Old Fitzgerald Distillery

Old Fitzgerald is one of American whiskey's oldest surviving names, a wheated bourbon brand whose story runs through Prohibition-era medicinal permits, the golden age of Stitzel-Weller, a two-decade stretch inside a multinational spirits conglomerate, and a homecoming to family-owned Kentucky ownership. Today it is distilled by Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. at the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky, and it remains one of the benchmark wheated bourbons against which Pappy Van Winkle-style whiskey is measured.

History & Heritage

The brand traces to 1870, when whiskey bearing the Fitzgerald name was first produced and associated with John E. Fitzgerald. The name was trademarked in 1884. In 1901, spirits distiller and distributor S.C. Herbst registered the Fitzgerald brand, and by 1925 the whiskey marketing and distribution firm W.L. Weller had acquired rights to the Old Fitzgerald name from Herbst.

The defining chapter began after Prohibition, when the A. Ph. Stitzel Distillery merged with Weller to form the Stitzel-Weller Distillery, which began producing Old Fitzgerald in 1935. Julian "Pappy" Van Winkle helped position Old Fitzgerald as a premium bourbon built around wheat in the grain mash bill rather than the more common rye, a decision that shaped the brand's identity for the rest of the century.

Ownership then shifted away from the Van Winkle family and out of Kentucky hands entirely. In 1972, Stitzel-Weller Distillery was sold to a forerunner company of Diageo. The brand passed through Distillers Limited Corporation's 1984 purchase of Somerset Imports and eventually into United Distillers, the predecessor of Diageo. Heaven Hill acquired both the Old Fitzgerald brand and the Bernheim Distillery from Diageo in 1999, returning the whiskey to family ownership in Kentucky, where it is produced, as of July 2026, by Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc.

The Whiskey

Old Fitzgerald is a wheated bourbon: wheat stands in for rye as the secondary grain, producing a softer, sweeter profile than a traditional rye-forward mash bill. The flagship Old Fitzgerald 7-Year-Old Bottled-in-Bond uses a mash bill of 68% corn, 20% wheat, and 12% malted barley, aged in new, heavily charred American oak barrels.

Every Bottled-in-Bond release in the lineup follows the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897: the whiskey must come from a single distillation season, one distiller, one distillery, aged at least four years in a federally bonded warehouse, and bottled at exactly 100 proof. Historically, Old Fitzgerald was distilled using pot stills until around 1913, an unusual method for the era that contributed to the brand's early reputation for quality.

The brand's most visible modern releases are the Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond Decanter Series, twice-annual limited releases poured into ornate glass decanters with varying age statements spanning 7 to 19 years old, alongside the newer permanent Old Fitzgerald 7-Year-Old Bottled-in-Bond flagship. The same wheated mash bill underpins Heaven Hill's Larceny Small Batch and Larceny Barrel Proof lines.

Why It Matters

Old Fitzgerald's wheated mash bill and Stitzel-Weller pedigree put it in the same lineage that produced the whiskey behind the modern Pappy Van Winkle phenomenon, and the brand has continued to earn recognition on its own terms. The Old Fitzgerald 25th Anniversary Edition, a 2024 VVS 13-Year-Old, was named World's Best Bourbon and Best Kentucky Bourbon at the 2025 World Whiskies Awards. The Old Fitzgerald 7-Year-Old Bottled-in-Bond won gold at the 2025 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and an 8-Year-Old Fall 2023 Decanter Series release took Best in Show at the 2024 TAG Global Spirits Awards. The line has also drawn a 95-point Gold Medal from the Beverage Testing Institute and has been a perennial recipient of Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence.

Visiting the Distillery

Old Fitzgerald does not have its own dedicated visitor center at the Bernheim Distillery in Louisville. Heaven Hill instead hosts tours and tastings at the Heaven Hill Bourbon Experience in Bardstown, Kentucky, which includes interactive exhibits, one devoted to Treasury Agent John E. Fitzgerald, and guided tasting experiences covering the Old Fitzgerald lineup alongside Heaven Hill's other brands.