When you’ve been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, won 10 Grammys, a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, a Pulitzer, and the Nobel Prize in Literature, what do you do next?
If you’re Bob Dylan, you set up an award-winning whiskey distillery, then showcase your wares in an abandoned church in the heart of Louisville, Kentucky.
In 2018, Heaven’s Door — a reference to Dylan’s 1973 classic ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ — became the musician’s first (professional) foray into the whiskey world. Working alongside Marc Bushala, co-founder of the wildly successful Angel’s Envy, Dylan set his sights on producing a whiskey that would demonstrate both his long-standing love for the liquor and his enduring need to be creative.
Dylan and whiskey are a natural pairing. His music conjures up images of rustic saloons, dimly lit, and lined with dark wood, where thoughtful men sit nursing their drinks, lost in contemplation. For many, Dylan’s music is Americana: a tribute to all things bucolic, pastoral, and everyday. His lyrics are simultaneously profound and relatable, elegiac and, ultimately, honest. He captures the beauty and the flaws of America with unflinching, poetic truthfulness.
Understanding a little about America’s greatest songwriter sets the stage for what the man embodies: a commitment to excellence in everything he does. He does not take on new ventures simply to pass the time; when he steps into a project, he does it with purpose. Heaven’s Door is a testament to this ethos, and is crafted with the same care and artistry he brings to his music. For Dylan, it is all or nothing.
When Bushala began working with Dylan on Heaven’s Door, he realised that the writer’s involvement would go far beyond a typical celebrity endorsement. He and Dylan recognised that despite the obvious benefits — immediate PR, a ready-made audience — the brand would, inevitably, need to be capable of standing on its own two feet.
“Dylan didn’t want Heaven’s Door to be recognised as ‘Bob Dylan’s whiskey’, Bushala says. “He preferred a subtler approach, one that invited consumers to discover the deeper story behind the brand. For example, the metalwork, constructed from found objects sourced from farms and scrapyards, became the core design element for the bottles. When tested, these designs were visually arresting, and resonated strongly with the audience.”
Almost from the brand’s inception, Bushala and his team were keen to highlight the richness of Dylan’s paintings, which led them to incorporate his artworks into limited-edition releases. Each year, Heaven’s Door releases a special ceramic bottle featuring one of Dylan’s artworks, carefully selected for its connection to the whiskey’s process, origin, or provenance. For instance, the Heaven’s Door Bootleg Series — named after Dylan’s Bootleg Series of records, which stands at 17 volumes — includes a Minnesota wheaten bourbon, a nod to Dylan’s Duluth roots.
Aesthetics and eye-catching design can only take a whiskey brand so far. Heaven’s Door’s growing collection of awards, and rapidly expanding global fan base, affirms that this venture is as far from a celebrity-fronted cash-in as it is possible to be.
Heaven’s Door’s Revelation, a blend of straight bourbon whiskey, Tennessee maple-mellowed straight bourbon, and straight rye whiskey, aged in heavily toasted white American oak barrels from a wine cooperage in California, is rich, complex, and meticulously crafted. Its Refuge rye whiskey is aged for six years, blended to ensure consistent maturity, then finished in Amontillado sherry casks for at least six months.
Heaven’s Door makes a point of going about things its own way; of learning from the history of the region’s whiskey-making pioneers, then tweaking, refining and going off in a slightly different direction. The best example of this is Revival, which — somewhat unusually for a proud Kentuckian brand — honours Tennessee’s whiskey-making legacy, and is produced in partnership with Bushala’s “longtime friends in Tennessee”.
“The Heaven’s Door philosophy embodies Dylan’s creative spirit, as well as his obsessive commitment to his craft and desire to push boundaries,” explains Alex Moore, chief operations officer at Heaven’s Door. “That’s why each core offering is different in various ways. For example, while most brands attach themselves to one mash bill, Ascension, Heaven’s Door’s Kentucky straight bourbon, blends two different Kentucky straight whiskey mash bills to produce a smooth, complimentary creation that a solitary mash would never be able to achieve.”
Heaven’s Door’s dedication to seamlessly melding the old with the new is best evidenced by its approach to constructing its new distillery in Pleasureville, Kentucky. Situated on 67 hectares of rolling hills, this pretty-as-a-picture property was once owned by Squire Boone, the brother of famed frontiersman Daniel Boone, who played a major role in the settlement of Kentucky.
