Old Fitzgerald 11 Year Old VVS Very Very Special Bottled In Bond Kentucky Exclusive Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (2025) 75cl
Old Fitzgerald’s VVS (Very Very Special) bonded bourbon series gets its fourth release to date with 2025’s new offering: Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond 11-Year-Old VVS 2025 Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. Like all Old Fitzgerald releases, the VVS offerings are wheated bourbon (68% corn, 20% wheat, 12% malted barley) released under the rules of the Bottled-in-Bond Act, but these are chosen by Heaven Hill Master Distiller Conor O’Driscoll for their particularly rich and enticing flavour profile. VVS releases are easily spotted thanks to their maroon labels, in contrast to the green labels used on the seasonal releases that Heaven Hill puts out in its Decanter Series twice each year. At 11 years of age, this is the youngest of the four VVS offerings to hit the shelves to date. O’Driscoll says it’s perfect this way, though, so let’s dive in and check his math.
O’Driscoll may just be right. This is a dazzling little whiskey that is full of excitement from the jump. The nose cues you in immediately: Aromas of sweetened cinnamon toast fill the glass, gently balanced by some barrel char, a little anise, and cigar box. It definitely feels like a much different animal than last year’s VVS release — clearly quite a bit sweeter — with its spice cabinet aromatics wholly dominant, almost overwhelming.
The palate takes all that and runs with it. The body is quite buttery, gently browned, with layers of cinnamon and nutmeg providing an almost confectionary quality with tons of brown sugar dissolved into the mix. The whiskey develops further from there, the spice tempering just a bit to make room for notes of fresh orange peel, giving the whiskey a bit of a bottled Old Fashioned vibe. Those bold brown butter notes never give up though, and the whole affair quickly slides into an unctuous, silky quality that feels like a decadent dessert, with finishing flavours finally propping up notes of banana, coconut cream, and milk chocolate. Nothing here ever feels out of place.
As an avowed lover of sweeter bourbons, VVS 2025 immediately stands out as not just one of the best Old Fitz releases in recent memory, but one of the best bourbons we have tasted to date this year.
While VVS whiskeys are part of the brand's Decanter Series, they differentiate from the bi-annual releases in one notable physical way: The VVS labels are maroon, in contrast to the green labels of the more standard Decanter Series whiskeys.
About Heaven Hill
Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. is a private family-owned and -operated American distillery, founded in 1935 and headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky. It produces and markets Heaven Hill Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey and ten other brands of bourbon, along with a variety of other distilled spirits, brandies, and cordials. Its current distillery facility, called the Heaven Hill Bernheim distillery, is in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the seventh-largest alcohol supplier in the United States, the second-largest holder of bourbon whiskey inventory in the world, and the largest independent family-owned and -operated producer and marketer of distilled spirits in the United States. It is also the only remaining large family-owned distillery company headquartered in Kentucky, with Brown-Forman Corporation publicly traded and family-owned Sazerac Company headquartered in Louisiana.
Heaven Hill was founded by several investors shortly after the repeal of Prohibition in 1935, including a prominent distiller, Joseph L. Beam, and a member of the Shapira family. As the company developed, the five brothers of the Shapira family bought out the other investors. Joe Beam remained as Master Distiller, along with his youngest son, Harry. Descendants of the Shapira brothers own and operate the company today. All of the Master Distillers at Heaven Hill since its founding have been members of the Beam family.
The original Master Distiller was Joseph L. Beam, Jim Beam's first cousin. He was followed by his son, Harry, who was followed by Earl Beam, the son of Jim Beam's brother, Park. Earl Beam was succeeded by the current Master Distillers, Parker Beam and his son, Craig Beam. The original name was "Old Heavenhill Springs" distillery. The company was founded as a bourbon distillery, with a model focused on providing bulk whiskey for third parties on a basis of futures (a buyer would purchase fresh whiskey, to be held in Heaven Hill's warehouses until the buyer paid the government tax to have it released). It also focused on its flagship bourbon labels, Evan Williams and Elijah Craig. In the past two decades the company has expanded its portfolio, acquiring brands or obtaining import rights for gins, malt whiskey, vodkas, and other drinks. On November 7, 1996, Heaven Hill's production plant (registered plant DSP-KY-31) was almost completely destroyed by fire. The fire started in an aging warehouse and spread to other buildings and vehicles. 90,000 barrels (approximately 7.7 million gallons) of flammable bourbon were consumed. A "river of fire" flowed from the warehouses. From one account of the fire: "Flames leapt hundreds of feet into the air and lit the sky throughout the night. Witnesses reported seeing whiskey barrels explode and rocket across the sky like shooting stars ... a two-mile long stretch of the creek that supplied process water to the distillery was set ablaze for a brief time."
The company survived the next several years through the provision of production capacity by its fellow local bourbon labels, Brown–Forman and Jim Beam, until its purchase and adaptation of the Bernheim distillery in Louisville (registered plant DSP-KY-1) from Diageo in 1999. While fermenting, mashing, and distilling occurs at the new distillery, aging, bottling, and shipping still occur in Bardstown. With the 2003 acquisition of distribution rights to Hpnotiq, Heaven Hill greatly expanded their product base beyond bourbon. Hpnotiq is now the fourth-highest-selling imported liqueur in the US. While bourbon is still its main focus, Heaven Hill now distributes a wide variety of different products. The Heaven Hill company strongly emphasizes the history and traditions of bourbon in its public relations, highlighting the company's location in the historical home of bourbon-making and its status as the only such company still under local ownership.
In 2004, the Heaven Hill Distilleries Bourbon Heritage Center was opened on the old distillery grounds, providing historical exhibits and guided tours of the plant. The company also hosts the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival, and several of the company's brands are named after famous local distillers. Since 2010, Heaven Hill has invested more than $100m in distillery expansions, warehouse construction, and bourbon tourism. In November 2018, Heaven Hill announced a $65m multi-year investment into expanding operations, which includes a renovation of the Bourbon Heritage Center. In September 2021, about 420 workers, all members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, went on strike due to disagreements over the terms of a new labour contract. In February 2022, Heaven Hill acquired Samson & Surrey, the owner of Widow Jane and Few. In 2023, Heaven Hill Brands settled a legal dispute with Log Still Distillery over Log Still's use of the "J.W. Dant" name. Heaven Hill had originally purchased the trademark in 1993, and had sued Log Still for trademark infringement in 2021, after the distillery claimed on its website that it was "reviving the Dant legacy".
50% ABV
75cl
