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As with many issues in life, style in whiskey is a minimum of a little bit subjective. However pit the most effective drams face to face, and there’ll invariably be some standouts. In February 2025, the World Whiskies Awards introduced one bourbon that stood above the remainder.
Previous Fitzgerald 2024 VVS was named the World’s Greatest Bourbon on the 2025 World Whiskies Awards. This 13-year bottled-in-bond bourbon additionally earned the title of Greatest Kentucky Bourbon. Previous Elk’s 9-12 months-Previous Straight Bourbon took house the award for Greatest Non-Kentucky Bourbon.
It’s an enormous win for Kentucky’s Heaven Hill Distillery, one of many nation’s oldest and largest bourbon producers, which makes Previous Fitzgerald. Heaven Hill acquired the historic model in 1999 and as we speak releases the prized decanter bottlings twice per 12 months. Modern Previous Fitzgerald releases typically carry age statements between eight and 19 years. It’s wheated bourbon, distilled from a mash of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley.
Meals & Wine / Heaven Hill Distillery
Nevertheless, the 13-year-old 2024 VVS launch has an much more spectacular pedigree. To mark particular events, Heaven Hill releases “Very Very Particular” (aka VVS) Previous Fitzgerald editions with a definite crimson label. The 2024 VVS was solely the third such launch, with earlier variations hitting (restricted) cabinets in 2018 and 2020.
This award-winning bourbon, whereas bottled in 2024, was truly distilled in 1999—when Heaven Hill bought the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky. (Heaven Hill’s distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky was destroyed by hearth in 1996.) In response to Heaven Hill, grasp distiller Parker Beam and his group decided in March 2013 that the whiskey had reached its peak maturation and “needs to be reserved for a momentous event.” Beam instructed his group to empty the barrels and retailer the bourbon in metal tanks.
Beam handed away in 2017. In 2024, Heaven Hill selected to launch the whiskey after greater than a decade in storage. The Very Very Particular launch celebrated each the twenty fifth anniversary of the Bernheim acquisition and Beam’s enduring legacy with the corporate.
1 / 4 century after it was distilled, that bourbon hit cabinets in extremely restricted provide at Heaven Hill’s guests middle and choose retailers in Kentucky solely. Like all fashionable Previous Fitzgerald releases, it’s 100-proof and carries a bottled-in-bond designation.
Quick Information: Previous Fitzgerald 2024 VVS
ABV: 50% ABV
Maturation: 13 years in new American oak
Historical past: Previous Fitzgerald 2024 VVS was distilled in 1999 and aged till March 2013. Heaven Hill decided the inventory of barrels had reached the best maturation level and determined to “tank” the whiskey to be used as a particular launch down the highway. The whiskey was bottled and launched to the general public within the first half of 2024.
Availability: Whereas all Previous Fitzgerald decanter bottlings are restricted, the Very Very Particular sequence is much more scarce. The 2024 model was offered solely in Kentucky, at Heaven Hill’s Bardstown Guests Middle, and at choose retailers within the Bluegrass State. Shares offered out inside days of the preliminary launch.
MSRP: $299.99
And after quite a few rounds of judging from dozens of skilled palates, the World Whiskies Awards decided it was the 12 months’s finest. The placements for the World Whiskies Awards had been decided final fall by means of two rounds of judging held in Bardstown, Kentucky and Washington, D.C. A various panel of judges was chosen from throughout the whiskey trade, together with distillers, blenders, journalists, and distributors. As is customary for the competitors, the evaluations had been carried out totally blind, with samples poured in standardized glasses behind closed doorways and introduced out on numbered trays.
Even when assessed blindly, it’s not totally shocking that this specific Previous Fitzgerald stood out from the gang. Amongst reviewers and fans, it was one among final 12 months’s most talked-about and well-received new bourbons. It’s a bourbon the general public needed to wait many years to style — and for Heaven Hill, an award winner 25 years within the making.
World Whiskies Awards 2025: Different Winners within the American Classes
- Greatest Completed Bourbon: Wenzel Whiskey Straight Bourbon Completed In Sherry Casks
- Greatest Small Batch Bourbon: Boulder Spirits 2024 Cask Energy Bourbon
- Greatest Single Barrel Bourbon: Blanton’s Straight From The Barrel
- Greatest Tennessee Whiskey: Jack Daniel’s Tennessee 12 Years Previous Batch #2
- World’s Greatest American Type Whiskey: Jack Daniel’s Triple Mash
The full listing of winners in American whiskey classes showcases a wide range of manufacturers, starting from established giants to craft operations and non-distilling producers. All U.S. winners had been introduced at a February ceremony held at The Brown Lodge in Louisville, Kentucky. Since bourbon and Tennessee whiskey can solely be produced in the US, the determinations for these “World’s Greatest” awards had been made after two rounds of home judging. Many top-rated whiskies from the American competitors, together with rye, malt, and wheat whiskies, superior to compete in opposition to worldwide spirits for different World’s Greatest titles, which had been evaluated within the UK in early February. The “World’s Greatest” titles will likely be introduced later this March.