United States, Kentucky. Distillery operational. Owner: Heaven Hill Distilleries

The history of the Bernheim distillery is closely linked to that of the bourbon I.W.Harper, a brand registered in 1879 by the Bernheim brothers.I.W.Harper was until then produced at the Pleasure Ridge distillery. Its casks were stored on its site in a warehouse that, in 1896, burnt to the ground. This gloomy episode led to the birth of the Bernheim distillery, built in 1897 on Bernheim Lane in the south of Louisville. With the arrival of Prohibition, I.W.Harper was declared a “medicinal whiskey” and Bernheim was one of only six distilleries allowed to continue production during this period (1920-1933). When Prohibition was repealed, I.W.Harper and its distillery were sold to two merchants. Deemed too small and obsolete by its new owners, Bernheim was first closed and then reopened at the site of Max Selliger Belmont & Astor Distilleries, renamed Bernheim Distilleries. In 1937, the company was bought by Schenley Distilleries, who expanded and modernized the site. Schenley was in turn then bought by United Distillers (the future Diageo) in 1987. In 1999, Bernheim Distilleries was again bought by the Shapira family in order to set up their Heaven Hill distillery, which had been lost to fire in November 1996.

A straight bourbon aged for at least 8 years, bottled in 1983 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the first distillery created by Evan Williams, one of the fathers of bourbon, probably established in 1783 in Louisville. This brand of bourbon was introduced in the 1960s by the Shapira family, which owned the Old Heaven Hill distillery (Est. 1935) in Bardstown. Old Heaven Hill burnt down on 7 November 1996.A bottling for the Italian market, imported by A. Orlandi. Bottle equipped with a glass pourer-stopper covered in an Italian tax strip.