Bob Dylan is co-owner of Heaven's Door, which is out with a calvados cask-finished Tennessee bourbon as part of its new Exploration Series. Photo by John Shearer
Sure, you might love Bob Dylan for his music, but have you tried his whiskey? The musician is the co-owner and face of Heaven's Door, a whiskey brand that’s steadily built up its presence since launching in 2018. The core collection shows off a diverse repertoire—there are Tennessee and Kentucky straight bourbons, a double-barreled blended American whiskey, and a finished rye—and now comes The Exploration Series.
The first whiskey in the range is Calvados Finish, a Tennessee straight bourbon finished in, you guessed it, calvados casks. Native to Normandy, France, calvados is a brandy made from apples (and occasionally pears); it’s a delicate spirit, with sweet, subtle notes of stone fruit and baking spice. The new expression is placed into calvados casks for up to 6 months, though the average finishing time is 4 months. At the tail end of maturation, heavily toasted, broken French oak staves are added to the barrels, introducing yet another layer of flavor to the mix. From the calvados casks, the whiskey gets plenty of apple characteristics, and from the toasted oak staves you can expect additional notes of brown sugar, caramel, vanilla, and baked goods. Distillers from all corners of the whisky world have used calvados casks to good effect: top-scoring selections include Whiskey Del Bac Normandie American single malt, Barrell Private Release Calvados Cask-Finished Kentucky blended whiskey, WhistlePig The Boss Hog V: The Spirit of Mauve rye, The Whistler Calvados Cask Finish blended Irish whiskey, and Dewar’s 8 year old French Smooth blended scotch.
Heaven’s Door Exploration Series I – Calvados Cask is a limited release, but it’s available nationwide. At $80, it’s one of the distillery’s more accessibly priced one-offs—the ultra-aged, hard-to-find Bootleg Series whiskeys are generally upward of $500, while the 10 year old Decades releases have fallen at $100.The second release in the series is set to debut later this year._300.png)
Heaven’s Door started with a focus on Tennessee whiskey and was originally set on building a presence in the state—there were once plans for a distillery and guest experience in Nashville—to associate with Dylan’s Tennessee ties, but the company has switched gears over the past couple of years, instead putting more focus on Kentucky and making the Bluegrass State its home base. Its Pleasureville, Kentucky distillery is close to opening to the public; it’s been distilling since 2018, but a visitor center with tasting rooms and lounges is on the way. Gradually, more own-make whiskey will find its way into Heaven’s Door releases (currently, just one expression, Ascension straight bourbon, features whiskey from the Pleasureville distillery). For now, Heaven’s Door will continue sourcing from elsewhere in Kentucky, as well as Tennessee and other states (last October’s Homesick Blues release, for example, used Minnesota wheated bourbon).
During the distillery’s first four years in business, its whiskeys were made by master blender and co-founder Ryan Perry; he departed the company in late 2022, and in his stead are master distiller Ken Pierce and master blender Alex Moore. Pierce comes to Heaven’s Door from Barton Brands Distillery—the name behind 1792 and Very Old Barton—where he eventually rose from senior chemist to master distiller. Moore, on the other hand, spent the majority of his distilling career at Breckenridge Distillery, where he was senior distiller and production coordinator. Together, and with occasional assists from Bob—who stays involved in the distillery by participating in product development and taste testing samples, and through his studio, Black Buffalo Ironworks, whose artwork influences nearly every bottle of Heaven’s Door—Moore and Pierce are leading Heaven’s Door into its new era.
