A new blog post from Heaven Hill Distillery focuses on Heaven Hill’s long-term vision for a tourism experience on the cusp of the American Whiskey boom. The blog is part of broader content marketing efforts for the Heaven Hill Distillery line of whiskeys and Bourbons.

Check out the excerpt below, and read the full blog post here.

A Vision for Bourbon Tourism

Around the year 2000, Heaven Hill’s owners knew the company needed a bona fide tourism experience. They knew the American Whiskey boom was coming, and impressive tourism experiences unfolding at other Kentucky distilleries far exceeded the company’s informal, “Just show up, and we’ll show you around” tours. If its visitor center were to gain attention on the brand new Kentucky Bourbon Trail, it had to be attractive and engaging, a place that whiskey lovers would visit intentionally, and a destination that closed the loop between the Heaven Hill story and the brands its customers loved.

As president of Heaven Hill, Max Shapira’s vision for its tourism efforts was humble. But his cousin, Executive Vice President Harry Shapira, had bigger ideas. Harry imagined a dedicated space telling the history of American Whiskey, detailed explanations of how Bourbon is made and an entertaining dive into the stories of those who made it. Guests also could buy some of their favorite and hard-to-find Heaven Hill products and taste others in intimate classes.

When the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center (BHC) opened in 2004, its success was immediate and significant enough for Harry to envision another tourism draw—the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience (EWBE). According to Max Shapira, if you’ve enjoyed either, you have Harry to thank for it.

Generous, Kind-Hearted Visionary

Harry Shapira was the son of David Shapira, one of five brothers who founded Heaven Hill in 1935. Born in 1947, Harry couldn’t help becoming fluent in the family language of the whiskey business.

Following graduation from the University of Louisville’s College of Business, he served in the U.S. Army at the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. When that commitment ended in 1973, Harry entered the executive training program at Lazarus, then a prominent Columbus, Ohio, department store chain. The experience would be invaluable to his role as overseer of the Shapira family’s retail chain, The Louisville Store. It also helped deepen the retail marketing knowledge he’d need to create the BHC.

Decades before the Kentucky Bourbon Trail existed, Maker’s Mark welcomed visitors to its Loretto, Ky., campus and homeplace, but the guest experience was only a shadow of what it would become. With the 1996 launch of Woodford Reserve Bourbon, the brand also opened its homeplace in Versailles, Ky. When Harry heard about it, he and Larry Kass, retired director of trade relations, drove there to see it.

The Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience

​​​​​​​In 2018, Heaven Hill announced it would invest $19 million to expand, renovate and rebrand the BHC. And after much anticipation, the newly named Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience (HHBE) officially opened its doors on June 14, 2021. Some of its one-of-a-kind visitor experiences include:

• A multi-sensory showcase of stories centered on the Shapira family history and the evolution of Kentucky Bourbon
• A “You Do Bourbon” immersive experience in which guests participate in laboratory-style whiskey making experiences and even bottle their own Bourbon
• A rooftop cocktail and Bourbon tasting bar that overlooks Heaven Hill’s Bardstown rickhouses

When asked what area of the HHBE Harry would visit first if he could see the finished product, Max Shapira answered quickly, “He would be bolting toward the area that gets into the history of our business, our family and the roots of it all. But he’d also love the ‘You Do Bourbon’ experience. He really liked things that were interactive.”

Though 2 million people visited Kentucky’s 73 distilleries in 2019, Max Shapira believes that Bourbon tourism is a long way from peaking. He said he hates to think of what Heaven Hill would have missed out on had Harry not created venues to attract tourists to Heaven Hill.

“Harry’s thought process about tourism was based on expansiveness, on its potential,” Shapira said. “It sure would have been great for him to get to see all that’s happening now.”