We sell gift vouchers - for more details call us on 0115 911 0555 or email us at eann@gauntleys.com
We sell gift vouchers - for more details call us on 0115 911 0555 or email us at eann@gauntleys.com
Heaven Hill Brands, as the company has been known as since 2014, is America’s largest family owned and operated producer and distributor of distilled spirits. The company was founded after the repeal of Prohibition in 1935 by the Shapira brothers – David, Ed, Gary, George and Mose along with an investment group, who were eventually bought out by the brothers in 1943 for the princely sum of $20,000.
The company was initially called the Old Heaven Hill Springs and was allegedly named after a farmer-distiller that owned the land in Bardstown in the late 1800’s where the companies first distillery was built. The first master distiller was Joseph L. Beam, a cousin of the legendary Jim Beam. This collaboration between the Shapira and Beam families has become part of the bourbon mythology, as Joseph was followed by his son Harry, who was followed in 1946 by Earl Beam, the son of Jim Beam’s brother Park. Parker Beam, the son of Earl became master distiller in 1975 until the distilling baton was handed to Earl’s son Craig Beam in 2013.
The Shapira/ Beam association unfortunately came to an end in 2017 when Craig resigned from the company in order to care for his father, Parker who was suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) at the time. For the first time in over 80 years a Beam wouldn’t be overseeing the production as the title of master distiller passed to Denny Potter.
Potter had already established himself at Heaven Hill as he was co -master distiller, alongside Craig Beam at the companies Bernheim distillery, prior to that role, he served as operations manager at Beam Global’s Frankfort distillery, general manager of Cruzan Rum’s distillery in St. Croix, and director of distillery and environmental operations at Maker’s Mark. Potter decided to return to Maker’s Mark in 2019 to take up an ambassadorial position.
Irishman Conor O’Driscoll was subsequently named the seventh master distiller. Again, his was an internal promotion as he had been leading the distilling and warehouse teams at Bernheim. Prior to that he was Operations Manager for the Brown-Forman Distillery in Shively, before moving the Woodford Reserve Distillery and leading the start-up of the Angel’s Envy Distillery in Louisville.
As of April 2025, Heaven Hill owns and operates four distilleries, however, that wasn’t always the case. As previously mentioned, the company was founded with one distillery in Bardstown called the Old Heaven Hill Springs distillery until one fateful day in November 1996, Thursday the 7th to be precise. That day a violent thunderstorm lashed central Kentucky. At around 2pm, the distillery Supervisor Charlie Down spotted smoke coming from Warehouse No1. Fanned by 70mph winds, the fire, which was thought to have resulted from a lightening strike spread to nearby rickhouses.
Apparently flames leapt hundreds of feet into the air and the intense heat caused the air to shimmer. Eyewitness claimed that as barrels exploded it sent a river of burning whisky down the hill and into Rowan’s Creek itself. As the shallow creek overflowed whisky spilled on to the highway, melting the tarmac on it’s way down to the production plant. By the time the fire had been brought under control, the distillery and seven rickhouses had been destroyed, resulting in the loss of 92,000 barrels, roughly 15% of their storage capacity.
The company continued trading thanks to Jim Beam and Brown-Forman allowing them to distil spirit at their distilleries until Heaven Hill completed the purchase of the Bernheim distillery from Diageo in 1999., with all production shifting there roughly a year later. This was followed in 2013 by the creation of a micro-distillery called the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience at 528 Main Street, Louisville following a $9.5 renovation. Although the building is geared more towards informing customers about the distilling process and the history of the company, it is still a working distillery, generally used for experimentation, but in 2021 it did release the first bourbon which was distilled on site, called Square 6, which pays tribute to Evan Williams’ original 1783 distillery, which was located in Lot Square 6 of early Louisville.
Although the bottling facility in Bardstown survived the 1996 fire, one can only assume that it has been a long held dream of the Shapira family to return to distilling in Bardstown. This goal was achieved in April 2025, when the first spirit ran off the stills at their new $200 million distillery the Heaven Hill Springs Distillery, which will probably be known as the ‘New’ Heaven Hill Springs Distillery. Fittingly he first barrel filled at the new distillery was by Charlie Downs, now Master Distiller Emeritus, as he is the only employee remaining with the company to have worked at each of the four distilleries. This distillery will have an initial capacity of 150,000 barrels per year with the ability to scale up to around 450,000 barrels. As with most modern distilleries it’ll feature an ecologically efficient power system and an onsite white oak woodland and native prairie habitat. It will also feature a stormwater detention basin, and one imagines a lightning rod conductor!
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