The Bluegrass and Beyond

Here’s a piece of my interview with bourbon industry legends Elmer T. Lee, Jimmy Russell and Parker Beam that I didn’t have room for in today’s column:

Considering their combined 150-plus years of experience in bourbon distilling and tasting, I wanted to know how they judged one bourbon to be better than another.

They said individual taste plays a big role, so the question of whether one bourbon is better than another is often subjective. Russell said it’s like how some people prefer Coca-Cola and others like Pepsi. “If they all tasted the same, we’d just need one (distillery),” he said.

Beam said his tastes were shaped by the tastes of his father, who was Heaven Hill’s master distiller before him. “But Elmer and Jimmy are going to have a little different palate than what I’ve got,” he said.

All three agreed that one of the most important characteristics of a fine bourbon is a good “finish.”

“It just kind of lingers on the palate and gets better the longer it lays there,” Beam said. “I like that.”

“What he’s telling you,” Russell said, “is that it’s so good he wants another one.”

FRANKFORT—These guys don’t look like rock stars at first glance.

Or second glance. Or third.

Yet, they travel the world making public appearances, posing for photographs and signing autographs, usually on bottles of Kentucky’s best bourbon, some of which have their picture on the label.

This is officially Bourbon Heritage Month in Kentucky. The 18th annual Bourbon Festival is Sept. 15-20 in Bardstown. The eight-distillery Kentucky Bourbon Trail is expecting a record number of tourists.

So I figured this was a good time to sit down with three of bourbon’s elder statesmen: Elmer T. Lee, 90, former plant manager at Buffalo Trace; and master distillers Jimmy Russell, 74, who has been at Wild Turkey in Lawrenceburg for 55 years, and Parker Beam, 67, who is celebrating 50 years at Heaven Hill in Bardstown.

Bourbon sales have been growing steadily for 25 years, especially in international markets such as Japan, Australia and Europe. Distillery production is up 50 percent since 1999.

Much of the credit is given to Lee, who introduced Blanton’s Single Barrel in 1984, launching the premium bourbon market that has been the industry’s growth engine. Single barrel and small batch recipes have transformed bourbon’s image from a commodity into a craft product, like fine wine.

You also can’t discount the marketing genius of Bill Samuels at Maker’s Mark in Loretto, who taught a conservative industry how to be folksy and hip at the same time.

More than 95 percent of all bourbon is made in Kentucky, creating a $3 billion industry with 3,200 direct jobs. Although some distilleries are now owned by international conglomerates, they’re almost all run and staffed by Kentuckians with old bourbon family trees.

Russell and Beam are third-generation distillers, and their sons are distillers, too. Beam’s grandfather, for whom he was named, was master distiller at the operation owned by his grandfather’s brother, Jim Beam.

I visited with Russell, Beam and Lee around a table at Stony Point, the hilltop home where Col. Albert Blanton once commanded the 110-acre distillery now called Buffalo Trace. These three friends and rivals have known each other for decades. They can, and often do, give each other a hard time—and finish each other’s sentences.

The first thing I wanted to know was how these experts drink their bourbon.

Russell sips his “neat”— or straight—from a brandy snifter so he can enjoy the aroma. In summertime, he might drink it over ice, or chill the bottle in the refrigerator. Beam also is a straight-bourbon man, although he sometimes chases it with a little water. Lee prefers his bourbon mixed with 7Up or Sprite.

Russell, whose personal brand is Russell’s Reserve, and Beam, who developed Evan Williams Single Barrel, have a drink most days, but not every day. Lee is a daily drinker, but, like the others, in moderation.

“I don’t try to drink it all every night,” Lee said. “Just one good highball.”

Does Lee, the namesake of Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel, give bourbon any credit for his living to be 90? “I give it a whole lot of credit,” he said. “It ain’t hurt a damn thing.”

Beam jumps in: “Booker Noe, my cousin (and former master distiller at Jim Beam in Clermont) always said, there’s too much living proof bourbon won’t hurt you. Look at all us old-timers.”

Decades of practice have taught these men what good bourbon tastes like, but they have a hard time describing it — and sometimes chuckle when others try. They talked of hearing bourbon aficionados wax poetically about hints of caramel, vanilla and spice — and even tree leaves, leather and tobacco.

“I’ve always said when you’ve got some of those kind of tastes in your bourbon, you’ve probably got problems,” Beam said with a laugh.

Lee then had to tell one on Russell. One time, at a tasting in Missouri, someone began equating a particular bourbon’s taste to exotic fruits and vegetables. Russell leaned over to another distiller and whispered: “I don’t know about y’all, but we don’t put any of that crap in our bourbon.”

These three seem to enjoy being international bourbon ambassadors almost as much as being distillers. They have a lot of funny stories, such as the time Lee called down to the front desk of a hotel in Japan to ask for a bucket of ice. The bellman delivered a bucket of rice.

Lee, Beam and Russell were born and raised within a few miles of the distilleries where they have spent their lives, and their most common travel stories involve how people sometimes react to their folksy charm.

