McCormick Distilling Company sits on a 75-acre campus in Weston, Missouri, about 30 miles northwest of Kansas City, and it’s got serious history backing it up. Founded in 1856, this is actually the oldest continuously operating distillery west of the Mississippi River—they even kept producing during Prohibition with a medicinal whiskey license. The Holladay brothers started the whole thing as part of their Wild West empire, supplying whiskey to frontier towns and trading posts. The current facility was built in the 1930s after the original burned down, and today it produces millions of gallons annually of everything from bourbon to vodka. The story gets interesting with the McCormick family taking over in the 1940s when they moved the operation from Kansas to this spot in Weston. They weren’t just any family—they had deep roots in the spirits business and saw potential in Missouri’s limestone-filtered water and grain access. What really sets them apart is scale combined with heritage. While craft distilleries measure output in hundreds of barrels, McCormick measures in thousands, but they’re still doing it in a historic river town that feels like stepping back in time. Today you’ll find a working distillery that doesn’t put on airs about being boutique—they’re proud of being a production facility that makes spirits for brands across the country, plus their own McCormick label. The tours show you massive fermentation tanks and continuous stills that dwarf what you’ll see at most craft spots, but there’s something honest about seeing spirits made at real scale in a place that’s been doing it for over 160 years.