Heaven Hill 28 Year Old - Cadenheads World Whiskies - 2020 Release - Single Cask

Heaven Hill is a major producer of American whiskey founded in Bardstown, Kentucky in 1935 by the Shapira family, who still own the company today. The Shapira’s distillery, originally known as Old Heavenhill Springs, has been associated since the 1940s with the Beam family, with Earl Beam, Parker Beam and Craig Beam all serving as Master Distillers during the company’s history.

Aside from their substantial bulk whiskey and contract distilling business, Heaven Hill’s main bourbons include Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, Old Fitzgerald and Henry McKenna, alongside the Pikesville and Rittenhouse rye whiskey brands. The original Heaven Hill distillery sadly burned down in 1996, with Brown-Forman and Jim Beam stepping in to help cover supply. Heaven Hill subsequently purchased the Bernheim distillery from Diageo in 1999 and can now produce around 80 million litres of spirit per annum at full capacity.

In 1842 George Duncan established a wine merchant and distillery agency business in Aberdeen. Duncan was joined in the early 1850s by his brother-in-law William Cadenhead, who took over the business after Duncan’s death in 1858, changing the company’s name to Wm. Cadenhead. When Cadenhead died in 1904 the company passed to his nephew Robert Duthie, who developed the spirits side of the business.

Duthie died suddenly in 1931, and employee Ann Oliver was put in charge of Cadenhead’s. Sadly, Oliver’s tenure ended in financial difficulty and on her retirement in 1972 the business was forced to sell its entire inventory. Cadenhead’s was acquired soon afterwards by J & A Mitchell, proprietors of Springbank distillery, who relocated the business to Campbeltown. Cadenhead’s has flourished under Mitchell’s stewardship, releasing many legendary single malt bottlings in the 1980s and 1990s and now has outlets in Edinburgh and London as well as Campbeltown.