly floral notes on the aroma. On the palate more leather and cocoa peek in and the cinnamon-lead spice amps up a bit.

All-in-all, I’m enjoying the Parker’s Heritage 15th Edition. It’s a good, fun and funky, whiskey and I hope they continue this heavy char experiment to see how the rest of their mash bills take to it. It offers a crazy amount of oak, but that’s kind of the point – a whiskey that caters to the oak freaks.

SCORE: 3.5/5 (tasty, worth checking out – B | 83-86)

*Disclosure: The sample for this wheat whiskey review was graciously sent to me by the company without obligation. The views, opinions, and tasting notes are 100% my own.

Parker’s Heritage 6th Edition, Blend Of Mashbills Review
$140

Summary

The oak is heavy, and a touch oppressive at times, but what’s under the oak is great and makes this whiskey something worth trying.

Overall
4

Nose


(4)

Palate


(4)

Finish


(4)

BBF


(4)

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