Heaven Hill’s Phoenix carries whiskey from a vanished distillery into a new release. A wooden-record experiment in Chattanooga and Muireann Bradley’s reclaimed-wood guitar offer two more ways to put wood to work.
Bourbon’s history usually reaches us through a label. Heaven Hill Phoenix offers a more direct connection: whiskey made at the original Bardstown distillery before the fire that destroyed it.
Announced October 27, the one-time Kentucky straight bourbon combines an 18-year-old foundation with a 30-year-old component distilled at Old Heaven Hill Springs. Bottled at 107 proof, it carries a suggested price of $325 for 750ml, with shipping to select markets beginning this month.
On November 7, 1996, the fire destroyed the distillery and seven warehouses, consuming nearly 100,000 barrels. Heaven Hill says its proprietary yeast survived, nobody died and no employee lost a job. Those details give the anniversary release a human scale beyond the age statements: people and production knowledge carried the business forward.
Wood takes a more playful turn at Chattanooga Whiskey. For Bad Chattanoogan, the company’s first Tennessee whiskey, the distillery made 30 playable records from solid sugar maple. The discs received a 24-hour toast, were laser-engraved with two songs, then spent 30 days inside whiskey barrels.
That is a physical meeting of music and maturation, although it does not establish that musical grooves create a distinctive flavor. The experiment invites curiosity without requiring anyone to pretend they can taste a chorus.
For a blues companion, turn to Irish guitarist Muireann Bradley’s Blackwood Pew, released October 23. Its title comes from her custom guitar, built with Australian blackwood reclaimed from a 200-year-old Tasmanian church pew and given to her by a listener. The six-track EP places three original songs alongside interpretations, including Daniel Johnston’s “True Love Will Find You in the End.”
Bradley’s instrument makes the connection especially tangible. Wood that once supported a congregation now supports new songs rooted in country blues and folk. Beside Phoenix’s surviving whiskey and Chattanooga’s improbable records, it offers a satisfying theme for the week: craftsmanship can give material a second purpose without erasing where it came from.