Heaven Hill 35th Anniversary 13, 12 & 10 Year Old Kentucky Bourbon Festival 2026 Exclusive Blend of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (2026) 75cl
The Heaven Hill Kentucky Bourbon Festival 35th Commemorative Release Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey is Bardstown's own distillery toasting Bardstown's own festival. Created to honor the 35th anniversary of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in 2026, this special micro-batch release debuted on the historic grounds of Spalding Hall, where the celebration that began in 1992 as a bourbon dinner for about 250 people has grown into the whiskey world's signature annual gathering, drawing tens of thousands to the Bourbon Capital of the World each September.
The liquid is a micro-batch marriage of three well-aged stocks: 13-, 12-, and 10-year-old Kentucky straight bourbon, blended for depth and bottled at a substantial 113.5 proof. Heaven Hill, among the largest family-owned distilleries in America and one of the festival's cornerstone participants, drew on its deep Bardstown rickhouse inventory to build a commemorative pour worthy of the milestone — double-digit age across every component, with the richness and structure that only long Kentucky maturation delivers.
Expect the classic deeply aged Heaven Hill register: seasoned oak, caramel, vanilla, and brown sugar layered with baking spice and toasted nut, carried on a full, warming frame that the elevated proof keeps vivid from first sip through the long finish. It is a profile built for slow sipping — pour it neat, and a few drops of water will unfold the older barrels' depth.
Festival commemoratives occupy a special corner of bourbon collecting: bottled once, tied forever to a place and a year, and gone when the weekend ends. As a marker of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival's 35th running — and a snapshot of Heaven Hill's aged stocks in 2026 — this release earns a spot on the shelf of anyone who loves Bardstown, anniversaries, or simply well-aged Kentucky bourbon at meaningful proof.
About Heaven Hill
Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. is a private family-owned and -operated American distillery, founded in 1935 and headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky. It produces and markets Heaven Hill Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey and ten other brands of bourbon, along with a variety of other distilled spirits, brandies, and cordials. Its current distillery facility, called the Heaven Hill Bernheim distillery, is in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the seventh-largest alcohol supplier in the United States, the second-largest holder of bourbon whiskey inventory in the world, and the largest independent family-owned and -operated producer and marketer of distilled spirits in the United States. It is also the only remaining large family-owned distillery company headquartered in Kentucky, with Brown-Forman Corporation publicly traded and family-owned Sazerac Company headquartered in Louisiana.
Heaven Hill was founded by several investors shortly after the repeal of Prohibition in 1935, including a prominent distiller, Joseph L. Beam, and a member of the Shapira family. As the company developed, the five brothers of the Shapira family bought out the other investors. Joe Beam remained as Master Distiller, along with his youngest son, Harry. Descendants of the Shapira brothers own and operate the company today. All of the Master Distillers at Heaven Hill since its founding have been members of the Beam family.
The original Master Distiller was Joseph L. Beam, Jim Beam's first cousin. He was followed by his son, Harry, who was followed by Earl Beam, the son of Jim Beam's brother, Park. Earl Beam was succeeded by the current Master Distillers, Parker Beam and his son, Craig Beam. The original name was "Old Heavenhill Springs" distillery. The company was founded as a bourbon distillery, with a model focused on providing bulk whiskey for third parties on a basis of futures (a buyer would purchase fresh whiskey, to be held in Heaven Hill's warehouses until the buyer paid the government tax to have it released). It also focused on its flagship bourbon labels, Evan Williams and Elijah Craig. In the past two decades the company has expanded its portfolio, acquiring brands or obtaining import rights for gins, malt whiskey, vodkas, and other drinks. On November 7, 1996, Heaven Hill's production plant (registered plant DSP-KY-31) was almost completely destroyed by fire. The fire started in an aging warehouse and spread to other buildings and vehicles. 90,000 barrels (approximately 7.7 million gallons) of flammable bourbon were consumed. A "river of fire" flowed from the warehouses. From one account of the fire: "Flames leapt hundreds of feet into the air and lit the sky throughout the night. Witnesses reported seeing whiskey barrels explode and rocket across the sky like shooting stars ... a two-mile long stretch of the creek that supplied process water to the distillery was set ablaze for a brief time."
The company survived the next several years through the provision of production capacity by its fellow local bourbon labels, Brown–Forman and Jim Beam, until its purchase and adaptation of the Bernheim distillery in Louisville (registered plant DSP-KY-1) from Diageo in 1999. While fermenting, mashing, and distilling occurs at the new distillery, aging, bottling, and shipping still occur in Bardstown. With the 2003 acquisition of distribution rights to Hpnotiq, Heaven Hill greatly expanded their product base beyond bourbon. Hpnotiq is now the fourth-highest-selling imported liqueur in the US. While bourbon is still its main focus, Heaven Hill now distributes a wide variety of different products. The Heaven Hill company strongly emphasizes the history and traditions of bourbon in its public relations, highlighting the company's location in the historical home of bourbon-making and its status as the only such company still under local ownership.
In 2004, the Heaven Hill Distilleries Bourbon Heritage Center was opened on the old distillery grounds, providing historical exhibits and guided tours of the plant. The company also hosts the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival, and several of the company's brands are named after famous local distillers. Since 2010, Heaven Hill has invested more than $100m in distillery expansions, warehouse construction, and bourbon tourism. In November 2018, Heaven Hill announced a $65m multi-year investment into expanding operations, which includes a renovation of the Bourbon Heritage Center. In September 2021, about 420 workers, all members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, went on strike due to disagreements over the terms of a new labour contract. In February 2022, Heaven Hill acquired Samson & Surrey, the owner of Widow Jane and Few. In 2023, Heaven Hill Brands settled a legal dispute with Log Still Distillery over Log Still's use of the "J.W. Dant" name. Heaven Hill had originally purchased the trademark in 1993, and had sued Log Still for trademark infringement in 2021, after the distillery claimed on its website that it was "reviving the Dant legacy".
56.75% ABV
75cl
