Marking a homecoming with a return to distilling in Bardstown

Nine decades since first operating a distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky, Heaven Hill is deepening our Bourbon roots in our home community.

Today, Heaven Hill Distillery announced plans for a new, $135 million distillery to open by 2024. The distillery will augment Heaven Hill’s distilling capacity to meet increased global whiskey demand and marks the company’s return to distilling in Bardstown since the 1996 fire. After the fire, Heaven Hill’s distilling moved to the historic Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, while bottling and other functions continued in Bardstown where they remain today.

“The people of Bardstown have helped us build our brands over all these many years, so it’s a special homecoming to bring distilling back to this community,” said Max Shapira, “Our new distillery will honor our long-time Bardstown roots while applying state-of-the-art equipment and processes to produce the highest quality American Whiskey and build upon our meaningful partnership with Bardstown and the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

The new distillery will be located on a vacant 61-acre site at 1015 Old Bloomfield Pike, off KY 245. Construction is slated to begin this spring and the distillery will be operational by the end of 2024. Initial production is slated for 10 million proof gallons a year, or 150,000 barrels, and will have capacity to ramp up to producing 30 million proof gallons, or 450,000 barrels, over time. We will continue to age Bourbon at existing locations and the Bernheim distillery in Louisville and bottling facility in Bardstown will continue to operate at full capacity.

The five Shapira brothers and a group of Bardstown-area investors founded “Old Heavenhill Springs” distillery in 1935, and filled our first barrel—labeled Bourbon Falls—on December 13 of that year. Since that time, we have added several acclaimed brands, earned numerous industry accolades including “Whiskey of the Year” and “Distillery of the Year,” and attracted millions of Bourbon tourists to our visitor experiences, along the way to filling more than 9.5 million barrels in our history.

“Bourbon making is an old art, but we are applying forward-thinking approaches to ensure we are environmentally conscious and a good neighbor,” said Conor O’Driscoll, Heaven Hill Distillery Master Distiller. “Heaven Hill’s tradition of distilling with attention to detail, quality and craftsmanship will now be even more accessible as we grow our distilling heritage in Bardstown.”

Thank you to the project team for their work leading up to this announcement and their commitment to Heaven Hill’s continued success in the American Whiskey industry. We’re looking forward to sharing more details throughout the construction process.

Click here to read the press release announcing this project. If you have any questions about this project, please email [email protected].