Spirits of French Lick

In the rolling hills of southern Indiana, where mineral springs once drew railroad barons and gangsters to take the waters, Alan Bishop found his calling in 2016. French Lick had always been a town built on what bubbled up from the earth—first the healing springs that made it a resort destination, now the Pluto mineral spring water that flows into Bishop's copper stills.

The distillery rises from the bones of the old Kimball Piano Factory, where craftsmen once shaped wood and wire into music. Now Bishop shapes grain and time into whiskey, the industrial bones repurposed but the spirit of making things by hand unchanged. The factory's sturdy walls, built to contain the percussion of piano construction, now hold the gentler rhythms of fermentation and distillation.

Bishop didn't chase exotic grains or flashy techniques. Instead, he reached backward into Indiana's agricultural memory, sourcing heritage grain varieties that once filled the state's silos before industrial farming swept them aside. These older corns and wheats carry different sugars, different proteins—the genetic memory of what whiskey tasted like when Indiana was still frontier territory.

The Pluto spring provides more than water; it provides character. The same mineral-rich flow that drew visitors to French Lick's grand hotels now carries limestone's signature into every barrel. Bishop names his whiskeys for the place—Lee W. Sinclair Bourbon honoring local history, Old Clifty Bourbon nodding to the limestone cliffs that define the region's geography.

The San Francisco World Spirits Competition has awarded multiple Double Golds to Bishop's work, recognition that validates what he knew from the beginning: great whiskey doesn't require reinvention, just honest execution. In a craft distilling landscape often obsessed with novelty, Spirits of French Lick proves that paying attention to place—to the water beneath your feet, the grain that grows in your soil, the history that shaped your town—creates distinction enough.

The stills work quietly in the old piano factory, transforming Indiana heritage grain with Indiana spring water, while outside, French Lick continues its long tradition of drawing people to taste what this particular piece of earth can produce.