When Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, Ky., announced the release in 2012 of Larceny, a brand extension of its Old Fitzgerald line, some people worried that Old Fitz’s days were numbered.
Heaven Hill said no at the time, and this week they further confirmed it by announcing a new series of limited-edition Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey bottlings to be released each spring and fall.
The first bottling, which will be released in April, is an 11-year-old bourbon comprising barrels produced from February to May of 2006. The series will be bottled in an ornate decanter inspired by an original 1950s Old Fitzgerald diamond decanter. Like all spring releases, it will have a green label; fall editions will have a black label. The label features the time-honored graphic of a key, commemorating an important element in original labels and the brand’s slogan since the 1940s: “Your key to hospitality.” Kentucky’s state seal and a brand banner replicate a pre-Prohibition label. The age will change with each edition and will be indicated on the bottom of the label.
Each edition’s tax strip, which has always been a signature of transparency on bottled-in-bond products, will disclose when the liquid was produced and bottled. To be declared bottled-in-bond, a bourbon must be the product of a single distillery from a single distilling season, aged a minimum of four years, and bottled at 100 proof (or 50% alcohol by volume).
Heaven Hill acquired the Old Fitzgerald brand, which, like Larceny, is a wheated bourbon, in 1999. The first edition of Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond will be available at a suggested retail price of $110.00/750ml.
