Heaven Hill Brings Back Elijah Craig 21 Year Old
The bourbon is the distillery’s oldest age statement whiskey currently available
June 16, 2026 –––––– Julia Higgins
More than a decade after it first appeared on shelves, Elijah Craig 21 year old Single Barrel bourbon is making its triumphant return. The ultra-aged whiskey, which joins 15 and 18 year old bourbons in the brand’s lineup, is bottled at 94 proof, higher than the original 2013 release’s 90 proof. It was distilled from the classic Elijah Craig mashbill: 78% corn, 10% rye, and 12% malted barley.
The new whiskey became available this past Sunday, June 14th—fans keen on getting their hands on a bottle ($300) lined up at the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience in Bardstown, Kentucky starting the night before. If you missed out on this initial drop, Heaven Hill held back 1,789 bottles (a nod to the year the brand’s namesake built his own distillery and made his first bourbon) of Elijah Craig 21 year old to be released ahead of the end-of-year holiday season.
With this latest release, Heaven Hill is keeping Elijah Craig on a roll, specifically the development of the brand’s single barrel lineup. The 15 year old debuted in March as a permanent edition and the youngest Single Barrel release, alongside the 18 year old. We’re big fans of that whiskey—it scored 94 points with our panel, thanks to an alluring combination of vanilla, toasted almonds, butterscotch, spiced cherry preserves, chocolate lava cake, cacao, glove leather, and barrel spice in the glass. When the 21 year old first appeared in 2013, it replaced a 20 year old Single Barrel offering (which had sold out upon being named our 2012 American Whiskey of the Year); in 2014, it was superseded by an even older 23 year old.
