I found the approach to Heaven Hill, like Wild Turkey, to be quite stunning, but in a different way. I was enjoying a peaceful drive towards Bardstown, and just a little bit lost. As I came around a corner the view widened into a great open space occupied by a vast herd of ironclad rickhouses. I was blown away as I swiveled my head back and forth, trying to take it all in. I wondered to myself, what the heck have I stumbled across, when I saw the visitors center on the left. Ah! I've found Heaven Hill!

Heaven Hill's Bourbon Heritage Center opened in Bardstown in 2004. It is a beautiful building housing bourbon displays, a tasting room, a movie theater, and a gift shop. Just inside the doorway is a small reflecting pool surrounded by benches. To the left are the history displays and to the right is the gift shop and distillery process displays. Get a ticket for the next tour and explore the building while you wait.

The long center section of the building houses wonderful displays and dioramas of Kentucky bourbon history. At one end of the building is the Evan Williams Theater where tours start out. At the other end is the gift shop, tasting room, and distillation displays.

The tour starts with a movie in the "Evan Williams Theater". We were then taken across the street to tour an ironclad rickhouse. The guide told us that Heaven Hill maintains 40 rickhouses, each holding 20,000 barrels, and pays out $2 million per week in federal taxes. We spent a good amount of time in the rickhouse looking around and asking questions. The guide pointed out one of the plumb lines that hang down from the top of the building. Uneven loading of barrels can cause the building to shift and the lines show if the building is still true.

We then returned to the visitor’s center for a tasting. The tasting room is shaped like a giant barrel. We sat around a large circular bar and the guide addressed us from the center. Each person had two Glencarin glasses in front of them. The glasses were placed on small glass "port holes" in the bar that were illuminated from below. We sampled Evan Williams Vintage 1995 and Elijah Craig 18yo Single Barrel.

Heaven Hill's Bourbon Heritage Center is a must see if you are in the Bardstown area. The visitor’s center and barrel tasting room are spectacular. There is no distilling done at this location, but the tour is still quite nice. The gift shop is extensive, but my picks are the cute little ceramic jugs of Evan Williams Master Distiller Select and Glencarin tasting glasses with a variety of stenciled Heaven Hill logos. While in Bardstown be sure to visit the Oscar Getz Museum of Whiskey History.

Heaven Hill Distillery
Bourbon Heritage Center