“Initially, we planned to establish Heaven’s Door’s brand experience centre in Nashville, Tennessee,” Bushala says.
“We had acquired a historic 160-year-old church in Nashville with the intention of converting it into a showcase distillery and brand centre. However, as the project progressed, an unexpected opportunity arose in Kentucky that led us to reconsider our strategy.”
The Pleasureville property, Bushala says, offers more than just picturesque views of whiskey’s spiritual heartland. Its deeply rooted American frontier history resonates with the brand’s commitment to storytelling and craftsmanship, allowing Heaven’s Door to create not just a modern distillery, but a destination to honour the rich traditions of Kentucky whiskey making.
“The property features custom-built, 18th-century-inspired structures housing Vendome stills, multiple stillhouses, and a visitor centre overlooking the valley. The restored 18th-century buildings on the property, including an old grist mill and a Moravian barn, further enhance the historic and authentic feel.”
Bushala adds, “The distillery taps into two underground aquifers, providing pristine limestone-filtered water, which is crucial for whiskey making. Its proximity to local farms also allows for strategic partnerships with landowners, enabling the cultivation of the highest-quality grains under the strict guidelines of our master distiller, Ken Pierce.”
One of the central challenges of developing the new distillery, according to Bushala, was retaining the natural beauty of the site, and maintaining a low environmental impact throughout the project’s life.
Sustainability, he admits, was a core focus from the outset, guiding every decision made during the build.
“The distillery is spread out across the property to ensure that it integrates seamlessly with the landscape,” Bushala says. “For the rickhouses, the team repurposed a nearby 200-year-old tobacco farm, ensuring that even the storage facilities feel authentic and organic to the area.
“Each structure has been designed with painstaking attention to detail to make sure it complements, rather than imposes upon, the surroundings.”
The overarching goal, Bushala says, was to create a place true to its roots, where every element — be it the architecture, the production process, or the visitor experience — would feel like a “natural extension” of the land and its history. This is a point expanded upon by Pierce. “The production process is quality and sustainability focused,” he says. “Our facility has already been awarded the Energy Star by the EPA [the US Environmental Protection Agency. We scored 94 points [out of 100], making us one of the most sustainable distilleries in the country.
“Quality is also derived through our staff and equipment, and benefits from our sustainable approach to procurement. Our ingredients are non-GMO, and largely contracted with local farmers through mills just 15 miles away. Additionally, our barrels are sourced from like-minded cooperages. This all comes at a premium price and a commitment in time and energy, but it is absolutely worth it.”
Given the stellar work Heaven’s Door has carried out behind the scenes, it makes sense that the brand has found an equally impressive — and unique — way of visually displaying the fruits of its labours. The Last Refuge, a restaurant and whiskey bar housed in a 150-year-old Louisville church, is Heaven’s Door’s way of showing that while whiskey is its core focus, preserving the area’s history is equally essential to its brand purpose.
At the core of the Last Refuge stands a striking bar featuring a towering whiskey wall, a tribute to more than 1,500 whiskey brands that reflects Heaven’s Door’s obsession with craftsmanship. There is also a retail space, offering Heaven’s Door products alongside Dylan’s albums and books, giving fans of both his whiskey and his music a deeper insight into his legacy. But, perhaps most excitingly for Heaven’s Door aficionados, it will also offer the chance to get one’s hands on limited-edition, history-marinated releases.
“Though Heaven’s Door is dedicated to innovation and advancement, we pay homage to history and tradition,” Moore reiterates.
“Our team is making a bourbon from local grains, using direct flame, condensed with chilling limestone creek water, and aged in handmade barrels, just like you would have seen it done in the 1800s. This pot-distilled bourbon is currently maturing under Ken Pierce’s watchful eye, and will only be available in small supply at the distillery gift shop and at the Last Refuge.”
Dylan once famously propounded that the times, they are a-changin’. And they undoubtedly are. But Heaven’s Door is on a mission to ensure that they don’t alter too much; that while one foot should be allowed to stride forwards, another must remain rooted in the past. It is a delicate balance — honouring the past while embracing the future — but with every bottle and business decision, Heaven’s Door is inviting us to savour both.
