This Is the World's Best Bourbon, According to the World Whiskies Awards

The 13-year-old bottled-in-bond bourbon was "reserved for a momentous occasion."

by David Thomas Tao
March 9, 2025

Food & Wine / Heaven Hill Distillery

As with many things in life, taste in whiskey is at least a little subjective. But pit the best drams head to head, and there will invariably be some standouts. In February 2025, the World Whiskies Awards announced one bourbon that stood above the rest.

Old Fitzgerald 2024 VVS was named the World’s Best Bourbon at the 2025 World Whiskies Awards. This 13-year bottled-in-bond bourbon also earned the title of Best Kentucky Bourbon. Old Elk’s 9-Year-Old Straight Bourbon took home the award for Best Non-Kentucky Bourbon.

It’s a big win for Kentucky’s Heaven Hill Distillery, one of the nation’s oldest and largest bourbon producers, which makes Old Fitzgerald. Heaven Hill acquired the historic brand in 1999 and today releases the prized decanter bottlings twice per year. Contemporary Old Fitzgerald releases generally carry age statements between eight and 19 years. It’s wheated bourbon, distilled from a mash of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley.


Food & Wine / Heaven Hill Distillery
Old Fitzgerald 2024 VVS, crowned best bourbon, was distilled 25 years ago and released for a special occasion.

However, the 13-year-old 2024 VVS release has an even more impressive pedigree. To mark special occasions, Heaven Hill releases “Very Very Special” (aka VVS) Old Fitzgerald editions with a distinct red label. The 2024 VVS was only the third such release, with previous versions hitting (limited) shelves in 2018 and 2020.

This award-winning bourbon, while bottled in 2024, was actually distilled in 1999—when Heaven Hill purchased the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky. (Heaven Hill’s distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky was destroyed by fire in 1996.) According to Heaven Hill, master distiller Parker Beam and his team determined in March 2013 that the whiskey had reached its peak maturation and “should be reserved for a momentous occasion.” Beam instructed his team to empty the barrels and store the bourbon in steel tanks.

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Beam passed away in 2017. In 2024, Heaven Hill chose to release the whiskey after more than a decade in storage. The Very Very Special release celebrated both the 25th anniversary of the Bernheim acquisition and Beam’s enduring legacy with the company.

A quarter century after it was distilled, that bourbon hit shelves in highly limited supply at Heaven Hill’s visitors center and select retailers in Kentucky only. Like all modern Old Fitzgerald releases, it’s 100-proof and carries a bottled-in-bond designation.