“One time, at a tasting in California, I introduced myself and after I poured the product this guy kept kind of staring at me,” Beam said. “Then he pointed his finger and said, ‘You’re a real person! … I thought you were just some fictitious character they had come up with in marketing.”

Beam, Russell and Lee are real, all right. But they’re characters, too.

Click on each thumbnail to see complete photo:

Bill Samuels’ speech to the Bluegrass Hospitality Association was a lot like the Maker’s Mark bourbon his company produces: smooth with a distinct flavor — and a kick.

Samuels talked Wednesday about how Kentucky has a monopoly on making premium bourbon. How it is a growing industry, which has doubled production since 1999. How it directly employs 3,200 people, has made $100 million in capital investment and creates $3 billion in gross state product.

Then he talked about how bourbon is creating a spinoff tourism and hospitality industry with huge growth potential that could rival Scotland’s whisky trail and California’s wine country.

Samuels unveiled a new logo and souvenir passport for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a 10-year-old marketing effort that he said has brought millions of tourists to the eight participating distilleries.

Then he delivered the kick.

Samuels blasted state officials, accusing them of trying to kill the bourbon industry with excessive taxes and unfair sales restrictions. And he signaled that the industry will be fighting back.

“We’re not looking for subsidies from our commonwealth,” Samuels said. “But we’re sure as hell not looking to be thrown under the bus.”

The bourbon industry is smarting over the General Assembly’s eleventh-hour move earlier this year to balance the state budget by adding the 6 percent sales tax to alcohol.

On Kentucky Derby weekend, a group of industry players ran full-page newspaper ads in Lexington and Louisville demanding that the governor and legislature reconsider.

“Kentuckians already pay the second-highest taxes on beverage alcohol in the U.S. We say enough is enough,” the ad said. “If you see the governor or one of our legislators during the Derby Season, let them know what you think of their unfair tax policies because it’s time to restore common sense to the Commonwealth.”

The Kentucky Distillers’ Association is working on developing a legislative strategy, President Eric Gregory said. He said the industry wants to make sure it has “a seat at the table” when lawmakers discuss much-needed tax reform.

“There are now seven different taxes on bourbon,” Gregory said. “That’s insane.”

Why is liquor so heavily taxed? Because it’s an easy political mark, especially in a state where many Christian denominations consider drinking a sin. Forty-nine of Kentucky’s 120 counties ban alcohol sales, and an additional 41 counties restrict them. A big reason for that is church folks and their legislators.

“I travel all over the world, and the only place I have ever heard the signature product, the signature industry, referred to as sin is in Kentucky,” Samuels said.

“If the majority of our elected officials believe that what we’re producing is sin, we need to confront it. And if they win, we need to shut all this stuff down, because we wouldn’t want to embarrass them. I would contend that’s an issue that needs to be dealt with. We’ve got to call their hand on it. We’re going to force that issue.”

Last year, Rep. Steve Riggs, a Louisville Democrat, suggested that only “wet” counties should receive the benefits of future alcohol taxes. In a General Assembly dominated by legislators from those mostly rural “dry” counties, the idea went nowhere.

Samuels suggested legislation removing all local-option restrictions and forcing counties that want to ban alcohol sales to vote “dry” again. And, he said, those that did should not get any alcohol tax revenues.

“It was estimated that to do that would have raised twice as much money as adding the tax, which took our product, of this signature industry, to the second-highest in the country,” he said.

State tax receipts on distilled spirits dropped by more than half last month as the new tax took effect. But it’s too early to know if that was because of the tax, the overall economy, or simply because people stocked up before the new tax went into effect.

Samuels had two points to make to the tourism people. One was that the bourbon industry is a major, growing contributor to Kentucky’s economy. The second was that bourbon-related tourism and hospitality has huge growth potential.

“This is the cheapest economic investment that the state could make,” he said of lowering taxes on the bourbon industry. “In my judgment, (bourbon-related tourism) has every bit the potential for being for Central Kentucky what Napa and Sonoma are for California. But if the industry itself is not viable, it has no chance.”

I try never to leave Danville without stopping by Burke’s Bakery on Main Street for some gingerbread men.

It’s hard to pass the Rebecca Ruth shop on U.S. 60 between Versailles and Frankfort without buying some bourbon balls. (I recommend the pound bag of “boo boos,” which are cheaper and taste just as good.)

Every few months, I go by Sharp’s Candies on Regency Road in Lexington for a pound box of orange creams, my wife’s favorite. I’ll usually get some Kentucky pulled cream candy for myself, too.

My freezer still has a serving or two of barbecued mutton from the Fancy Farm Picnic. I never head to Graves County on the first weekend of August without a cooler in the back of my car to bring some home.

When country hams are being smoked in the Jackson Purchase, I can’t help but look for a restaurant serving some with eggs and biscuits. I can never drive by the Buffalo Trace, Wild Turkey or Woodford Reserve distilleries without getting just a little thirsty. And an advertising jingle I remember from childhood remains true today: “If it’s baked by Magee’s, it has to be good!”

What’s your favorite Kentucky treat?  You know, the one that makes you pull off the road and stock up?