Category - Whiskey
This Limited-Edition Bourbon Has a Uniquely Rich Flavor Unlike Any Other Whiskey
It seems as if every celebrity or musician these days has their own whiskey or tequila brand. However, Heaven’s Door Distillery, named after Bob Dylan’s famous song “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door,” is the real deal. It's constantly ranked as one of the premier whiskeys on the market.
Heaven’s Door offers straight bourbon, straight rye, double barrel whiskey, and Tennessee straight bourbon. But just like some the best songs in Dylan's catalogue, there are bootlegs, too.
Heaven’s Door's Bootleg Series is, according to the brand, “inspired by the unyielding creativity and drive that Bob Dylan has exhibited throughout his career and life." The distillery recently announced the latest Bootleg Series whiskey release: Heaven’s Door Bootleg Series Volume VI.
The Bootleg Series is a limited-edition blend of rare small-batch bourbon. This time around, the bottle's filled with wheated straight bourbon that's been aged for 12 years. It was finished in air-dried, lightly toasted Limousin cigar barrels, nodding to a tradition normally reserved for Brazilian-aged spirits.
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Heaven’s Door master blender Alex Moore tried more than a dozen different types of barrels for the secondary finish on Bootleg Volume VI before finally choosing the cigar barrel.
“A cigar barrel is given its name due to its tall, elongated cigar-like shape. The shape of this barrel provides more whiskey to wood-to-surface contact which yields more pronounced flavor notes,” Moore said a statement. “Additionally, the Limousin oak is air dried over time versus kiln dried, which makes a big difference in terms of the tannins and sugars that are naturally resident in the oak.”
The final product is a hearty 121 proof and filled with dry floral notes of fruit, peppery spice, and rich oak. The Limousin cigar barrels impart vanilla and caramel flavors. As a whole, the whiskey has a flavor richer than most. Deep cherry and smokey, sweet spice really come out. And, for such a high proof whiskey, the whiskey is surprisingly smooth.
For nearly $500, there’s more than just the spirit to consider here. The package is a work of art.

David Young
Bootleg Volume VI arrives in a colorful bottle inspired by Bob Dylan’s "Favela Villa Candido” painting, part of a collection he made in 2015 called the Brazil Series. Dylan is inspired by the French impressionist painter Paul Cézanne, and there are certainly similarities here with bright swathes of color and a rich deep interpretation of Brazilian culture.
The bottles come tucked inside an orange leather-bound case that resembles a book, which would easily blend into any dusty old library if placed on the shelf. The book is adorned with the Heaven’s Door logo and the “rare & unreleased” moniker. The book opens to reveal a quote from Dylan that reads, “You need something to open up a new door, to show you something you have seen before, but overlooked a hundred times.” The quote is taken from Dylan’s live track, “Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie,” on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 box set album released in 1991.
Beyond this release, Dylan is having a moment to start the year. Heaven’s Door's new distillery and brand center at Six Mile Creek in Pleasureville, KY, is slated to open early this year. And the new Bootleg Series coincides with the release of his new biopic film, A Complete Unknown starring Timothée Chalamet.
There are a limited number of Bootleg Series VI bottles available. Mine reads 0024/5000, suggesting only 5,000 exist. So you'd better hurry to the Heaven's Door website before they're gone.
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