Heaven Hill’s Farewell to a Historic Rickhouse Produced One of 2026’s Best Bourbons

(Photo: Heaven Hill)

Heaven Hill’s Deatsville campus is winding down. The site — built on the grounds of the former T.W. Samuels Distillery, which Heaven Hill took over in the early 1980s — will transition out of active aging within the next 12 to 24 months. No new barrels will fill it; what’s there now is what’s left.

Heaven Hill decided to commemorate the occasion with a single-site release, and after tasting it, I’m very happy they did. Deatsville 13-Year-Old Bourbon, drawn from just 17 barrels on the third floor of Rickhouse AA, is among the best bourbons I’ve tasted this year.

Deatsville is the only Heaven Hill aging site built with tiered roof construction, a design that creates a natural stack effect, with cooler air drawn in from below and warm air escaping through the roof. The result is a consistent airflow pattern that Heaven Hill says produces subtle but distinct maturation character compared to its other six Kentucky aging campuses. Upper-floor barrels like the 17 that went into this release experience wider temperature swings, driving deeper wood extraction and more pronounced oak influence over time.

The bourbon itself is distilled from Heaven Hill’s standard mashbill of 78% corn, 10% rye and 12% malted barley, aged the full 13 years at Deatsville before bottling at 109 proof (54.5% ABV). It retails for $199.99 and is highly limited; 17 barrels of 13-year-old bourbon only go so far.

Our Tasting Notes and Review

The nose is bright, sweet and inviting — honeycrisp apple, cinnamon, nutmeg, graham cracker, butterscotch and damp oak.

The first thing that jumped out at me upon first sip is the mouthfeel. The viscosity is exceptional — velvety and milkshake-thick, the kind of mouthfeel that you encounter just a handful of times a year. Caramel apple and custard anchor the core, surrounded by cocoa powder, peanut brittle, tea, black cherry, raspberry, cinnamon and clove. The finish opens with clove, cardamom, lime zest, cinnamon and pepper before moving into oak, lemon candies, raspberries and honey.

The balance across oak, sweet and tart is excellent throughout — nothing overstays its welcome, and the flavor profile is absolutely delicious.

For the complete tasting notes and score, click here for the full review.

Should You Buy It?

At its suggested retail price of $199.99? Yes, if you can find it. Seventeen barrels doesn’t leave much to go around, especially when you consider the angels’ share — the amount of liquid lost to evaporation over 13 years of aging. Heaven Hill said there will be additional Deatsville commemorative expressions through 2027, but given that the campus is shutting down, the stock is finite. Don’t overthink it if you find it at or near MSRP. I wouldn’t recommend you scour the internet for it, though; it’s already reselling online for north of $1,000, and I can’t say I’d recommend a bottle of any whiskey at that price.