When in 1936 the first Willett Distillery opened here in Bardstown the Willet family had lived here for generations. John David Willett, born in 1841, was the first family member to work in the Whisky business. He was a master distiller at several distilleries in and around Bardstown where he developed many mashbills the family still uses today. Following generations held the tradition high and in 1936 the brothers Thompson and Johnny Willett founded the Willett Distilling Company. They erected a distillery on the family farm and produced their first batch of Whisky on 17 March 1937.
The Company operated until the early 1980s and many members of the family joined it. Then times went hard for Whiskey producers and the Willet Distillery closed down.
The Norwegian husband of Martha Harriet Willet, Evan Kulsveen, purchased the property in 1984 and took great efforts to restore the distillery and the warehouses. Wife, son, daughter and son-in-law joined Evan in the company and finally on January 21, 2012 the first barrel was filled in the new Willett Distillery.
The Willett family was making spirits shortly after the Civil War. Now, descendants continue the tradition by crafting bourbon and other whiskeys in the Bourbon Capital of the World. Fifth-generation distillers Britt and Drew Kulsveen helm the Bardstown distillery that has become famous for its craft whiskeys.
Willett is a well-known name in the Whiskey business and stands for a long tradition of dealing in Kentucky Bourbon and even in producing it. Indeed - the Willett Distillery in Bardstown is a very new one and started production in 2012, after the old family owned distillery had been closed in the 1980s.
Production at Willett Distillery combines old traditions and crafts with new technologies. The picturesque distillery looks a bit as if the time stood still here at Bardstown and the old-time firepower might have been the same in the old distillery before, but the infrastructure that was erected here in the reconditioned distillery building by Even Kulsveen, husband of a Willett-daughter, enables Willis to produce at high standards.
