Heaven's Door The Bootleg Series Volume II: Sunset, Monument Valley

Heaven’s Door does an annual Bootleg Series where they package up a whiskey into a stunning hand-made ceramic bottle with one of Bob Dylan’s paintings on it, then add it to a leather bound book case. I tried the 2019 version which was a 26 year aged whiskey finished in Japanese Mizunara oak barrels, fully expecting to call it an overpriced celebrity swill in fancy packaging, but found it to be a stunning drink. The Bootleg 2020 Edition is a 15 year old straight bourbon whiskey finished in Jamaican pot still rum casks that had previously aged rum for between 30-35 years and is bottled at a cask strength proof of 104.6. Let’s see if they can repeat the same magic of the previous year’s whiskey. The first nose is rum forward without any bourbon notes; it’s fruity with sugar cane and banana foster. Coming back for a second sniff starts to allow those bourbon flavors to emerge behind the rum starting with a light rum flavor of banana foster followed by the bourbon notes with fruits of cherry and orange peel, then comes vanilla iced bread pudding before light oak spices of cinnamon and leather with a light ethanol burn. Going in for a taste starts with a thin mouthfeel starting again with those rum flavors first with days old rum soaked monkey bread topped with dark muscovado sugar coated caramelized bananas followed by the bourbon peeking through with cherries jubilee, candied orange peel then mild spice with ginger, leather and light tannic oak with a medium ethanol burn that finishes medium length with rum soaked monkey bread, cherry liquor, candied orange peel and light oak spices. This is an older, well-aged, gentle and balanced whiskey that brings in all the traditional bourbon flavors with some light rum influence, but isn’t very complex and comes across as a rather boring whiskey instead. If you’re looking for something that is balanced, light, fruity and an easy sipper, this would probably fit the bill, but if you want something complex with many different flavor components that come together in a captivating performance this will sadly disappoint. For the $500 cost, I'll gladly let these run off into the sunset that was painted on the bottles and use my money elsewhere.

Huge caramel/toffee aromas. Smooth, sweet oaky flavors. Surprisingly, a little hot on the finish.