Parkers Heritage Collection 10th Edition

I thank @newreverie for the reviewed sample. The bottle was opened one month ago

Parkers Heritage Collection is a limited release of the Heaven Hill Distillery, named after Master Distiller Parker Beam. The 10th Edition of the Parkers Heritage Collection features a 24 year old standard, rye-containing Bottled In Bond Bourbon. The Bottled In Bond standard requires bottling at 50% ABV, and all of the included barrels deriving from one year of production

Nose: ENORMOUS vibrant very invigourating wood spice and wood tannin. This is among the spiciest whisk(e)y I have ever encountered, from all genres. This nose has outstanding sweet and dry balance. The sweet component seems like honey. The high and middle pitches take center stage, but the low pitches from wood are delicious also. This has an amazingly FRESH quality for a 24 year old bourbon. Strongest among the spices are cloves and nutmeg. The grains are there, but the 24 years of wood dominate. Fabulous. Score: 24.5/25

Taste: a noseful of spice with some tannins is followed by a mouthful of tannins with some spice. The translation to the mouth is good, with black pepper added, and the wood tannins taking most of the attention from the wood spices. In the mouth the wood tannins make the taste a little less robust than in the nose. All of that tannic acid also makes the palate shift to the bitter with a little sourness, losing the excellent balance found in the nose. This is very very woody, and not the equal to the outstanding nose. This is still quite interesting, particularly if you can handle a lot of oak influence. Score: 22/25

Finish: very long and intense, retaining that woodiness that tastes like an oak tree in your mouth. The death is a long slow oaky fade-away. Score; 21.5/25

Balance: excellent in the nose, good thereafter. Score: 21.5/25

Water added: 1) brought out high-pitched sweetness in the nose, but reduced complexity and quality, 2) tempered and muffled the palate and finish. Forget the water in tasting this whiskey

Total Sequential Score: 89.5 points

Stength: very strong flavours. Score: 24/25

Quality: very good quality of flavours throughout. Score: 22.5/25

Variety: good to very good variety of flavours, perticularly in the nose. Score: 21.5/25

Harmony: too much wood tannin in the mouth from 24 years of new oak aging. Score: 20/25

Total Non-Sequential Score: 88 points

Comment: this is a curiosity and conversation piece of very long charred new oak aging. The nose is fabulous, but in the mouth the tannic wood influence will be too much for the taste of most people. My taste and scoring will seem generous to many who are easily put off by a lot of oak influence. I do think that everybody should have the experience of tasting some of these ancient bourbons, though. I could hang out with the nose of the Parkers Heritage Collection 10th Edition for a very long time

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