Elijah Craig 18-Year-Old Single Barrel

ELIJAH CRAIG

Following the defeat of the British at the Battle of Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War, the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County. At the time, it was considered part of Virginia and was overseen by military governor, John J. Bowman. In order to encourage westward expansion, Virginia issued pioneers who agreed to settle in Kentucky County "corn writs," which granted the pioneers 60 acres of land if they agreed to settle in Kentucky and start farming corn.

Only a year after the defeat of the British, a Baptist minister named Elijah Craig emigrated to that part present day Kentucky and purchased 1,000 acres of land in a town named Lebanon. In 1789, Craig built a distillery on his farm and is credited with being the first person to mature bourbon in charred, oak casks, earning him the title "Father of Bourbon Whiskey."

Today Elijah Craig is owned by Heaven Hill Distilleries, a private,  family-owned and operated American distillery company headquartered in the infamous whiskey town of Bardstown, Kentucky. It was founded in 1935 famous for the Heaven Hill brand of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a variety of other distilled spirits.