Tales from the Hill

The story of American Whiskey is as spirited as it is varied... full of history, a few tall tales, and plenty of colorful characters. In Tales from the Hill, we dive deep into the heritage of Heaven Hill Distillery and reflect on our legacy with the people who know it best. 

There are stories inside every bottle of whiskey, and for the first time, Heaven Hill Distillery is sharing some of our favorites. From our early days after the end of Prohibition through today's Bourbon boom, we're proud to be a part of American Whiskey history. Our podcast begins with the five Shapira brothers, who began as investors in a small distillery, and grew to become one of Bourbon's leading families. Historic audio used from the National Archives, Universal City Studios, Universal Newsreels Production Company, 1933. Donated into the public domain in 1976 by Universal Studios.

The history of American Whiskey lives in every one of our barrels. From the tradition established when Elijah Craig first used charred oak barrels for Bourbon, to Evan Williams founding the first licensed distillery in Kentucky, or the preservation of historic styles with Larceny or Rittenhouse Rye...you can't discuss American Whiskey without Heaven Hill.

A Bourbon rickhouse is a magical place; one where wood, the elements, and time interact to take raw spirit and turn it into whiskey. The rickhouse is also where Heaven Hill's whiskey makers watch over barrels of maturing whiskey over the years as each one reaches its fullest potential. There's a connection across the generations at Heaven Hill, and those bonds have been tested in both good times and bad over the decades.

For decades, we distilled, matured, and bottled our whiskeys in the city where we were founded—Bardstown, Kentucky. But after a 1996 fire devasted the campus, we moved distilling operations to the modern Bernheim Distillery in Louisville. We share what that fire meant to our history, and then check in with the team that makes every drop of our whiskeys to learn just how grain, water, and yeast come together in the distilling process. Master Distiller Conor O'Driscoll takes us on a tour of the Bernheim Distillery.