How much did your distillery produce last year?

At Heaven Hill, the largest family-owned and operated distillery in America, they produced a cool 440,000 barrels of American Whiskey.

That means they have an impressive 2.1 million barrels of Whiskey ageing across their 70 rickhouses.

And Heaven Hill are the only American Whiskey distillery to make all five types of American Whiskey: Bourbon, Rye, Corn, Wheat and Single Malt.

So to learn more about the role rickhouses play in storing and aging Whiskey, we were recently joined by the brilliant Benji Purslow.

Benji has been the European Brand Educator & Ambassador for Heaven Hill since May 2020. His love of sharing whiskies with an emphasis on education, along with his experience in the on-trade puts him in a great position to help develop Heaven Hill Distillery’s award-winning portfolio across Europe.

Working with their USA-based ambassadors, he has developed a trade education and consumer engagement program primarily focusing on their American Whiskey portfolio.

And Benji has been working in hospitality since 1999 and on the London cocktail scene since 2007. 

He is also a part owner of London cocktail bar, Victory Mansion, and has won many awards for his cocktail creativity, most notably twice reaching the UK final for Diageo’s World Class competition.

In this podcast, Benji discusses how Kentucky’s four distinct seasons are an essential ingredient to the aging process and the role char levels play in the Whiskey’s that Heaven Hill produces.

He outlines how the elevation of a rickhouse and its exposure to sun, wind, and precipitation all affect how the Whiskey inside will age and as the temperatures fluctuate throughout the year, how the spirits seep in and out of the oak barrel, extracting important compounds that give American Whiskey its colour and a large part of its flavour and aroma.