Field Trip: Heaven Hill Springs Distillery

The Heaven Hill Springs Distillery under construction — The Heaven Hill Springs Distillery should be operational by early 2025

Earlier this summer, I was fortunate to embark on an adventure led by the creative bourbon wizards of Heaven Hill. The full-day field trip included a sneak peek inside the new Heaven Hill Springs Distillery in Bardstown, Ky., plus a sampling and launch of their latest Grain to Glass series of bourbons and whiskeys.

It was an inspiring day spent in the trenches of bourbon, and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience being able to rub elbows with Master Distiller Conor O’Driscoll, Brand Ambassador and Bottled-in-Bond Champion Bernie Lubbers, and Executive Chairman Max Shapira, to name a few.

Hope ‘Springs’ Eternal

Distilling equipment at Heaven Hill Springs Distillery

It’s been 28 years since Heaven Hill distilled bourbon in Bardstown. On Nov. 7, 1996, lightning struck one of Heaven Hill’s rickhouses, resulting in one of the worst distillery fires in the modern industry. The company not only lost about 90,000 barrels of aging whiskey but also the entire distillery, which had been running since it started in 1935. Thankfully no one was injured, but it forced Heaven Hill to move distilling operations to the old Bernheim Distillery in Louisville.

The family-owned company’s home base has always been in Bardstown, which is where the visitor’s center, museum, barrel dumping, bottling line, offices, and some rickhouses remain. Heaven Hill makes some of the top brands in the market, including Elijah Craig, Evan Williams, Larceny, Henry McKenna, and Old Fitzgerald.

Giant mash tanks at Heaven Hill — Giant mash tanks

The goal has always been to bring distilling back to Bardstown, said Shapira, and now the $200 million project — called Heaven Hill Springs Distillery — is nearing completion at 1015 Old Bloomfield Pike. As one of the leading bourbon distilleries in the country, Heaven Hill is not slowing down production anytime soon. Along with the 450,000 barrels a year that Bernheim pumps out, Heaven Hill Springs will produce 150,000 a year with the potential to ramp up to 450,000 barrels annually.

If you’re challenged at math, that’s the potential to make 900,000 barrels a year.

Kicking the Tires

The Vendome copper still at Heaven Hill Springs Distillery — The Vendome copper still is 60-feet tall

It was exhilarating to walk through “the bones” of the distillery, although there was a lot of meat there, too, in the form of massive distilling equipment from the mash tanks to the 60-foot Vendome copper still. Master Distiller Conor O’Driscoll and Lead Distillery Technician Sydney Jones showed us around the 61-acre site, which has been constructed with sustainability at the forefront.

Lead Distillery Technician Sydney Jones and Master Distiller Conor O’Driscoll

O’Driscoll and Jones explained that the distillery has been built with workers in mind, and no expense was spared to make the day-to-day distillery jobs more efficient and less laborious for the staff. Little things like a sloping floor to make it easy to clean to more space around machinery can really go a long way, especially compared to distillery layouts 60+ years ago.

Also tucked into the distillery blueprints are modern-day amenities like staff rec rooms, meeting spaces, meditation rooms, and more. And the site will include sustainability efforts like a wastewater pretreatment system, which will alleviate demand on the city’s infrastructure. Once construction is close to completion — they’re hoping for early 2025 — the campus will use native plants and natural systems to manage stormwater runoff and improve vegetation on the property.

With a nice mixture of glass and steel and a nod to the brand’s aesthetic, the Heaven Hill Springs Distillery will certainly be a modern marvel in the bourbon industry.

BONUS: Crafting Grain to Glass

Heaven Hill's Grain to Glass series — The Grain to Glass series was released in June 2024

Along with a nearly complete distillery to show off, Heaven Hill also introduced us to its Grain to Glass series, a new line of craft bourbons and a rye whiskey that is made with a more hands-on approach and a couple important partnerships. The idea came about over eight years ago by Max Shapira as a way to give consumers transparency.

Inside a Heaven Hill rickhouse at Cox’s Creek

The three-way partnership to create these whiskeys includes working with Beck’s Hybrids, a family-owned seed company in Indiana that helps farmers plant viable and thriving crops, as well as Peterson Farms, a multi-generational family farming company in Nelson County, Ky., that grows the varietal corn seeds, literally right across the street from Heaven Hill.

Shapira explained that this series falls in line with Heaven Hill’s knack at creating brands with a broad vision in mind.

“Grain to Glass incorporates everything our long history and heritage brings to our producing what we believe is the most unique, transparent offering that we have brought to market in our entire history,” he said. “And that is saying a lot.”

The series features different mash bills and proofs than the standard Heaven Hill brands. The Grain to Glass bourbon mash bill is 52% corn, 35% rye, and 13% malted barley, while the wheated Grain to Glass bourbon is 52% corn, 35% wheat, and 13% malted barley. The proof is 107 for the former and 121 on the latter, and it will change each year depending on what O’Driscoll decides is best. The Grain to Glass rye whiskey has a mash bill of 63% rye, 24% corn, and 13% malted barley and is bottled at barrel proof: 123.2. All three have been aged over six years and are also non-chill filtered.

As another testament to transparency, each label includes when the whiskey was distilled and dumped, as well as which corn seed varietal was used, where it was aged, and even which floor in the rickhouse it sat on. Each retails for a suggested price of $99 for a 700ml bottle.

“Working with Beck’s and Peterson Farms to create Grain to Glass has been an incredible experience,” said O’Driscoll. “We’re proud to have crafted an innovative product — taking it from seed to aged liquid — while still remaining true to the values and legacy of Heaven Hill.”

Ready for more? Get a sneak peek at the Jimmy Russell Wild Turkey Experience.