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

Thanks to LAWS, I’ve been able to taste quite a few Parker’s Heritage releases and until trying this one, Golden Anniversary was my favorite. Yeah yeah, I know i’s a spoiler to give that away, but if you’ve been around bourbon for a while you already knew this one didn’t suck. So… there.

To make this 6th Parker’s release, they blended together casks of their ryed bourbon and their wheated bourbon. The idea being to lend the spiciness of the rye and the sweetness of the wheat to the overall profile and deliver something new and delicious. How novel that concept seemed nearly a decade ago (2012).

Memories are great, but I always find a trip down memory lane is more fun with a glass of whiskey, so let’s get to sippin’ and stroll into this review.

Parker’s Heritage 6th Edition, Blend Of Mashbills – Details and Tasting Notes

Whiskey Details

Cask Strength | Non-Chill Filtered | Natural Color

Style: Bourbon
Region: Kentucky, USA
Distiller: Heaven Hill

Mash Bill: At least 51% Corn + Rye + Wheat + Malted Barley
Cask: New Charred Oak
Age: NAS (~11 years 01-12)
ABV: 65.8%

Batch: 6

Parker’s Heritage 6th Edition Price: NA – Auction, Specialty Store or Private Seller

Related Whiskey

Parker’s Heritage Wheat Whiskey
Parker’s Heritage Malt Whiskey

White background tasting shot with the Parker's Heritage 6th Edition, Blend Of Mashbills bottle and a glass of whiskey next to it.

“Heaven Hill Distilleries’ 6th Generation Master Distiller Parker Beam combined two styles of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Bourbon made with rye and Bourbon made with wheat. Pulled from the 4th floor of Rickhouse R and the 7th floor of Rickhouse T he’s made this one-of-a-kind special release into a four-grain whiskey.” – Heaven Hill

Parker’s Heritage 6th Edition Tasting Notes

EYE
Polished oak

NOSE
Cherry-heavy dark fruit, oak, complex baking spice, cocoa, vanilla marshmallow, caramel, roasted nuts, Banana’s Foster, slight herbal, citrus, fruit cake and leather notes.

Good god, this is an incredible nose.

PALATE
Oak, cherry-heavy dark fruit, complex baking spice, complex dark sweets, dried orchard fruit, vanilla, nuts, fresh pastries and some light biscuity, citrus and herbal notes.

Warm, rich, I’d like to drink this all the time.

FINISH
Long -> Oak, dried dark fruit, cocoa and leather fade out in a taffy sweet and oaky way.

BALANCE, BODY and FEEL
Perfect balance, full-round body, heavy oily feel that’s a touch dry.

Parker’s Heritage 6th Edition – Overall Thoughts and Score

Damn. This is tasty… very tasty. Rye spice, oakiness, wheated sweetness and all of the beauty of cask strength Heaven Hill in the middle. This is a well-balanced, artfully crafted work of whiskey art. In short, I like it… a lot.

Would I pay the ludicrous 4-figure secondary price for it? No, but that’s between me and my bank account. If I was stupid wealthy, then yeah… probably. But if I was that rich I’d also buy every bottle of the Bowmore Bicentenary I could find too.

As it sits, I’m going to savor every last drop of this bottle of Parker’s Heritage 6th Edition, Blend Of Mashbills, including using it in a cocktail (whiskey isn’t sacred). If you still have a bottle, I hope you’re still enjoying it too. And if you can get a taste of this at a price you can live with I highly recommend it, this is the kind of whiskey many bourbon drinkers search high and low for.

SCORE: 4.5/5 (very good, highly recommended ~ A- | 90-93)

Special thanks to SKU for making this review happen.