William Heavenhill Bourbon Collection

William Heavenhill is the limited-edition Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey series from Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. The series is named after William Heavenhill — the early 19th-century Bardstown farmer and distiller whose former property became the site of the original Heaven Hill distillery — and is released in small-batch, high-age editions sold exclusively at the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center. The series launched in 2008 to commemorate William Heavenhill's 225th birthday and has continued with annual or near-annual releases since. Age statements have typically ranged from 12 to 19 years, and proofs have varied from 100 (Bottled-in-Bond) to 134.4 (barrel proof).

William Heavenhill (September 15, 1783 – January 6, 1870) was a Bardstown, Kentucky farmer and distiller whose name the Heaven Hill Distillery is built upon. According to local legend that the distillery carries as part of its founding narrative, his mother went into labor during an Indian attack and gave birth to William under the shelter of a nearby waterfall. Heavenhill grew up in Bardstown, drew water for his distillery from a limestone spring on his land, and is said to have supplied bourbon to Bardstown's historic Talbott Tavern in the early 1800s. He died in 1870 in Nelson County, Kentucky. When the Shapira brothers founded Heaven Hill in 1935 on a site Heavenhill had once owned, they named the distillery after him as a tribute to his Bardstown distilling legacy.

William Heavenhill is distilled at Heaven Hill's Bernheim Distillery (DSP-KY-1) in Louisville, Kentucky, and aged and bottled at Heaven Hill Distillery's main Bardstown campus. Heaven Hill is the largest family-owned and independent producer of American whiskey, founded in 1935 by the five Shapira brothers (Ed, Gary, George, David, and Mose) and still operated by the Shapira family today. Each William Heavenhill release is overseen by the Heaven Hill master distilling team and the Bourbon Heritage Center curatorial staff, with barrels selected from Heaven Hill's network of historic rickhouses including the Bernheim site, the original Bardstown campus, and the Glencoe Rickhouse site.

The William Heavenhill series launched in 2008 with the inaugural release — a cask strength Kentucky Straight Bourbon bottled to commemorate what would have been William Heavenhill's 225th birthday (he was born September 15, 1783; 1783 + 225 = 2008). The series has continued with annual or near-annual editions, numbered sequentially as 1st Edition (2008), 2nd, 3rd, and so on. Recent releases include the 10th Edition (17 Year Old Small Batch at 120 proof) and the 12th Edition (19-Year Old Small Batch at barrel proof, the oldest release in the program to date). A special 225-month commemorative bottling was released in 2025 as a thematic callback to the 2008 inaugural release.

William Heavenhill is distilled on Heaven Hill's traditional Kentucky Straight Bourbon mash bill of approximately 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley. This is the same recipe used for the standard Heaven Hill bourbon lineup, including Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond, Henry McKenna 10 Year, Elijah Craig Small Batch, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, and the Parker's Heritage Collection. What distinguishes William Heavenhill is not the underlying recipe but the barrel selection — each edition is curated from a small set of barrels (typically 30 to 35) that the master distilling team identifies as exceptional examples of the long-aged Heaven Hill bourbon profile.

William Heavenhill is sold exclusively at the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown, Kentucky. The bottles are not part of Heaven Hill's standard national distribution and are not available through retailers outside the gift shop at the Bourbon Heritage Center. Some bottles do reach the secondary market through allocated channels and collectors, but the primary purchase channel remains the Heritage Center itself. The 2025 special 225-month commemorative bottling had a suggested retail of $500 per 750ml bottle at the Heritage Center; standard editions have historically been priced lower, with secondary market pricing running well above original retail.

