Heaven Hill Distilleries is investing $9.5 million to develop an artisanal distillery, tourism and retail attraction in downtown Louisville.
The Evan Williams Bourbon Experience will be located along what is historically known as “Whiskey Row” on Main Street, in a five-story facility that is more than a century old. The attraction will offer guided tours, a fully functioning artisanal pot still distillery, tasting rooms and a dioramic video wall that depicts the progression of distillery operations dating back to distiller Evan Williams in the late 1700s in Louisville.
Headquartered in Bardstown, Heaven Hill is one of the country’s oldest and largest distillers. Founded in 1934 after the end of Prohibition, Heaven Hill has since produced more than 6 million barrels of Kentucky bourbon, with a current aging inventory that accounts for nearly 23 percent of the world’s supply of bourbon.
In announcing the new attraction, Heaven Hill Executive Vice President Harry J. Shapira noted that the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience “brings together important economic development, tourism, and historical forces: an important new manufacturing and distillation facility, a major Louisville and Kentucky-themed attraction, and the history of Whiskey Row and Evan Williams as an important Louisville figure and early distiller.”
The attraction is expected to open in September 2013 and will employ a staff of 14 full-time workers.
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