Parkers Heritage Collection 8th Release

Parkers Heritage Collection releases are the special releases from Heaven Hill named after Master Distiller Parker Beam. The eighth release is of a wheat whiskey which contains 51% wheat, 39% corn, and 10% malted barley. The whiskey is from the first year's production of Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey, but is barrel strength, and is now 13 years old, compared to the 7 years of aging given to Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey. There are at least two batches of the PHC eighth release, this one at 63.7% ABV and another at 63.4% ABV. The reviewed samples are courtesy of @Nock, and are from a bottle open for 6 months

Nose: excellent sharp well-defined wheat aromas. The pitches are mostly medium range, with a significant number of high pitches and just a few lower register pitches. This is wheat mixed with varnish--but pleasant. This is mostly sweet, with a good dry/astringent balance. As with wheated bourbons, the remarkable ability of the grain wheat, and wheat only, to meld flavours with oak, is well on display here. Water broadens the grain and oak flavours, and focuses the sweetness. An excellent nose

Taste: sharp-edged wheat, sharp-edged oak, and sharp-edged alcohol, when consumed without water. Wood spice and wood tannins. Water added broadens and deepens the wheat flavours. The alcohol greeting remains significant even with water added. This shifts toward the sour and tannic mid-palate

Finish: long and intense, ending more sour and tannic than I would like. Water added doesn't change the finish very much

Balance: great balance in the nose, good balance on the palate, too sour at the finish. The nose is the highlight here. This is quite an interesting whiskey by virtue of the rarity of barrel strength majority wheat whiskey. This one is the first one ever offered for sale. The wheat flavours are present in spades, but a top quality wheated bourbon will give a similar wheat experience in a whiskey of better overall quality, complexity, and balance. Parkers Heritage Collection has led us to expect greatness on the basis of its previous releases. Despite being a very good whiskey, this Parkers Heritage Collection 8th Edition is a little disappointing for a Parkers Heritage Collection release

Strength: very good strength of flavours. Score: 24/25 points

Quality: solid quality in all of the flavours. Score: 22/25 points

Variety: adequate variety of flavours, but not outstanding variety, except in the nose. Score: 21/25 points

Harmoney: too much wood tannin and sourness mar the late palate and finish. Score: 20/25 points

Total non-sequential score: 87/100 points

Find where to buy Parkers whisky