June 14th is a much-celebrated day in the spirits world. It is officially National Bourbon Day. It also happens to be the birthday of Bill Samuels, Jr., Chairman Emeritus of Maker’s Mark. You may have heard Bill referred to as a maverick, a giant in the distillery business, a marketing genius, a visionary, and the best friend the Kentucky Bourbon industry has ever had.
But in his heart, Bill is a storyteller. And fortunately for guests at The Samuels House, Bill is often available to join your group for cocktails and an evening of stories you’ll never forget, whether it’s National Bourbon Day or another date that works for your schedule and his.
For example, consider these tidbits:
- Bill’s next-door-neighbor as a child, and his godfather, was Bourbon legend Jim Beam.
- He was there when Bill, Sr. burned the Samuels family’s 170-year-old whisky recipe – and nearly caught his sister’s hair on fire.
- He listened to his father lose the argument with his mother, Margie, about sealing their new Bourbon (Maker’s Mark) with dripping red wax, resulting in one of the most recognizable trademarks in the spirits world today.
- Bill tagged along to his father’s advisory board meetings where all the key distillers of the day – otherwise known as competitors – helped his father create his completely new approach to making Bourbon.
- The only day of school Bill missed was in 1954 when he watched the first barrels of Maker’s Mark being filled.
- He learned much of the business side of distilling not from his dad, but from Jack Daniel’s great nephew Hap Motlow, when Bill sat in on meetings that helped expand that great brand to international fame.
As a teenager, Bill got a PhD course in salesmanship by driving Harland Sanders around Kentucky as the Colonel was launching his new chicken business (aka KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken). Later, Bill earned an actual degree in engineering physics, helped design both the Gemini and Polaris missiles (during what he calls a “brief and disastrous career as an aerospace engineer”), and became friends both with the founding administrator of NASA and with America’s leading physicist at the time (Edward Teller). Then it was on to law school and the White House (as an intern) before joining his father in the family business.
He was put in charge of marketing – he’s not sure his father wanted him to have anything to do directly with the whisky, itself – and began writing the brand’s distinctive, quirky ads himself. Bill followed no conventional marketing wisdom; he determined that he would rather be different than right. His father insisted that they never talk to anyone about the whisky who wasn’t already interested. So Bill tricked his father into talking to a Wall Street Journal reporter (saying he was a fraternity brother) with the resulting story giving the brand national credibility practically overnight.
Bill also witnessed the merger of Bourbon and tourism. 70 years ago, a distillery wasn’t considered a tourist destination. But his mother insisted that a dollar’s worth of improvement go into the Maker’s Mark distillery grounds for every dollar his father put into operations, eventually creating one of the most popular visitor experiences in Kentucky.
When Bill assumed leadership of Maker’s Mark in the mid-1970s, his father’s stern warning was simply, “Don’t screw up the whisky.” Despite the labor-intensive, largely inefficient methods used to hand-make Maker’s Mark, Bill heeded his father’s advice and stubbornly stuck with every step in the process even as the brand – and demand – grew exponentially over the years.
The unparalleled success of Maker’s Mark as a premium Bourbon created an entirely new category in the industry and led to renewed interest in “brown spirits.” Today, Kentucky Bourbon has so many devoted new fans that there are more barrels of Bourbon aging in the Commonwealth than there are people in the state.
Anything of any significance that happened in the past two or three generations of distilling, Bill not only lived through it, but chances are he was actually there. So when you’re booking your stay at The Samuels House, whether on National Bourbon Day or another date of your choosing, consider checking on Bill’s availability to add an evening of cocktails and great stories to your visit hosted by Bill Samuels, Jr. – the industry’s incomparable Storyteller Emeritus.
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