The William Heavenhill series has spanned more than a dozen editions across its 2008-onward run. Notable releases include the 1st Edition (2008) cask strength bourbon commemorating William Heavenhill's 225th birthday, the 5th Edition (2017) 14-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon on the traditional 78% corn / 10% rye / 12% malted barley mash bill, the 6th Edition (2018) Small Batch 16-year-old at 106 proof, the 7th Edition (2019) Barrel Proof 12-year-old at 134.4 proof aged on the 10th floor of Rickhouse 1K at the Bernheim site, the 8th Edition (2020) Bottled-in-Bond 13-year-old at 100 proof, the 9th Edition (2021) 15-year-old Small Batch at 109 proof from a marriage of 34 barrels distilled in 2005, the 10th Edition (17-year-old at 120 proof, 32 barrels from Rickhouse 1G floor 1 at Bernheim), and the 12th Edition (19-year-old Barrel Proof Small Batch, 30 barrels from Rickhouse A at Glencoe and Rickhouse O at the main Heaven Hill site — the oldest release in the program to date).

The oldest William Heavenhill release in the regular series is the 12th Edition, a 19-year-old Small Batch bottled at barrel proof and non-chill filtered, comprised of 30 barrels matured on the 4th and 5th floors of Rickhouse A at Heaven Hill's historic Glencoe Rickhouse site and the 5th and 7th floors of Rickhouse O at the main Heaven Hill rickhouse complex. A special commemorative bottling released in 2025 — aged 225 months (18 years and 9 months) at 127.6 barrel proof — was released as a thematic callback to the 2008 inaugural release that originally commemorated William Heavenhill's 225th birthday. The 2025 release is technically younger than the 12th Edition but holds the symbolic significance of the 225-month aging matching the 225-year birthday number that anchored the series at its launch.

William Heavenhill (1783–1870) was a Bardstown farmer and distiller whose former property became the site of what is now Heaven Hill Distillery. When the five Shapira brothers founded the distillery in 1935, they named it in honor of Heavenhill's Bardstown distilling legacy. The original company name was "Old Heavenhill Springs Distillery," referring to the limestone spring on Heavenhill's land that he used to make his bourbon. The name was simplified to "Heaven Hill" (two words) early in the company's history. The William Heavenhill bourbon series, launched in 2008 on what would have been Heavenhill's 225th birthday, is Heaven Hill Distillery's formal tribute to its namesake.

William Heavenhill differs from Heaven Hill's standard lineup and other limited releases in three significant ways. First, William Heavenhill is sold exclusively at the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown — it is not part of national distribution, unlike Heaven Hill 7 Year, Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond, Elijah Craig, Henry McKenna 10 Year, or Larceny. Second, every William Heavenhill release is a small-batch, single-vintage bottling drawn from 30 to 35 specifically curated barrels, while the standard lineup uses larger batches and ongoing production stocks. Third, while the Parker's Heritage Collection also uses small-batch curated releases, Parker's Heritage rotates through different styles year by year (bourbon, rye, malt, wheat whiskey, finished expressions) while William Heavenhill stays consistent — every release is a Heaven Hill Kentucky Straight Bourbon on the traditional 78/10/12 mash bill, with the variation coming from age statement, proof, and barrel selection rather than style.

Verify a William Heavenhill bottle in three checks. First, examine the capsule and label — the foil seal over the cork should be fully intact and tightly sealed, and the label should be crisp and high-resolution with no signs of fading, smudging, or off-color printing. Second, confirm the edition number, age statement, and proof on the front label match the verified William Heavenhill release history for that specific edition — for example, a bottle labeled "7th Edition" must read 12 years and 134.4 proof, and a bottle labeled "10th Edition" must read 17 years and 120 proof. Third, cross-reference the bottle's stated specs with Heaven Hill's official William Heavenhill product page on heavenhilldistillery.com and the Heaven Hill Brands press release archive for that edition, both of which publish detailed barrel provenance, warehouse number, and floor data for each release.

William Heavenhill is rare for three reasons. First, distribution is restricted exclusively to the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown — there is no national wholesale channel and no retail availability outside the Heritage Center gift shop. Second, each release is sized at 30 to 35 barrels, which structurally caps the supply of any given edition at a few thousand bottles maximum. Third, the program's combination of long age statements (12–19 years), small-batch curation, and tribute-edition branding for the distillery's namesake has built a dedicated collector following — secondary market pricing typically runs well above the Heritage Center's original retail.