There’s not much to tell you about Heaven Hill that Bourbon drinkers don’t already know, but for those who have never been to Kentucky: Heaven Hill’s distillery is not at their Bardstown facility because it burnt down in 1996 and the company made a deal with UD to buy the Bernheim distillery in Louisville. Nevertheless, their warehouses are still in Bardstown, as is their visitor’s center, and they’ll be opening a new distillery on site in 2024 called the Heaven Hill Springs Distillery, bringing production back to their base. We’ve been traveling with some of the Heaven Hill team this week, including my good friend Conor O’Driscoll, so for this experience we were a larger group.
Like a number of distilleries now (particularly in Scotland), Heaven Hill has incorporated a fill-your-own bottle program as part of a massive overhaul to its visitor’s center program. For all the geeks out there that have been begging for things like cask strength Bernheim wheat whiskey and limited edition 14 year old casks like the Heaven Hill Select Stock, they’ve listened. They’re available as part of certain paid tours, but you’ll have to scan your ID when you buy one so they can make sure you’re not milking the system. There’s a strict one bottle limit per person and they keep a record of who bought what. Sound familiar?
Believe me when I say that Kentucky is well aware of the sea change in consumer tastes and desires over the last decade and they’re making serious adjustments based on what the newer generations want.
That being said, let me warn you about what you wish for. Even the core distilleries in Kentucky, those with an old-fashioned dedication to inexpensive wholesale costs, are slowly starting to abandon their historically-low MSRPs. They’re through giving that money away to secondary market flippers when they could be making it themselves. Case in point? The fact that Heaven Hill has decided to put its rarest and most coveted bottles in its brand new tasting bar, rather than for sale in the gift shop. Why make a few hundred bucks on a bottle of Heaven Hill 17 year when you could make a few thousand offering it for $120 an ounce? The former situation benefits collectors who may never open the bottle, while the latter puts liquid to lips. It’s a win-win for Heaven Hill.
Why are distilleries like Heaven Hill making these changes? “Because of bottle flippers,” said our Heaven Hill guide; “No other reason.” It’s also why the 14 year old Select Barrel will run you $200 while the 12 year old Elijah Barrel costs $60. Now that distilleries are getting a taste of what it’s like to be a retailer, they’re making similar adjustments to their strategy.
Heaven Hill is also listening to what specialty retailers want from its barrel program in the form of a cask strength option and more control over the details. We were not only able to choose the age of our barrel, but also the warehouse location and the actual warehouse! How cool is that?! We’re also going to be the very first American retail to debut a new Heaven Hill single barrel option, but more on that later. I was really impressed with the warehouse team at Heaven Hill and the level of preparation that went into our experience, not to mention the data and specs on each available cask. They were prepared for any possible question we threw at them, and they were excited to share as much information as possible.
Heaven Hill has also invested a serious amount of coin into their new tasting warehouse and it was well worth it. Getting to choose our barrel in this environment was one of the coolest things we did on this trip, which highlighted the improvements they’ve made to their visitor center, not to mention their schwag in the gift shop (Mellow Corn vintage T-shirts!!). We had the SoCal team from Southern Wine & Spirits (Heaven Hill’s CA distributor) join us for the barrel selection process so they could speak to its awesomeness when they return to the market later this week.
A big thank you to Heaven Hill for their access, transparency, and generosity. I’m so excited about what we’ll be offering Mission customers moving forward.
-David Driscoll