Seems like just about everybody is releasing their own spirits line, and Bob Dylan wanted to get in on the act with his new Heaven’s Door Whiskey. And why not? Bob Dylan knows a thing or two about classic American music, so maybe he knows a thing or two about classic American whiskey. Maybe not making it – he’ll leave that to the distilling team behind the whiskey. But The Bard wanted to create whiskey that told a story, in his own words, and they teamed up to create three classic, but unique, spirits – Heaven’s Door Tennessee Bourbon, Double Barrel Whiskey and Straight Rye.
First stop: the Tennessee Bourbon. Technically, bourbon must be made in Kentucky to earn the name “Bourbon.” And this one is made at Heaven’s Door in Tennessee – so does it really count? (Nashville is the home of American folk music, so it’s a good choice of locale).
What Tennessee Bourbon is, however, is a unique mash bill from Tennessee that fulfills the requirements of a Tennessee Whiskey, which is (essentially) bourbon, but made in Tennessee with a slightly different filtering process. Either way, this a delicious, golden brown drink with strong notes of vanilla and baked bread, with the toasted oak from the barrels making its way in. It even won Gold at the famed San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Double Barrel Whiskey is a blend of three different whiskeys, finished in hand-toasted American oak barrels and aged together for an additional year. It’s a solid 100 proof, with a complex blend of oak, caramel, and citrus spice all in one. of its flavor and notes of caramel, oak, citrus, and spice.
Lastly, Straight Rye Whiskey is 92 proof and finished in toasted oak cigar barrels that have been air-dried in the mountains of Vosges, France. It’s a classic American Rye, with coriander, orange peel, citrus and spice, but exceptionally smooth.
All three sound delicious and have been widely praised – if they are anything like Bob Dylan’s music, they’ll soon enough be classics. Poetic, even, if whiskey can be poetic. Grab a bottle, pour a glass and put on an old Dylan record.
