Of all the special annual bottlings that American whiskey makers release every year, Heaven Hill’s Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Decanter Series rests high on every fanatics’ list. For the Old Fitz Decanter Series, it’s actually bi-annual as the label drops both a Spring and Fall edition—and now the Spring expression is here. Following the strict rules of bottled-in-bond, that means this bourbon comes from a single distillery made during a single season, aged a minimum of four years, and bottled at 50% ABV, or 100 proof. Done and done.
This new juice produced in the spring of 2016 makes the fifteenth Old Fitzgerald edition since Heaven Hill acquired the label in 1999 a delicious 9-year-old Kentucky straight bourbon. And as always utilizes Heaven Hill’s “OFD” (Old Fitzgerald Distillate) wheated bourbon mash bill (68% corn / 20% wheat / 12% malted barley), the same as seen in the Larceny label.
“Because you are constraining yourselves with the bottled-in-bond parameters, each half season you decide when this batch is ready, and when it’s ready it gets bottled. And whatever that particular alchemy created in that time for that batch, what you get is Old Fitzgerald,” Conor O’Driscoll shares from his office. That’s why the agings of the Decanter Series vary wildly, with one-off editions aging 10, 11, 15 even 19 years before O’Driscoll and his Innovation Panel decide their wheated bourbon is ready.
“That’s the beauty and the terror of it,” the Heaven Hill Master Distiller says. “Now that it’s gone, buh-bye.”
This ‘ready when it’s ready’ approach to whiskey craft makes each batch a totally unique experience, consistent in quality but singular in profile. “I think the easiest way to describe it would be that this spring to this fall, next spring, the next fall, they’re all cousins. You can tell that, yes, this is a really great example of another Old Fitz. Is it my favorite? Is it, ‘Oh my God, this is the best one I’ve ever tasted!’?” the acclaimed Master Distiller asks rhetorically.
“I know the very, very special [Anniversary Edition] one we brought out last year for the 25th anniversary of Heaven Hill purchasing the Bernheim distillery, that stuff was nectar the gods. And we won a ton of awards with it. So they’re always really good, and some are spectacular.”
Despite being the exact same mash bill, always distilled in the same season, and then usually aged on the ground floor of their rick houses, it’s curious that some of these whiskeys slated to be Old Fitzgerald take 8 years to reach peak maturation, while some 13 years — and then others, like the 2022 Fall Edition, required a full 19 years.
“Yeah, that is the magic of maturation,” O’Driscoll answers with a smile. He recalls how recently he and the Innovation Panel were preparing a 13-year old batch to be next in line for the Decanter Edition. Meanwhile, they were also prepping an 8-year batch for the following seasonal release. Well, the Whiskey Gods had other plans.
“The expectation was that we’re going to bottle the 13 next and it wasn’t ready; it still didn’t quite reach the value,” O’Driscoll reveals, explaining how they then decided to leapfrog the 13-year old whiskey with the 8-year old, which had peaked.
“A phrase we use a lot is on the Innovation Panel is: Yeah, it’s good… but is it good enough to be an Old Fitz? Yeah, it’s good… but is it good enough to be a Parker’s. Yeah, it’s good… but is it good enough to be a Heaven Hill heritage Collection? So when we get into these super special niche bottlings, the bar is really, really high. So just because it’s got a 13-year-old age statement on it today doesn’t mean that it reaches that bar. But we’re confident that if we give it another six to 12 months, that young note, that one raw note that’s just a little too loud among everything else, it will mellow down and become part of a much better whole.”
As we pop our sacred bottle of Old Fitz over the Zoom and give it a long whiff, O’Driscoll walks us through his experience. He picks up apple pie, especially the crust. Classic bourbon notes of vanilla, butterscotch and toasted cereal are complimented with further apple pie spice — including cinnamon, nutmegs, and “maybe some cardamom popping in there.” A creamy and viscous finish of baked apples then fades to oak and more cinnamon spices. “So it’s a big slice of delicious apple pie!” O’Driscoll deduces happily.
Inspired by an original 1950’s Old Fitzgerald diamond decanter, the ornate glassware of the Spring 2025 Bottled-in-Bond edition pays homage to the long history of Old Fitz being bottled in artistic decanters of all shapes and sizes. As this is the Spring release, this version gets the green label with traditional tax strip. You’ll be lucky if you can find it at its SRP of $130.
Follow Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher on Instagram at @nickstecher and @boozeoftheday.