Parker's Heritage 10 Year Heavy Char at Ironside

People shake their head sometimes when I pay $40 for a 2oz pour of bourbon, and I can see their point. It is a vanishingly small amount of whiskey that costs more than a full bottle of Eagle Rare.  

On the other hand, it gives me a chance to taste a rare whiskey that would be almost impossible for me to get at DSRP and sells on the secondary market for $700 or more. So, when my friend Liz texted me that she had a bottle of Parker's Heritage 10 Year Heavy Char Bourbon at Ironside, I knew it was something I wanted to try. 

My wife was good enough to humor me with a Saturday evening trip to the Portland Regency for drinks and dinner. While we were there, I not only got a chance to try the Parker's Heritage, but also had a couple of additional (more affordable) pours.

Parker Beam: Same Family, Different Distillery

Parker's Heritage is named after Parker Beam, a sixth generation master distiller from the famous Beam family, but he wasn't a master distiller at Jim Beam.  Instead, Parker Beam was master distiller at Heaven Hill, the nation's second largest bourbon distillery.  Heaven Hill owner Max Shapira said "He was a true giant of the industry long before the bourbon renaissance."  

The praise is well deserved.  Beam was responsible for creating several of Heaven Hill's best selling bourbon brands including Evan Williams, Rittenhouse Rye, and Elijah Craig Small Batch, one of the three small batch bourbons credited with saving the industry and sparking the bourbon renaissance.

Parker's Heritage 10 Year Old Heavy Char Bourbon

This bottle had been open for a couple of weeks and was below the halfway point when Liz poured mine in a Glencairn glass. 

As the name suggests, this Parker's Heritage has been aged 10 years in a #5 char barrel and bottled at 120 proof. Number 5 is the highest char level that is still considered usable, and its use is rare.  Most Heaven Hill products are aged in #3 char barrels, and industry wide the majority of barrels in use are #3 or #4 char.

Mash Bill: 78% corn, 12% malted barley, 10% rye.

Color: Deep amber.

Nose: Vanilla, baking spice, green apples.

Palate:  Caramel, toffee, dark red fruit.

  

Finish: Cherries, cocoa, pepper and grain.  Moderate burn.

For its high proof the Kentucky hug was certainly present, but remarkably not overpowering.  In addition, apart from its dark color, the char seems to give this a really rich caramel flavor on the palate with a bit of the bitterness of backing cocoa.  It was a really delicious pour, and while I might not pay secondary market prices for a bottle, I'd probably indulge in another $40 pour sometime, perhaps with a little ice, because I love the way strong barrel char notes play with water.

Thankfully, my wife was driving, so I was able to try a couple of additional selections, each of which were also first time pours for me.

Writers Tears Double Oak

The second pour of the evening was much lighter on the palate and on the wallet. I selected a Writers Tears Double Oak Irish whiskey from the menu, and while I didn't keep tasting notes for it, I certainly recall it having the distinct note of pears and vanilla that one picks up in its once-barreled sibling, coupled with a bolder tannins.  The fruit notes linger quite a while after you sip it.

Walsh Whiskey, the distiller of this product uses a duo of French Oak and American Oak casks in the maturation of this product and has a DSRP of $65 for a bottle. 

Old Man of the Mountain Bottled in Bond

Liz pulled out a "Gift Bottle" from behind the bar that had been given to her by another customer, and shared a pour with me. Old Man of the Mountain Bottled-In-Bond is produced by Tamworth Distilling, a craft distillery in Tamworth, New Hampshire.

You probably get tired of reading this, but one of the things I really love about craft whiskies is the broader range of flavors and aromas you can get from them. I more or less know what to expect from as Kentucky Bourbon or a Maryland Rye, but there's nothing like that "What am I tasting?" experience you get from many craft whiskies.  This was certainly one of them.

Mash Bill: 82.4% corn, 11% rye, 6.6% malted barley.  100 proof.

Nose: Candied pecans, raisins, cinnamon sticks.

Palate: Prunes, grain, oak and baking spice.

Finish: Very long, grain, raisins, light black pepper notes and a modest burn.

 "Prunes" is what Liz and I agreed on when it comes to the initial palate note, but I found myself wondering later if the flavor was really more like figs - definitely a dark, dried fruit, but it kept me guessing for quite a while.

Overall this it made for an adventurous, interesting, and enjoyable finish to an unexpected flight, and I'm looking forward to visiting the distillery in Tamworth sometime soon!

Cheers!

Trevor