And learn about the 1800's art of barrel-making at the Hartmann Cooperage Museum. Heaven Hill Founded in Bardstown by the five Shapira brothers shortly after Prohibition, Heaven Hill has become the largest family-owned producer and marketer of distilled spirits, with the second largest supply of aging bourbon in the world. Here you can time travel back to the beginnings of bourbon in Kentucky, and meet company namesake William Heavenhill and the father of bourbon himself, preacher Craig. Then marvel at the rows of open-rick warehouses where over 600,000 barrels are maturing. Four Roses Classic hacienda-style construction distinguishes Four Roses near Lawrenceburg, providing a surprising contrast to its quiet, green, bucolic surroundings.
Tours start at the towering grain silo where corn, rye and malted barley are stored.
Once mashed, the grains are mixed with Kentucky limestone water in a huge atmospheric cooker. Cooked mash passes into large cypress wood vats, where a secret strain of yeast begins the fermentation process. Many say that bourbon has a mystique about it. The fact that at Four Roses the master distiller uses no less than 10 different recipes certainly lends credence to that belief. Formerly the Wild Turkey Distillery, Austin Nichols sits smack on Wild Turkey Hill atop an imposing 300-foot gorge overlooking the Kentucky River near Lawrenceburg.