A decade is certainly long enough to know whether a spirit — or, say, a song — passes muster, which is why it’s proven a great measuring stick for Bob Dylan’s Heaven’s Door Whiskey and its latest release.
The aptly named Decade Series debuts with Release #01, a high-rye, straight bourbon whiskey aged for — you guessed it — 10 years. It’s available for pre-order right now, and kicks off what the company calls a “limited collection of super-premium American whiskeys.”
Heaven’s Door founders Ryan Bushala (formerly of Angel’s Envy) and Diageo’s Ryan Perry embarked on the journey to the Decade Series by hand-selecting barrels from small producers.
The first release shines through, as it’s bottled at 100 proof to bring out plenty of notes from the careful, decade-long aging process.
As Heaven’s Door so thoughtfully notes, “every drop of this bourbon tells a story about the importance of time, age, and maturation” — you might say the same logic applies to Mr. Dylan’s illustrious career.
The aging process itself was not undertaken lightly, said Heaven’s Door Master Blender Ryan Perry.
“When we sourced these barrels from our industry partners years ago, the product was phenomenal, but we purposely let some of them sit for several additional years to get even better…” Perry said in a statement. “Our first release is whiskey the world has not yet tasted.”
Forgoing chill-filtering in particular brings out ryes notes, plus toffee and bitter chocolate, topped off with a silky-smooth finish.
The latest release joins other Heaven’s Door offerings championed by co-creator Dylan, including award-winning spirits like its Straight Bourbon Whiskey.
You’ll have to wait just a little longer to get your hands on a bottle — you can pre-order the first Decade Series release for $95 at ReserveBar — but after a decade-long wait to perfect this release, what’s a few more weeks?