Vendome Copper and Brass Works

is a company based in Louisville, Kentucky, that has become the preeminent manufacturer of stills, condensers, and other equipment for the American distilling industry. It is a family business, currently run by the fourth generation of the Sherman family.

The company was founded around 1909 (the company itself is unsure of the actual date) by W. Elmore Sherman Sr. (1878–1963). Sherman had gained experience in the distillery fabrication business at the Louisville branch of Hoffman, Ahlers & Co., a Cincinnati company. When Hoffman hit a chaotic streak of bad luck, Sherman seized the opportunity and started his own company, picking up a number of Hoffman’s customers.The new company quickly gained contracts in the distilling business, in the local bourbon industry and as far away as Mexico and Burma. The company also made equipment for creosote and turpentine manufacturers.

Prohibition almost ended Vendome. The company found small amounts of work in the wood products niche and tried making boilers and pumps; Sherman took work as a bookkeeper with another firm.

The advent of Repeal saved the company. The boom that followed Repeal brought both refurbishment of old distilleries and construction of new ones. When World War II brought a requirement for production of huge amounts of industrial alcohol as chemical feedstock, Vendome adapted. They adapted again when metallurgical advances from the war made stainless steel an affordable material for distilleries.

This ability to change skills and find new customers outside the beverage alcohol field—pharmaceuticals, dairy, fuel alcohol, chemicals—led Vendome to dominance in their field and preserved the company again during the decline of bourbon in the 1980s. When the craft distilling phenomenon came around, Vendome was ready for that business as well. Their familiar script nameplate continues to be a common sight in American distilleries large and small.

See also still, continuous;, whisky, bourbon.

Vendome company website. http://vendomecopper.com/ (accessed March 15, 2021).

By: Lew Bryson