Heaven Hill Celebrates 85 Years of Whiskey (Episode 849: December 13, 2020)

85 years ago today, the five Shapira brothers and their partners opened Heaven Hill Distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. The Shapira family is still in charge today, with second-generation company president Max Shapira leading the company. We’ll talk with Max about Bourbon then and now, including the company’s recent expansion into Canadian Whisky with last year’s purchase of Black Velvet and its distillery in Lethbridge, Alberta. In the news, the clock is ticking more loudly as the deadline gets closer for Congress to extend a critical federal tax break for small-scale distillers, and we’ll talk with one distiller who says the damage may already have been done.  There’s also hope that a move in London might help ease some of the trade tensions affecting the whisky industry, while new data shows a significant decline in alcohol sales worldwide this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. We’ll have the rest of the week’s news and much more on this week’s WhiskyCast!

Links: Heaven Hill | Black Button Distilling | The IWSR | Just-Drinks.com | Karuizawa Distillers | Booker’s Bourbon | Gordon & MacPhail | Tomintoul | Royal Mile Whiskies | Alberta Premium | Maker’s Mark | The Lee Initiative | Far North Spirits | Ironroot Republic | Paul John Whisky