A Legacy Distilled
Since 1935

Starting Small

In the middle of the Great Depression, cash was scarce and economic confidence was low. But post-Prohibition America was still thirsty for great whiskey, and Bardstown had loads of distilling talent.

In 1934, a group of investors approached Mose, George, Gary, David, and Ed Shapira with an opportunity to create a distillery. Their proposition was simple. If the Shapiras—who had built their business acumen as department store retailers—would contribute $17,500 in start-up capital, the operating group would invest an equal amount and run it. The deal was sealed, and the original Heaven Hill Springs Distillery was built on acreage owned by a man named William Heavenhill.

The modest wood frame distillery used coal to heat the boiler, which cooked its mashes and sent steam surging through its all-copper column still. The Shapiras brought on Joe and Harry Beam of the renowned Jim Beam Bourbon-making family to oversee the distillation process and set the standard for quality. The first barrels were filled on December 13, 1935.

Growing Steady

"When you're in the business of making products that you can't sell for four years or longer, it takes patience and perseverance," says Max Shapira, son of Ed Shapira. "Fortunately, my dad and uncles had their retail stores for income, so they could afford to wait."

Unfortunately, their operating partners couldn't. Midway through aging their first batch of whiskey and in need of cash, their partners asked the Shapiras to buy them out for $20,000. Suddenly and unexpectedly, the brothers were forced to gauge the seriousness of their commitment to the distilling business.

"[My father] and my uncles believed they were involved in a good business that had potential," Shapira says. "So, they bought out their partners…I'd say that risk turned out pretty good for them."

Patience Pays Off 

After four years of aging, the Shapira brothers released their namesake Whiskey: Old Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon. It quickly became the number one-selling Bourbon in Kentucky.

Expansion in Bardstown

In 1946, Ed Shapira signed Earl Beam to the job of Heaven Hill Master Distiller. Building on the early success of Old Heaven Hill Bottled-in-Bond, he expanded operations to match the distillery's steady growth. Capacity increased and additional rickhouses were built to house those full barrels. With such steadily growing stocks, Heaven Hill could begin to extra-age some of its Bourbon.

Earl would spend the next 29 years in the post, helping Heaven Hill establish its distilling legacy. His guidance and vision for the distillery helped Heaven Hill become an American spirits powerhouse. Upon his retirement in 1975, he handed the reins to his son, Parker, who would spend the next several decades creating new Bourbon brands such as Elijah Craig, as well as single barrel and long-aged releases of Evan Williams and Henry McKenna.

A River of Flaming Whiskey

On Nov. 7, 1996, a cold front lashed Central Kentucky with violent thunderstorms. According to Charlie Downs, distillery supervisor at the time, an employee reported smoke coming from Warehouse I at 2 p.m. Downs and Parker Beam hopped inside Beam's truck and drove up the hill from the distillery to look for themselves. When they saw the smoke, they immediately ordered an evacuation.

As 70 mph winds gusted, flames from Warehouse I spread to nearby rickhouses. The heat was so intense that the air shimmered all the way to the sky. As more rickhouses succumbed to the flames, barrels began to explode and sent a widening river of burning spirits down the hill and into Rowan's Creek. The shallow creek quickly overflowed, and flaming whiskey spilled onto the highway, melting the asphalt on its way toward the production plant.

By evening, the Old Heaven Hill Springs Distillery and seven rickhouses—accounting for at least fifteen percent of Heaven Hill's storage capacity—were destroyed or still aflame. The total loss of 92,000 barrels of whiskey and the facilities was later valued at $30 million. A lightning strike is suspected as the cause.

Rebuilding from the Ashes

Remarkably, in spite of their losses, Heaven Hill Distillery overcame the setbacks posed by the fire of '96. Over the next few days, Shapira took calls from competitors asking what they could do to help the distillery stay on its feet, including helping Heaven Hill produce its signature mashbill to be aged in the company's own barrels and rickhouses. Over the next several years, multiple companies would help Heaven Hill distill its spirits.

"When there are problems, individually or collectively as an industry, we work together to solve them,” Shapira explains. “Somebody could have said, 'Oh, let them sink or swim on their own, they're a competitor.' But they didn't. And that shows just how remarkably close this industry is."

They also had a bit of good fortune. The entire supply of yeast—a proprietary recipe handed down for generations that fermented the first batch in 1935—survived the fire in the distillery's fifth-floor yeast refrigerator.

From Bardstown to Bernheim

As Heaven Hill's recovery continued, Shapira weighed the benefits of building a new distillery or buying an existing plant. In 1999, an opportunity presented itself when United Distillers, owner of the Bernheim Distillery, contacted Heaven Hill about a possible sale of their plant. The sale closed later that year.

"[Bernheim] was such a cool distillery at the time, fully automated and streamlined," said Master Distiller Emeritus Charlie Downs. "Moving from the antiquated system we had in Bardstown to that modern system was like riding on a rocket ship to the moon."

Bernheim's capacity was roughly triple that of Old Heaven Hill Springs. Parker Beam set about redesigning the facilities, including adding more copper—the ideal metal for removing sulfurous notes from whiskey. He had each of its two doublers packed with copper mesh to increase important contact with the whiskey, resulting in a distillate that was as clean-tasting as Bardstown's had been.

Expanding Operations

The Bourbon renaissance was moving into high gear. Heaven Hill responded by doubling the fermentation output at the Bernheim Distillery to yield 200,000 barrels annually. By 2014, four more fermentation tanks were added along with a third work shift, and production rose to 300,000 barrels. And when it became clear there was no end to the American Whiskey boom in sight, a third 70 ft column still and four more fermenters boosted annual production to 400,000.

To store the whiskey pouring from the Bernheim stills, Heaven Hill began construction on a new campus of 56,000-barrel rickhouses in 2016: Cox's Creek Barrel Preserve, near Bardstown. While constructed in the traditional open-air design, these rickhouses boasted additional capacity and state-of-the-art fire suppression systems.

A Return to Bardstown

In Spring 2022, Heaven Hill broke ground on a second, state-of-the-art distillery. The momentous occasion marked a return to the company's roots: restoring distillery operations to Bardstown nearly nine decades since the Shapira brothers first launched Old Heaven Hill Springs, and 30 years after fire destroyed it.

The new, $200 million construction was designed with sustainability at its core, incorporating highly efficient production systems, advanced wastewater pretreatment, stormwater management and habitat restoration. Onsite energy creation and recovery systems further reduce environmental impact.

In April 2025, the first barrel was filled on-site: cementing Heaven Hill's status as the largest independent Bourbon producer in the world. Initially, Heaven Hill Springs will produce 150,000 barrels annually, with the capacity to ramp up to 450,000 barrels over time. Factor in the capabilities of the Bernheim Distillery, which remains the largest single-site Bourbon distillery in the country, and Heaven Hill will eventually produce close to 1 million barrels per year.