| American
Whiskey
January 22, 2005 -- The Bourbon Heritage Center |
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This is an addendum. You should really read about our 1998 visit to Heaven Hill's warehouses and bottling plant here, and our tour of the distillery in Louisville in 2000 first. This visit came about as an opportunity to meet up with some friends and see the brand new addition to the Shapira brothers' Bardstown facility. It says a lot about Heaven Hill's relationship with the community that the company, which has always called Bardstown its home, has built this lovely center here, rather than nearer to the new distillery itself. Heaven Hill's distillery may be in Louisville, but it's heart (and its corporate office) remains in Bardstown.
It takes only a couple and a half hours for John to drive
to Bardstown. Mike is only about forty-five minutes away in Louisville,
and Brenda lives in Bardstown.
Linda isn't able to come along for this trip, but John
takes along his camera to bring home lots of pictures for her to see.
It's good thing that Linn's prolific with his own digital
camera, or there'd hardly be any photos at all here. Thanks, Linn!
Just about every whiskey distillery has a visitors' center,
but the Bourbon Heritage Center at Heaven Hill is the pet project of Harry
Shapira. Along with his brother Max and Jeff Homel,
A very enjoyable experience, and one that should not be
missed if you're visiting Bardstown, Kentucky.
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Our
friend Carl Lusk and his wife also stop by to say hello and deliver a gift
for Howie.
Howie
and Linn's trip is a bit more travel-intensive, especially considering the
weather conditions. Howie lives in Maryland and first drove to Linn's home
in Virginia's Shenandoah valley. They then traveled together to Kentucky
to attend the event in Versailles. Meanwhile, the worst winter storm of in
years is bearing down upon the east coast, and tomorrow they'll get to
test the surefootedness of Linn's Jeep as they drive back through all
that.
It is a beautiful
building, with design elements that suggest the warehouses themselves. The
building is constructed using lots of American White Oak and Kentucky
limestone, but most noticeable is the brilliant copper-sheathed roofing. There are also copper lighting fixtures along the paths, still gleaming
and reddish. As time goes by the fixtures and the roofs will take on the
rich verdigris seen on the finest thoroughbred stable buildings and the
center will look even more spectacular.
And
there are displays of pictures and old products that depict the history of
this distillery and its brands (some of which have only been associated
with Heaven Hill for a few years). The treatment here is very nicely done,
and includes a life-sized mockup of a farmer's or moonshiner's still, a
wall of barrels with each barrelhead showing one of Heaven Hill's brand
logos, and beautifully arranged photomontages presenting the history of
their major brands. But
the central feature, both literally (it's in the middle of the building)
and as a focal point, is the tasting room. Built to resemble a whiskey
barrel, both inside and out, it is of course, round. The bar inside is
also round, with bartender working from the center and the guests seated
in a circle. It's
a large and brightly-lit room, so there isn't a claustrophobic feeling
about it. The effect works very well. And there are other advantages, such
as that the room focuses sound, making it easy to hear the bartender
clearly from anywhere in the room.
That's important, because the bartender
is not really a "bartender" at all, in the conventional sense. She is the
narrator and presenter of a tasting event which is part demonstration and
part show. We were presented with tiny samples of mint and ginger to
become familiar with the different smells one might encounter,
and
with healthy samples of two of Heaven Hill's best bourbons to learn how to
sense color, texture, flavor, and other differences.
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Story
copyright ©2005 by
John F. Lipman. All rights reserved. |
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