Old vs. New: Heaven Hill Bottled In Bond Showdown

Comparing The Original, Kentucky-Only 6 Year Old Heaven Hill Bonded Bourbon To The New, 7 Year Old National Version

By Richard Thomas

When Heaven Hill announced it would discontinue its Kentucky-only, 6 Year Old Bottled in Bond (BiB) Bourbon in the summer of 2018, the howls were heard far outside the Bluegrass. The expression, esteemed as much for its modest $15 price tag as its quality, had become popular with bottle hunters plying Kentucky Bourbon Trail tourism and eager to bring back something special from a state that has a well-deserved reputation for being regularly picked clean.

As many observers expected, the expression wasn’t off the market for long. Roughly a year later, it was replaced by a 7 Year Old Bottled in Bond that saw national, rather than strictly local distribution, and a +$25 mark-up. Also expected was the derision this announcement was met with on the internet: GearPatrol‘s article declared “Loyalists Will Be Pissed” in the headline, and for good reason because the denizens of forums like Reddit met the news with declarations like “Because You Suck And We Hate You.” Even a blogger as moderate and reasonable as Bobby Childs wrote “the new expression was the equivalent of Yoko breaking up the band” about the reaction.

This was a rare instance where I had some sympathy with the croaking from the snakepit interwebs. I’m a native Kentuckian who returned to the Commonwealth some 3 1/2 years ago, and things like Heaven Hill 6 Year Old Bonded were among the perks of living here. Yet I am able to keep my personal feelings separate from my professional point of view, and that bottom line says if Heaven Hill thinks they can make more money with that switch then they are fully entitled to try. Moreover, they didn’t break any promises to their consumers in doing so. I don’t pretend access to information or expertise that I know I don’t have, unlike certain (always anonymous) Kruger-Dunning case studies.

There are really only two relevant and objective questions confronting the Heaven Hill Bonded swap-out: 1) is the new product better than the old one; and 2) how does the new product’s price compare to its contemporaries, not to the product it replaced.

Even though I gave both expressions a B grade, in a side-by-side blind tasting I easily judged the 7 year old better, if only half a step better. In terms of that B, it’s like one earned an 84 and the other an 86 on the test. It builds on the old Heaven Hill 6 Bonded character, taking it a little farther toward in old Elijah Craig 12 direction (indeed, I think perhaps moreso than the current Elijah Craig NAS does). Given that this expression is more readily available than the now famous (and thus over-hunted) Henry McKenna 10 Year Old, it makes for a serviceable alternative.

That leaves the price point. Of the aforementioned peers within Heaven Hill’s line-up, in official terms Elijah Craig NAS goes for $26 and Henry McKenna 10 Year Old (if you can find it) fetches $35, but retailers (and sometimes the tax man, depending on the state) mark Elijah Craig up to $35 and McKenna to as high as $90. Elijah Craig’s peer, Knob Creek, commands similar prices.

Yet as a bonded bourbon with three extra years above the mandatory minimum, Heaven Hill 7 Year Old Bottled in Bond is clearly positioned in a space above Craig and Creek. It’s not dirt cheap at $15, but it’s not like $40 a bottle is outrageous in modern bourbon terms either. Rather, it’s only slightly more expensive than the two most common go-to premium bourbons around. Sticker shock is hardly mandated, and this last part needs to be stated again: unlike it’s predecessor, it is available in regular, national release. Heaven Hill 6 Year Old BiB was always Kentucky-only, and ever since I returned to Kentucky it was only available sometimes… a sure sign that tourists were already bottle-hunting the thing into chimera status.

Ultimately, Heaven Hill 7 Year Old Bonded is a good bourbon offered at a fair, affordable price. The croaking was, as usual, just a lot of empty toxic nerd talk on the internet. Frankly, being able to get the product at your local liquor store instead of having to come to Kentucky and hunt for it is probably worth the extra 25 bucks, and now you’re getting a slightly, but noticeably better bourbon in the bargain.