Heaven Hill Debuts First Bottled Bourbon From Evan Williams Artisanal Distillery

The Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, located in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, was designed by parent company Heaven Hill to be a visitor’s center type experience around all things bourbon. It also has a small distillery on site, however, that’s been doing its own distilling of the equivalent one of barrel of whiskey per day on a hand crafted, copper pot still. Now the fruits of this labor have been bottled as a new release.

The new Square 6 Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, according to those behind it, is a high rye style bourbon that comes from a mash bill that consists of 52 percent corn, 35 percent rye and 13 percent malted barley. A new bourbon recipe under the Heaven Hill Distillery portfolio, it was produced by on-site distiller Jodie Filiatreau, who is said to be “continually crafting innovative mashbills and tweaking the hand-crafted process for each new recipe.”

As noted by Heaven Hill, the distilling team has been “patiently waiting as the barrels quietly age to maturation. During this aging process, a team of master tasters samples each recipe at various stages until that specific mash bill has been deemed to have achieved a taste profile worthy of bottling. Square 6 High Rye Bourbon is the first result of this process and the first bottling from the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience stills.

“A testament to Heaven Hill’s patience and hallmark extra-aging, Square 6 High Rye Bourbon was aged for five years before being bottled at 95 proof. Square 6 has a golden amber color, with notes of tobacco, fig and honey on the nose, earthy notes with cardamom and cinnamon to taste, and a short, dry finish.”

“Today marks another milestone in the educational, interactive experiences offered at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience as we can now experience the aroma and taste of this truly hand-crafted process from the grain to the glass,” said Max L. Shapira, Heaven Hill Distillery President, in a prepared statement. “From the first day Artisanal Distiller Emeritus Charlie Downs turned on the stills nearly eight years ago to Artisanal Distiller Jodie Filiatreau patiently waiting years for this product to come of age in the barrel, today we celebrate Heaven Hill’s commitment to quality and attention to detail.”

Plans call for Square 6 to be released in a 750ml, stylized, squared off glass bottle with the face label depicting the original map where Evan Williams’ distillery was originally located. The packaging also includes Evan Williams’ signature and the product recipe. The limited release will be available in small quantities as a unique offering at the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience and available at select Kentucky retailers for a suggested retail price of around $90.

The name Square 6, for the curious, references “the original plot of land where Evan Williams built Kentucky’s first commercial distillery in 1783, sharing the same block on Louisville’s Whiskey Row where the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience first opened in 2013.”