Heaven Hill

Founded by the Shapira brothers just after Prohibition — with a Beam as first master distiller — Heaven Hill grew into the largest family-owned whiskey house in America and the keeper of bourbon's deepest bench of brands: Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, Henry McKenna, Old Fitzgerald. A catastrophic 1996 fire destroyed the Bardstown distillery; production moved to the Bernheim plant in Louisville, but the rickhouses and the value-for-money philosophy never left Bardstown.