Glass Half Full: Heaven Hill Takes Responsible Whiskey-making To New Heights

This week Heaven Hill announced the second release in their Grain to Glass collection, with the latest instalment showcasing the Kentucky distiller's commitment to responsible whiskey-making and their humble support for local businesses in the KY area.

The Grain to Glass collection is the brainchild of Heaven Hill's Chairman Max Shapira, designed to showcase the grain and mash profile of each whiskey release with unadulterated transparency. Heaven Hill works directly with Beck's Hybrids out of Indiana for this collection, selectively identifying seeds that will thrive and proliferate in Central Kentucky, then farming these seeds in partnership with local family-run business, Peterson Farms. Peterson Farms then grows the corn in Nelson County, right next door to the Heaven Hill distillery. Responsible, check. Respectable, check. Refreshing, check.

For this latest release, Heaven Hill has produced a 2018 distilled 6-year-old high-rye bourbon whiskey with Beck's 6225 corn seed varietal, grown in partnership with Peterson Farms and then aged in Cox Creek rickhouses W5 and W6 (floors 3, 4, 5 in case you were wondering). The 52% corn, 35% rye (wow), 13% barley mash results in a dark gold hue, with this Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey then bottled at 105-proof. We don't often see this type of honesty or transparency in the greater cosmos of bourbon whiskey, and this is where Heaven Hill deserve some credit for giving bourbon whiskey fans greater insight into the whiskey-making process, akin to smaller craft distillery practices (giving purists raw numbers and data for their releases).

A straightforward, no-nonsense bourbon whiskey, the first release Heaven Hill Grain to Glass bourbon was honestly very good - a spicy and sippable high-rye whiskey that represented fair value, although on the slightly pricier side at $100 MSRP, which was a touch prohibitive compared to other similar products in this price bracket. If the 2025 second Grain to Glass bourbon release is as good as last year or dare I say, even a touch better than its predecessor, then we are in for a treat with another outstanding and hopefully very accessible HH bourbon.

What do you think of the G2G collection from Heaven Hill? Are you looking forward to this one? Let us know in the comments.