Sharing Spirits with the Angels
Distillery shows why Kentucky is heaven for bourbon lovers

“What you’re smelling is the angel share of bourbon,” Lynne Grant explains in a Scottish burr as rich as the whiskey aging in this 20,000-barrel rickhouse at Heaven Hill Distillery. I inhale the woody, caramel aroma and salivate involuntarily.

Former manager of The Famous Grouse Experience at Scotland’s Glenturret Distillery in Crieff, Grant now serves as director of guest services for the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center, just opened in October of 2004 in Bardstown, the “Bourbon Capital of the World.” I’m on a tour through one of 40 Heaven Hill rickhouses in Nelson County.

“Parker,” Grant asks, “where’s the sweet spot?”

Parker Beam, seventh-generation Master Distiller at Heaven Hill, smiles from the back of the tour group, “Anywhere from the fifth floor on up we could find some real honey barrels.”

For those uninitiated in the business, the “angel share” is the distinct smell of aging bourbon. Barrels stored near the outer walls of a rickhouse are influenced more by the changing Kentucky climate than those near the center, i.e. the “sweet spot” where “honey barrels” of the best of the best reside. Think small-batch and single-barrel bourbons, lifeblood that causes the eyes of connoisseurs worldwide to glaze over.

The nation’s largest independent, family-owned producer and marketer of distilled spirits, Heaven Hill boasts the world’s second largest supply of Kentucky bourbon whiskey – more than 600,000 barrels – aging in its rick warehouses.

The rickhouse tour is one highlight of Heaven Hill’s state-of-the-art Heritage Center that incorporates into its design key elements in the bourbon-making process – limestone, white oak and copper. Six years in the planning and building, the newest stop on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail includes a museum, 75-seat theater, gift shop and unusual tasting room, all set on 150 acres of rolling bluegrass.

Interactive, educational exhibits explore the history of bourbon and its picturesque pioneers, beginning in 1789 with “the father of bourbon,” Paris preacher Elijah Craig. Thanks to a barn fire, Craig accidentally discovered that charred oak barrels gave aging spirits a richer color, smoky nose and smooth taste.

Visitors can smell the difference between new, seven-year-old and 12-year-old whiskey by sniffing “aroma horns” that resemble old-fashioned ear trumpets. Lighted scale models of a working distillery show how bourbon is made today.

In a distinctive, 22-seat barrel-shaped tasting room, visitors 21 years and older can develop a “nose,” industry jargon for being able to smell, and then taste, the subtle scents and flavors of good bourbon. In order to awaken their olfactory sense, guests are asked to sniff scents, first a lemon-ginger, then a peppermint – much like a between-course palate cleanser, but for the nose – before nosing and tasting a couple of the company’s bourbons, such as single-barrel Evan Williams and Elijah Craig brands.

Smiles spread on the faces of sippers around the tasting bar.

“The biggest problem we have,” laughs Grant, “is getting people out of the barrel.”

Back in 1783, William Heavenhill’s mother had a much bigger problem. Located on the Nelson County property where the bulk of the distillery named for her son now stands, her home came under Indian attack, and she gave birth to William while hiding under a nearby waterfall. In fact, the same spring the pioneer used to make his bourbon inspired the company’s first name, Old Heaven Hill Spring Distillery.

By 1934, prohibition had left the distillery in financial trouble. Enter the Shapira brothers, retail magnates who bought the facility, changed its name to Heaven Hill and drew their first barrel of whiskey in 1935.

Today, second-generation family members Max and Harry Shapira run the company, as president and vice-president respectively; Max’s daughter, Kate, and her husband, Allan Latts, have joined as a third-generation management team.

“Our adjacency to My Old Kentucky Home State Park, as well as our support of the Heaven Hill Distilleries Trolley (in Bardstown) has meant we have always had a broad and consistent base of visitors,” he explains Harry Shapira. “We feel strongly that the center will augment the number of people visiting the distillery and Bardstown and their overall impression of the city, county and region.”

To find out more, call (502) 337-1000 or visit www.bourbonheritagecenter.com.

Katherine Tandy Brown is a staff writer for The Lane Report.
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