Heaven Hill Distillery

Heaven Hill is the largest independent family-owned bourbon distillery. Founded in 1934 by the Shapira brothers, it now has over 900 000 barrels in ageing, thanks to the leadership of Master Distiller Craig Beam, a descendant of the legendary 'Jim' Beam.

Heaven Hill faced a catastrophic event in its history: a huge fire at the first distillery in Bardstown, which destroyed 92 000 whisky casks in November 1996. Following this, many competing companies offered their support to help the distillery get back on its feet, but the Shapira brothers wanted to return to distilling as soon as possible. In 1999, United Distillers, owner of the Bernheim distillery, about 45 minutes away from Bardstown, contacted Heaven Hill about a possible sale of its plant. The sale was concluded the same year.

Parker Beam set about redesigning the stills, which had three times the capacity of their predecessors, adding copper, the ideal metal to remove the sulphurous notes from the whisky. Beam believed that adding even more copper to the existing copper and stainless steel stills would result in a spirit as clean tasting as the one produced at Bardstown before the fire. Therefore, he had each of the two doublers packed with copper mesh to increase the important contact with the whisky.

The traditional methods used are still the same as in the first plant.

The range

In its range, the distillery includes:

The Elijah Craig brand, whose name pays homage to the reverend of the same name who is considered the father of bourbon: it was he, in 1789, who was the first distiller to age his whiskey in charred oak barrels. The brand includes Barrel Proof and Straight Rye, Elijah Craig's first extra-aged Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey.

The Evan Williams brand is named after the distiller who opened Kentucky's first commercial distillery on the banks of the Ohio River in 1783. The brand includes Black bourbon, the second best-selling Kentucky Straight Bourbon in the US and the world.

The Rittenhouse brand takes inspiration in its name from the famous Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, and produces a Straight Rye Whisky that is among the most popular among mixologists.

Pikesville Rye is a historic Maryland brand, the last one from this region to still be produced and today kept alive by Heaven Hill.