On Thursday, November 7th, 1996 high winds were sweeping across Bardstown, Kentucky. At Heaven Hill Distillery, workers were going about their days. That is until, within moments, the seven-story Warehouse I was engulfed in flames. Spreading rapidly from structure to structure, before long Heaven Hill Distillery was almost completely destroyed.
The devastating fire at Heaven Hill Distillery could have spelled the end for the family-run business. Instead, it became an extraordinary story of resilience that led to Heaven Hill becoming one of the biggest whiskey producers in the world. This is the incredible story of how Heaven Hill rose from the ashes to dominate the bourbon industry.
The Heaven Hill Fire & Aftermath
The fire began when the 75-mile-per-hour gusts of wind in Bardstown blew some power lines into the side of Warehouse I. Some sources suggest it was a lightning strike that started the blaze. However, the true cause will never be known. The fire quickly spread to a second warehouse, just as the first collapsed. Before long, warehouses housing around 90,000 barrels of whiskey were ablaze. Whiskey “like lava” ran down the hill and towards Route 49, and the wind blew debris for miles around. Flames leaped over 300 feet into the air. Firefighters tackled the blaze for hours, finally bringing it under control by dusk that day.
Mercifully, no one was hurt. But the loss to the bourbon community was great. As previously reported by The Whiskey Wash, “The loss of liquid that day represented 2 percent of the world’s whiskey stocks at that time.”
In the aftermath of the fire, warehouse workers were redeployed to other parts of the distillery, including the production plant which, thankfully, remained intact. Speaking to The Whiskey Wash in 2016, Heaven Hill’s president Max Shapira said: “We did not miss a day’s work shipping and processing to customers all around the world, and we didn’t lay anyone off.”
Support From The Bourbon Community
Other distilleries in the area, including Jim Beam and the Brown-Forman corporation, came to Heaven Hill’s aid, agreeing to assist with the distillation and barreling of new whiskey so that it could be brought back to Heaven Hill. Strangely, this was due to the timing of the fire – the bourbon industry had been experiencing a downturn as consumers began to favor lighter, white spirits. As such, neighboring distilleries had the capacity to help.
Previous Acquisitions
Also helping the situation was the fact that, in response to changing consumer preferences, the Shapiras had begun to acquire various spirit brands including Burnett’s Gin and Coronet VSQ Brandy. All of these spirits were produced at a separate site, allowing Heaven Hill to continue business as usual in those areas. This lent the Shapira family – the original founders of Heaven Hill Distillery in 1935 – a little stability whilst they calculated their next move.
Heaven Hill’s Rebuilding & Expansion
In 1999, United Distillers (now Diageo) serendipitously decided to sell its Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky. Heaven Hill jumped at the chance to acquire the site which also came with the Old Fitzgerald brand. The site, built in 1992, also came equipped with seven warehouses. By the year 2000, Heaven Hill was back up and running, once again distilling its own whiskey.
In the years since the acquisition of the Bernheim site, numerous warehouses have been built across various locations. Today, Heaven Hill operates more than 55 rickhouses.
Heaven Hill was also aided by the perfectly-timed end to the bourbon glut of the 1980s and early 1990s. Bourbon was back and in a big way. So, there was a lot of demand for the surviving Heaven Hill stock and enough demand that the distillery could begin producing at full capacity.
Before long, the company’s whiskey brands, both old and new, thrived as consumers began to once again appreciate America’s national spirit. By 2011, Bernheim Distillery was producing 300,000 barrels annually.
Resilience, Collaboration, & Good Bourbon
Although the fire was a truly devastating one, the events that followed meant that Heaven Hill could go from strength to strength. Today, the distillery is the largest family-owned bourbon distillery in the world, producing brands such as Old Fitzgerald, Henry McKenna, Rittenhouse Rye, and Larceny Bourbon.
All of this was made possible by timely acquisitions, support from other whiskey producers, and the Shapira family’s commitment to its staff, brands, and the bourbon industry.
On the company’s website, Max Shapira says: “Nobody plans on having their distillery burn down in order to get a bigger one. But that’s the way it happened, and at just the right time before the boom hit. Given all the risk and unforeseen circumstances in our history, I’d say we’re pretty fortunate with how things turned out.”
