Heaven Hill Distillery announces the release of a new unicorn whisky

The fictional world of mythical creatures is not something that commonly intersects with the world of whisky, but when it does, boy is it something special.

Heaven Hill Distillery - whose name already sets high hopes - has released its latest unicorn whiskey with its annual Parker’s Heritage Collection.

The whiskey contains three different mashbills and is the 19th iteration of the collection. The three mashbills are from a range of blended styles; a 15 year old Kentucky straight wheated bourbon, an 11 year old Kentucky straight corn whiskey, and a 12 year old rye and malt whiskey. The blend has just 160 barrels, eached aged separately before being married together. It has been bottled at cask strength of 122.5 proof (around an eye watering 62% ABV) with no chill filtration.

What is a unicorn whiskey?

Although you can probably guess from the name, a unicorn whiskey is a release of an incredibly rare, highly sought after whiskey which are usually - you guessed it - rather expensive. They are classic collectors clubs items which raise serious excitement amongst whiskey enthusiasts and make non-whiskey fans go how much?? with an eye roll.

They basically fall into five categories (although people count Willet as its own category). Tater Bait is the most entry level category and tend to be the only unicorn bottle you can find on shelves still - think Hibiki, Weller. They’re not strictly unicorn bottles, especially in the eyes of bourbon connoisseurs.

Then, you’ve got your yearly limited edition releases (or LEs if you’re down with the lingo). Most major distilleries have a once-a-year limited edition release - these bottles sort of become the wedding china equivalent of the bourbon world. Also, the releases themselves are not only significantly more premium in age, casks, et cetera, but often allow the distillers to be more experimental, and craft something truly unique. It's sort of like a master distiller's passion project. Generally, there are about 10,000 and 20,000 bottles per year, so if you hear someone slightly pretentious sipping a new release and yelling: “Oh it's got nothing on 2006” then this is probably what they’re talking (at you) about.

As well as your once-a-year LEs, you have a second tier to LEs which are typically rarer than than yearlies. They don’t get released again and are generally extremely limited - we’re talking secret club vibes but for whiskey.

The ones you probably will have heard of are the more household name unicorns, and most of these come from the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Pappy Van Winkle is one of the best examples of this, but you’ve also got bottles from the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection - think Sazerac Rye, Elijah Craig, and Eagle Rare. They’re difficult to find through typical off licences or supermarkets and often get snapped but by swanky bars who love to list their premium find (at a huge mark up of course) on their menus.

In true exclusive and mysterious unicorn style, Heaven Hill haven’t released any tasting notes about the bottle and we haven’t been lucky enough to have a taste yet. However, we know it’s releasing in September with an $180 price tag - which isn’t too bad when you consider that prices easily rise up to $500 plus on the second hand market. If you don’t fancy dropping that much on a bottle, you can get some other bottles from Heaven Hill Distillery like an Evan Williams bourbon for the more reasonable £35 mark.

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