Saint James Rum The origin of Saint James can be found in Saint-Pierre de la Martinique in 1765, thanks to the Reverend Father Edmund Lefebure.  This worthy friar crafted a white alcohol of a quality never achieved before, a cane spirit called “Guildive” or ‘Tafia”. In 1763, in spite of active French protectionism, King Louis XV granted Martinique the right to export its rum.  At this time the only country capable of buying the rum was New England, the first state of today’s USA. To make the sale of production easier to New England settlers, in 1765 it was decided...

  The Dalmore story began in 1839 with Alexander Matheson, who lived in the Highlands of Northern Scotland. Matheson found the rich peat and pure water sources of the Highlands to be the makings of a perfect Scotch offering. He built a distillery in the area and produced small batches of his Single Highland Malt Scotch until 1886, when the Mackenzie family acquired his operation. When a member of the Mackenzie family risked his own life to save Scotland's ruler, King Alexander III, from a charging stag, the grateful king offered a token of his appreciation by bequeathing the stag...

  Springbank Distillery is unique. It is the oldest independent family owned distillery in Scotland. Founded in 1828 on the site of Archibald Mitchell's illicit still, the Springbank Distillery is now in the hands of his great-great grandson, Hedley G. Wright. It is the only distillery in Scotland to carry out the full production process on the one site. 100% of the traditional floor malting, maturation and bottling is done at the distillery in Campbeltown. The Distillery produces the most hand made whisky in Scotland, with traditional production methods being used throughout the process, and human involvement at each and...

  Shortly after Prohibition ended in the United States, Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. was founded in Bardstown, Kentucky by the Shapira family to produce and market Bourbon and premium American whiskeys.  At the time, it was as speculative a new business venture as the dot com start-ups of the 1990's -- a company founded with no brands, no available stocks of whiskey, and at the height of the Great Depression.  Today, the company has overcome these initial challenges and grown to become the largest independent, family-owned and operated producer and marketer of distilled spirits in the US.  According to industry...

  The Old Bushmills Distillery is a distillery in Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is owned and operated by Diageo plc of London, United Kingdom, and is a popular tourist attraction, with around 110,000 visitors per year. According to the company, a distillery by this name was first recorded in 1743, although at the time it was "in the hands of smugglers" (in a quote attributed to Victorian whiskey journalist Alfred Barnard). All of the whiskey bottled under the Bushmills whiskey brand is produced at the Bushmills Distillery. A licence to distill in the area was granted to Sir Thomas...