Last night it was time for me to pay up on my private tasting that was raffled off at our December meeting that raised money for the Huckleberry House. It gave me the opportunity to crack open a bottle that I had been saving for the situation. So now that it is open, I figured it was as good a time as any to review it for you. The bottle is a Parker’s Heritage Collection: Barrel Finished in Orange Curacao barrels. Let’s get into this!

Make sure you put in the comments any bottles that you would like me to review.

NAME – Parker’s Heritage Barrel Finished

PROOF – 110

AGE – non-age stated (rumored to be between 7-8 years – 4 months in orange curacao barrels)

COLOR – deep amber (1.4 tawny on the Whiskey Magazine Color Chart)

NOSE – Navel orange citrus pops right off the top, light brown sugar, toasted almonds, vanilla crème, slight sweet leather and toasted oak

TASTE – Vanilla custard right in the front and then it transitions with orange creamsicle, roasted peanuts, charred oak, dusty tobacco

FINISH – I would call this a long finish. The orange notes transition into a dry charred oak and dusty peanut shell finish.

REVIEW – Orange curacao finished bourbon is not something I normally seek out but when I had the chance I had to pull the trigger on a Parker’s Heritage Collection. The interesting part of this pour is that there is no doubt the orange curacao finish gave the intended effect of adding an orange note but at the core of this is still a Heaven Hill profile with big nuttiness and oak notes that still reminds you it is still the base of this whiskey. I think the more often you drink it the better you get to understand the pour. I will say today I felt it was better than the first pour out of the bottle last night. It also probably has been improved by letting air hit for a little bit also.

FINAL COMMENTS – It was great to be able to share this bottle with some great people last night. One of the things that I did last night was use different food items to show the dramatic changes that can make with whiskey in general but with one like this it really showed. I really encourage you with any whiskey to try this exercise. I used parmesan cheese, toasted pecans, dried cranberries, dark chocolate and a dark maple syrup. The dried cranberries really made the orange burst alive and then the dark chocolate brought out the dry oak and nuttiness. All of the items gave you many twist and turns. Let me know if you do this and what you think.

To find out more check it out here – Parker’s Heritage Collection

You can look at all the past Sunday Evenings Reviews and I would still love to hear what your personal reviews are from each of the whiskies reviewed.