Heaven's Door Spirits is a collaboration between legendary artist Bob Dylan and Spirits Investment Partnership. Bob Dylan's first and only brand partnership, Heaven's Door is aimed to be an ever-evolving portfolio of handcrafted whiskeys. Last year the company announced that they would be building a new distillery in Pleasureville, Kentucky.

‍‍The company states that Homesick Blues Minnesota Wheated Bourbon Whiskey was “Crafted in Minnesota, a mere 150 miles from Dylan's birthplace, [and] the grains are cultivated, distilled, and aged in the heart of the North Country.”

The nose lures you in with the gentle scent of baked bread, which is joined by light scents of oak and vanilla. Inhaling deeper teases out scant scents of raisins and honey. The overall aroma of the nose isn’t bad by any means, but it comes across as surprisingly weak, considering it’s a 122.7 proof cask strength bourbon. It’s a nice opening for the sip, but no matter how hard you inhale, it leaves you wanting more.

The wheat influence shines through as the midpoint of the sip kicks off. Bright baking spices, fresh sweet bread, honey, and a touch of vanilla start things off. Layered atop is a dried oak note that provides a nice contrast to the sweetness and helps to even out the blend. An additional note of raisins coated in cinnamon pops up, along with a gentle white peppercorn spice note. Acting as a nice contrast to how the nose started the sip, the palate’s slightly creamy mouthfeel helps add a high degree of enjoyment.

A rush of peppercorn spice pops before quickly taking a back seat to defined notes of oak and leather. Dry baking spices weave in, along with a dry peanut note and a hint of sweet cream. The wheat component allows these flavors to not over-index on dry, instead providing an end to the sip that comes across as older than its age, yet not overdone. The finish lingers with dried peanuts riding a wave of gentle heat. Overall, it’s a nice way to end the sip.

From its inception, Heaven’s Door Spirits has been open that it sources its spirits for its various core and limited release lines. While the company seems to be trying to change this with the creation of its own distillery, they’ve succeeded so far by sourcing from various producers that many other brands also source from. Besides its mouthful of a name, what makes Heaven's Door Homesick Blues Minnesota Wheated Bourbon stand out, is that this bourbon is sourced from Minnesota, which is a first for the brand and not all that common to begin with.

Minnesota isn’t a state that bourbon is usually sourced from for national releases. Known for its cold, long winters, the state offers an aging environment that is at the exact opposite of the spectrum as you find in southern states such as Texas. It’s this cold though, that plays well with the softer wheat component used in Heaven's Door Homesick Blues Minnesota Wheated Bourbon. The result is a bourbon that comes across as anything but craft. While its nose is oddly tempered for the proof, the bourbon’s palate and finish really lean into its wheat component and deliver a whiskey that is unlike anything in the current Heaven’s Door Spirits’ portfolio and does well to stand out from other Kentucky and Indiana sourced bourbons.

However, this review wouldn’t be complete without me mentioning that I find it odd that the bourbon isn’t labeled as straight bourbon. This is perplexing since it is clearly labeled as distilled in Minnesota and aged for years, however, it could be a conscious decision to try to limit the bourbon’s already long name. At the end of the day, however, this doesn’t really matter, as the resulting whiskey is both unique in the Heaven’s Door Spirits portfolio and, more so, unique in the overall cask strength wheated bourbon category, thanks to its creation in Minnesota. It’s also great to see consumers have another cask strength wheated bourbon offering, which is underrepresented in the marketplace.

Priced at $80, Heaven's Door Homesick Blues Minnesota Wheated Bourbon falls in the middle of Heaven’s Door Spirits’ standard and limited edition releases (notwithstanding the brand’s Bootleg Series). This places it higher than the two leading ongoing cask strength wheated bourbons: Maker’s Mark 46 Cask Strength and Larceny Barrel Proof. While Heaven's Door Homesick Blues Minnesota Wheated Bourbon delivers a sip that is wholly different from those two bourbons, it's hard to label this as anything other than priced exactly where it should be. Its unique flavor profile delivers a pleasing sip, and it affords consumers the ability to try bourbon from a state that most will not have had an opportunity to try from before.

Heaven's Door Homesick Blues Minnesota Wheated Bourbon fits nicely inside the Heaven’s Door Spirits portfolio. This cask strength wheated bourbon delivers a pleasing, unique sip that is unlike other cask strength wheated bourbons on the market. The lack of being labeled a straight bourbon is slightly perplexing but doesn’t take away from the fact that at the end of the day, this is a gentle sipping cask strength wheated bourbon that delivers an above average sip that pulls you back in for more. I enjoy the fact that Heaven’s Door Spirits branched out from the traditional states you so often see when sourcing whiskey, and hope they continue this trend until they’re fully bottling spirits that are 100% distilled at their new distillery.