Review: Heaven's Door $500 Bootleg Volume VI Echoes Bob Dylan's Experimental Streak

It's shaping into a good year to be a Bob Dylan fan, between "A Complete Unknown" hitting theaters, the release of a massive trove of Bob Dylan memorabilia for auction, and a terrifying list of reasons to bring protest songs back into play. Heck, Dylan even gave elder fans a reason to join TikTok and summarily embarrass their grandkids. (For as long as the app exists.) 

But, hey, did you know that Mr. Bob Dylan has also been putting out a line of whiskeys for the better part of the last decade? And that they're pretty well-reviewed? Not just by Tasting Table, either. Although we once gave Heaven's Door high marks, calling it "quite simply, the best celebrity-owned bourbon on the market today," the brand is constantly evolving, just like the Bard's discography. 

As much as anyone loves pouring over the old classics, new releases in any catalogue — musical or one made of spirits — always deserve a listen. So, I've taken a few sips of the newest addition to a limited release from Heaven's Door, the Volume IV bottle of its Bootleg Series.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the Heaven's Door.

The main series of Heaven's Door, Bob Dylan's whiskey company, are release in different labels. Divided into a vanilla-spiced bourbon called Revival, a double-barreled bourbon called Revelation, and a straight rye known as Refuge, the folk singer's whiskey brand also annually releases small-batch bottles. This is the Bootleg Series, and the labels feature paintings by the man himself. This time around, it's "Favela Villa Candido," a painting from Dylan's 2015 Brazil Series.

Putting his name on a whiskey bottle is not the weirdest move for Blind Boy Grunt — that would probably be the Victoria's Secret commercial he popped up in around the turn of the century. But, when the bourbon is (no spoilers) this good, it's certainly an agreeable decision. This iteration of the Heaven's Door Bootleg series is a wheated bourbon featuring aged expressions at 12-, 13-, and 14-years. Master blender Alex Moore mingled these liquids carefully and played around with a lot of types of oak barrels; the labors and craft wisdom are evident in the final product. 

The barrels, cigar shaped containers made from French Limousin oak, were air dried and slightly burnt for finishing, intended to integrate the label art with the spirit's taste by imparting characteristics of Brazilian aged spirits. "The shape of this barrel provides more whiskey to wood-to-surface contact, which yields more pronounced flavor note," Moore said in a press release. Accordingly, the choice to air dry, rather than kiln-fire the cigars barrels, had similar affects on what the wood exudes into the final spirit.  

I can't lie to you, you're not likely to encounter Bootleg Volume VI out there at too many places. Only 5,000 bottles of this fine bourbon exist in the world, making it ... well, maybe not a unicorn, but at the very least a Sasquatch. Start at the official webstore, where it's still listed for pre-order after an initial December 17, 2023 announcement. If you get desperate, follow the brand's Instagram handle to see if any shop owners tag it near you.

I'll admit, most of us are unlikely to spend $500 on a special edition bottle, even if we find it. These are inflationary times, after all. Many whiskey enthusiast are still making a 1970's pay rate, which is coincidentally the year that Dylan's work became much more difficult to pin down with the release of "Self-Portrait." In a thematic sense, doesn't that make this the perfect time to hunt down his latest unexpected product (whiskey) which, though not a self-portrait, does feature one of Dylan's paintings on the label.

My first and unbidden thought upon pouring and sniffing Heaven's Door Bootleg Volume VI was, "Woah! Tobacco!" Not an uncommon aspect, but the cigar barrels that aged this booze actually refers to their shape, not storing tobacco. The official notes for this bottle repeatedly mention cocoa and chocolate, but I detected more vanilla and caramel. There was even a hint of magnolia to further show just how unusual, yet triumphant, Bootleg Volume VI is.

Back to Bob. Sipping this bourbon hits differently from most I've tried, rushing in fierce and bitter before ripping back the velocity to downshift into a really — like really, really — good, rich body. I don't believe a drop of this stuff came anywhere near chill-filtration. It's salty for a second before tanginess takes over, but as with the nose, quickly subsides to what really interests it: cashew notes in a very oaky though not heavy presence. I've had less-oaked whiskeys that were over-powdered by the profile, whereas this bourbon manages to pack the wood flavor in tighter without overdoing it. It's a curious achievement, and a rare one, which I'm prepared to credit to the aging that occurs in air-dried Limousin oak barrels.

A bit of water renders it sweeter and less cantankerous, though maybe not worth settling down the deliciously fatty constitution. Adding ice once again bucks expectations, making the Bootleg Volume IV hotter, before an explosive burst of bush fruit takes over, and the oak, astonishingly, steps offstage.

I've tasted a fair number of celebrity-owned whiskeys of late, and this is the only one I'd really ever order for an elevated price. (But hey, good job Brother's Bond for delivering a quality, reliable bottle that keeps its cost reasonable. Worse whiskeys are charging more.) A lot of celebrity-owned whiskey leans very oaky, though none to the degree of success as the Volume IV of the Bootleg Series.

While $500 is a tough proposition, it's also inarguable to say this really is an exceptional bourbon whether you can pay or not. It hits a lot of difficult targets while also counterintuitively tackling the usual ones, and the effect is not chaos. You could pay more for great but traditional whiskey, and I would for something like Old Rip Van Winkle, but as with Dylan's music, master blender Alex Moore seems to revel in how to deconstruct and reassemble the standards to see what new abilities they'll display.

For bourbon collectors and spectators, this is a no-brainer. Even amid a purported bourbon bust, Dylan fans will always buy memorabilia. The rest of us shouldn't balk too hard at sticker shock if you're really chasing quality and novelty. There isn't a lot of juice like this out there. It's still low-cost enough to drink without feeling like you're throwing away resale money. Besides, those memorabilia chasers? They just might recoup some of the costs by bidding on the empty bottle.