Fitness
With Heaven’s Door Whiskey, Holiday Entertaining Is as Easy as One-Two-Three | Men’s Journal
This article was produced in partnership with Heaven’s Door
The holidays are a time to pull out all the stops. Decorate the house with abandon, turn up the Bing Crosby, and cook a feast for friends and family to enjoy. But if baking isn’t your forte, don’t panic. There’s one foolproof entertaining requirement you can’t mess up: Pour a premium whiskey.
And since we’re in the season of excess, don’t just pour one or two—but a whole trio. After all, not every guest is going to want the same thing, and some people like a dram or cocktail to mimic an advent calendar’s range and multiplicity.
Luckily, Heaven’s Door has you covered. The whiskey brand co-created with Bob Dylan offers core whiskeys that touch on all points of the spectrum of barrel-aged flavors with Straight Bourbon, Straight Rye, and Double Barrel options. Whether you crave notes of sweet vanilla bean, deep spice, dried fruit, or honey, there’s a Heaven’s Door whiskey to satisfy your appetite.
The key to holiday entertaining: variety and variability
Having a selection allows you to get creative with your drinks menu. Consider creating an old fashioned bar that gives each guest the freedom to customize their cocktail.
Set out the three bottles alongside some rocks glasses and a bucket of fresh ice. Offer a few different sweeteners, such as sugar cubes, maple syrup, agave syrup, and honey; plus a selection of bitters, from traditional Angostura to orange, cacao, plum, or anything else you like. For garnishes, pre-peel some citrus like orange, lemon, and grapefruit; open a jar of nice cocktail cherries; and consider unusual options like dried figs or even a festive candy cane.
With a smorgasbord of cocktail add-ins, your guests can have an entire evening’s worth of mixology fun.
If you aren’t ready to commit to multiple full-size bottles, you can still enjoy these three whiskeys with the Heaven’s Door Trilogy Collection. The special package includes three 200 ml bottles. And while you’d think a three-pack might entail a higher price, the Trilogy Collection comes in at a cool $59—making it all too easy to pick one up for yourself and anyone else hosting over the holiday season.
Heaven’s Door Trilogy Collection spotlight
Heaven’s Door Straight Bourbon Whiskey
Distilled and aged in Tennessee, the brand’s flagship bottle boasts classic bourbon aromas of nougat and fresh-baked bread, as well as flavors of honey and buttered toffee. At 92 proof and without chill-filtration, it’s robust enough to stand up in any cocktail but remains smooth and easy to sip neat.
Heaven’s Door Straight Rye Whiskey
While it starts off as a standard straight rye, aged in new charred oak, this 7-year-old whiskey gets an unusual twist: It undergoes secondary maturation in toasted oak cigar barrels from Vosges, France. The wood layers additional spices on top of the 92-proof spirit’s already spicy flavor profile, upping the complexity and richness.
Heaven’s Door Double Barrel Whiskey
A custom blend of three whiskeys—two Tennessee whiskeys with a bourbon mash bill and a straight rye—Double Barrel is aged for six years in a combination of new charred oak and fresh-dumped bourbon barrels. The marriage of liquids then spends another year in alligator-charred new American oak before being bottled at 100 proof, which amps up the barrel flavors, while maple charcoal-mellowing post-distillation lends a smooth finish.
For a gift that wows: Heaven’s Door Decade Series
If you’re hoping to kick holiday sipping up a notch, or looking for a whiskey gift that will impress even the toughest in-laws, Heaven’s Door can help there, too. The brand’s new Decade Series features whiskeys aged 10 years or more, each selected to showcase the best qualities that time in a barrel can elicit.
The debut, Heaven’s Door Decade Series Release #01: 10 Year Straight Bourbon, is a full-flavored whiskey with rich notes of maple, poached pear, toffee, and bitter chocolate. It’s bottled at 100 proof and non-chill filtered, allowing the full depth of maturity to shine through.
The Heaven’s Door Decade Series Release #01 is available now. Obviously, such a special whiskey is available in limited amounts, so consider that an excuse to get your holiday shopping done early!
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