Heaven's Door Distillery

Heaven's Door is the rare distillery where a Nobel laureate's welded ironwork sits on the label and a working Kentucky farm sits behind it. Co-created by musician Bob Dylan and spirits entrepreneur Marc Bushala, the brand takes its name from Dylan's 1973 song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and its bottle art from the iron gates Dylan hand-welds in his own studio, Black Buffalo Ironworks. What began as a sourced-whiskey label in 2018 has grown into a working Kentucky distillery on land once owned by Squire Boone, brother of frontiersman Daniel Boone.

History & Heritage

Heaven's Door Spirits was founded in 2015 when Dylan partnered with Marc Bushala and Ryan Perry, backed by Bushala's firm Spirits Investment Partnership (SIP). Bushala, who co-founded Angel's Envy before it sold to Bacardi, brought the industry infrastructure; Dylan brought the creative direction and the ironwork that appears on every bottle. The whiskey itself reached shelves in 2018, initially built on sourced stock while the brand established itself.

The company's physical home took shape on more than 160 acres straddling Six Mile Creek in Pleasureville, Kentucky, land with its own frontier history through the Boone family. Heaven's Door strengthened its footing in the region on January 1, 2023, with the acquisition of Six Mile Creek Distillery, bringing production capability directly onto the property. As of July 2026, the brand remains privately held and venture-capital-backed, with Dylan and Spirits Investment Partnership as the ownership group and Bushala serving as CEO overseeing daily operations; Dylan is not involved in day-to-day management but stays engaged creatively behind the scenes.

The Whiskey

Since 2018, Heaven's Door has distilled small batches on a custom Vendome still housed across two separate stillhouses, each built inside its own towering western horse barn. The property draws limestone water from two underground aquifers and uses geothermal heating and cooling for its buildings, work that earned the operation ENERGY STAR certification from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Heaven's Door grows its own heirloom grains on site and recycles protein-rich spent mash as cattle feed for surrounding farms. Master Distiller Ken Pierce and Head Distiller Matt Wheatley run current production, which sits at roughly 9,000 barrels annually, with plans to convert an existing barn into a second distillery capable of 50,000 barrels a year. Because there is no warehousing on the property itself, barrels age in traditional rickhouses in Shelbyville and palletized warehousing in Midway.

The range spans Heaven's Door Ascension Bourbon Whiskey, a Kentucky Straight Bourbon; Heaven's Door Refuge Straight Rye Whiskey; and Heaven's Door Revival Whiskey Tennessee Straight Bourbon, made using the Lincoln County Process of charcoal mellowing. The Heaven's Door Revelation Double Barrel Whiskey blends three whiskeys, two of them Tennessee-sourced, six-year-old, first-fill ex-bourbon barrel stock built on an 84% corn, 8% rye mash bill. Limited releases include the Heaven's Door Decade Series, aged a full decade (its Decade Series II Straight Rye runs a 95% rye, 5% malted barley mash bill), the ceramic-bottled Heaven's Door Bootleg Series featuring Dylan's original paintings, the cask-strength Heaven's Door Homesick Blues Minnesota Wheated Bourbon, and the rotating Heaven's Door Exploration Series testing new finishing methods. A Lead Blender also works with outside distilleries, so the portfolio blends in-house distillate with selectively sourced and blended whiskey.

Why It Matters

Heaven's Door has collected real recognition alongside the celebrity pedigree: the #1 Consumer Choice Award at the 2021 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, Double Gold at the same competition in 2023 for the Decade Series' inaugural 10-year-old straight bourbon, a 93-point score at the 2023 Ultimate Spirits Challenge for Decade Series II, and a Gold medal at the 2024 Bartender Spirits Awards for the Ascension Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. The brand's environmental commitments, geothermal systems, aquifer water sourcing, and on-site grain cultivation, set it apart from typical celebrity spirits ventures that exist purely as sourced labels with a famous name attached.

Visiting the Distillery

The Heaven's Door Distillery and History Park in Pleasureville offers "Before the Gate" tours, combining a guided distillery walk, access to the History Park, a tasting of Heaven's Door expressions, and an optional bottle-your-own bourbon experience; advance reservations are required. The distillery ran a preview season in fall 2025 and anticipates its full grand opening in spring 2026. Separately, Heaven's Door operates The Last Refuge, a brand experience center in Louisville housed in a restored 145-year-old church, where the Amber Room bar displays nearly 5,000 American whiskey bottles.