There has been a lot of news coming out of Heaven Hill, one of the legacy distilleries in Kentucky that produces popular whiskey brands like Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, and the Heritage Collection. One of the latest releases is also one of the most limited: Deatsville 13-Year-Old Bourbon is comprised of some of the last barrels to have been matured in a historic rickhouse that will soon be decommissioned from active aging, making this whiskey both an exercise in warehouse terroir and a snapshot of bourbon history.

According to the distillery, the Deatsville campus where this warehouse is located has been part of Heaven Hill since the early 1980s, when the company acquired the dormant T.W. Samuels Distillery. If you recognize the Samuels name, that’s the same family that eventually opened Maker’s Mark under the direction of Bill Samuels. The original distillery made whiskey under brand names like T.W. Samuels and Old Deatsville, although much of it was destroyed by a fire in 1909 and it closed during Prohibition. In 1934, the T.W. Samuels Distillery was revived, and it made whiskey for about two decades until closing in 1952.

According to Heaven Hill, Deatsville (one of the distillery’s six maturation sites) is home to nine rickhouses with the capacity to age 167,000 barrels. Those rickhouses have “tiered roof architecture,” which allows warm air to rise and escape and cooler air to be drawn in on the lower levels. This creates a unique maturation environment, and many barrels used for Heaven Hill’s Parker’s Heritage Collection have come from these warehouses, including the 7th Edition “Promise of Hope” and the 11th Edition Single Barrel release. But over the next two years, the warehouses here will convert from active aging to “regauge-only status,” meaning barrels will be checked for volume and ABV to determine where they are in their maturation cycle. Most of the barrels at Deatsville will be transferred to other maturation sites, and this 13-year-old bourbon is the first of several releases planned through 2027.

The whiskey in question was made from Heaven Hill’s traditional mashbill of 78 percent corn, 10 percent rye, and 12 percent malted barley, and bottled from just 17 barrels aged on the third floor of Rickhouse AA at Deatsville. “For nearly a century, Heaven Hill has believed that great bourbon is made by giving barrels the time, space, and natural airflow they need to become themselves,” said Susan Wahl, VP of American whiskey, in a statement. “This release pays tribute to the brands, barrels, and people who brought those rickhouses to life.” We did not get to sample the whiskey, and no tasting notes were provided.

Heaven Hill Deatsville 13-Year-Old Bourbon Whiskey is available now in limited numbers for a suggested retail price of $200. And if you really want to get into the whiskey weeds, you can sign up for the Deatsville Tour & Tasting experience starting March 15 to visit the site and check out these soon-to-be decommissioned warehouses.