Heaven Hill Distillery bourbon, aging in rickhouses in Bardstown, Kentucky got a little closer to heaven yesterday when a blast of wind tore the roof off two warehouses. The National Weather Service said a 95 mile per hour ‘microburst‘ is likely the cause of the damage. No one was hurt during the sudden burst as debris fell to the ground and apparently, no bourbon was damaged.
Could this be Déjà vu?
You may recall, a similar thing happened to a Buffalo Trace Distillery warehouse back in 2006. A tornado ripped part of their roof off and knocked down part of a brick wall in warehouse C. These barrels of bourbon were exposed to sun, wind, rain and air for much of that summer. Six years later in 2012, they released the E.H. Taylor Jr. Warehouse C “Tornado Surviving” Bourbon. It was widely hailed as richer, more flavorful and just generally fabulous, with an aroma of dried fig and cloves. Prices for this one of a kind bourbon shot up to as much as $600 per bottle. Buffalo Trace has been testing many difference concepts since this incident with its Experimental Collection in Warehouse X. You can read more about some of those releases here.
Buffalo Trace Distillery Announces the Next Winning Single Oak Project Bourbon
Buffalo Trace Distillery Releases 1st Two Experimental Bourbon Releases of 2015
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Denny Porter, Master Distiller at Heaven Hill said the sudden storm hit warehouse O and P. The warehouses were built in the 70’s and each holds around 19,000 barrels of bourbon. He said they have 51 total warehouses and about 1.1 million barrels of bourbon aging.
What to name this new Heaven Hill Distillery premium bourbon?
I am sure the folks at Heaven Hill already have a white board filled with possible names for their future release of these special barrels. Let’s see, here are a few names to consider.
- Wind Shear Bourbon
- Microburst Bourbon
- Burst Bourbon
- Rooftop Bourbon
- Rooftop Rye (there may be several kinds of bourbon aging in these warehouses.)
- Heavens Bourbon (my personal favorite.)
Be ready to be blown away!
Here’s a video from WAVE3 TV with more details on the microburst that damaged the Heaven Hill Distillery warehouses.
