Managing Director of Maker's Mark, Rob Samuels, talks 25 years of Kentucky's famous Bourbon Trail and their contributions to the future of bourbon.
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00:00Kentucky's $9 billion bourbon industry is an economic powerhouse, generating more than
00:06$358 million in annual tax revenue and creating over 23,000 jobs.
00:14Thanks to the state's limestone-rich water, distillers have been producing high-quality
00:19bourbon here since the late 18th century.
00:22In the past 25 years, these distillers have now transformed the Blue Grass State into
00:27a world-class visitor's experience known as the Bourbon Trail.
00:32Comprised of 46 distilleries, the area attracts millions of bourbon lovers every year looking
00:38to sample Kentucky's rich tradition.
00:41Founded in 1953, Makers Mark has been setting the bourbon standard with their unique production
00:47and aging process.
00:48Rob Samuels, 8th generation distiller and managing director of Makers Mark, invited
00:53us to their New York City headquarters to explain how he continues to build on the
00:58brand's legacy and give us a taste of what's next.
01:02It's hard to imagine 25 years and as the 8th generation of the Samuels family involved
01:08with producing whiskey in Kentucky or my grandparents, Bill and Margie Samuels, 71 years ago who
01:14actually had a unique vision in many ways that would reimagine what bourbon could be.
01:20They wanted to elevate bourbon.
01:22He was the whiskey maker, rich, creamy, balanced, and then it was my grandmother, Margie Samuels,
01:27who did everything else.
01:29And in addition to creating the name, designing the bottle, she thought differently about
01:33the place.
01:34And before distilleries in Kentucky had formally begun to host visitors, they thought about
01:41endearing guests to the brand by hospitality.
01:46So she designed our entire distillery with the vision of welcoming friends to experience
01:53Makers Mark on site to really showcase the magic of Kentucky culture.
01:58We've always loved the defining aspects of the whiskey and the music and the food, but
02:05to see the caliber of folks all over the world that are traveling to come experience it with
02:11us is pretty special.
02:12The bourbon economy is so much more than just the distillery.
02:17It includes the beautiful hotels and the wonderful restaurants and the whiskey bars throughout
02:24Kentucky that are an important part of how guests experience Kentucky bourbon.
02:30The Kentucky Distillers Association is a group of nearly every distillery in Kentucky.
02:36Bourbon by law can be made anywhere in America, but it so happens that 95% of bourbon is made
02:41in Kentucky.
02:42The majority of the distilleries work together to promote and share the special aspects,
02:49the essence of what makes Kentucky bourbon special.
02:53And all of the distilleries are doing really interesting things, exceeding expectations
02:59of guests.
03:00And it's really exciting to see the power of when we all partner together, what we can
03:05do to endear friends of bourbon from all over the world.
03:10One of the legacies that my father and my grandparents left with the entire team, beyond
03:15an obsession for flavor and sort of choosing the difficult path from a production standpoint
03:22so we can make more, but it's made consistently the same way over time, is the value system
03:28of the brand.
03:29And that was celebrated a couple of years ago when Maker's Mark became the first distillery
03:34in Kentucky to become B Corp certified, which measures, and you have to document, every
03:40aspect of sustainability of operations, sustainability of your supply chain, how you engage and treat
03:47your team, how much of your profit do you give back to society.
03:51When you take it back, whiskey comes from nature.
03:56And when you try to really better understand where the flavor comes from, pretty quickly
04:00you get to the ethics of it all.
04:03And what's the role of the soil health in delivering flavor?
04:09What are the impacts of conventional farming in the last 50 years on flavor?
04:14All 26 of our growers have embraced preserving and regenerating the topsoil, minimizing chemicals
04:23and all the fertilizers and pesticides.
04:27And what's been so energizing for the Maker's Mark team is that the regenerative agriculture
04:33is not just what's in Mother Nature's best interest, but it also leads to more flavor.
04:38All of our bourbon barrels are made nine miles from our distillery.
04:42The American white oak barrel is fired on the inside, which caramelizes the wood sugar.
04:50And while the whiskey goes in the barrel clear, it picks up all the color and quite a lot
04:54of the flavor through pushing in and out of the staves of that caramelized wood sugar
04:59layer of the American white oak barrel.
05:02And as you think about the future, in America, much of the American white oak is grown on
05:08small family-owned farms.
05:10So in partnership with the University of Kentucky, we have created on Star Hill Farm at the Maker's
05:16Mark Distillery, the single location anywhere in America where the entire American white
05:22oak species is planted in one location.
05:25So this American white oak research forest will be in service of building and resilience
05:32to the species, better understanding growth, and ways we can build in strength to American
05:39white oak over the next 100 years.
05:41If you could go back in time and ask my grandparents what success looked like, it had nothing to
05:47do with creating a global brand.
05:50He was really only ever interested in the flavor vision.
05:55Could he create a rich, creamy, balanced bourbon that he would be proud to share with his friends?
06:00And after the first two or three years, it was my grandmother who started thinking about
06:05creating the name and designing the bottle.
06:08It's never changed.
06:09The mark of the maker, the Maker's Mark, is the Star S-I-V that's on every single label,
06:15also blown into the glass bottle.
06:18The S recognizes Samuel's, the family name.
06:22Roman numeral four, my grandfather, was a registered fourth-generation whiskey maker.
06:29S-I-V-R is for Star Hill Farm.
06:32And recognizing that whiskey comes from nature.
06:36Whiskey's agricultural.
06:39She chose to spell the word whiskey as the Scotchmakers.
06:44And she wanted to honor the fact that the Samuels had originally were farmer distillers
06:49in Samuel, Scotland, back in the late 1500s.
06:53She was adamant that every single label on every bottle would be printed and torn by
06:58hand, and what better way to finish the handmade process than to hand-dip each and every bottle
07:06in red sealing wax.
07:07Classic Maker's Mark for my palate is extremely balanced, is flavor forward, so it's sweeter
07:14versus bitterness, which is at the back of the palate.
07:18I love and always pick up the baking spices within Maker's Mark, sort of an even amount
07:26of vanilla, caramel, even some nutmeg with the baking spices, but it's a crisp finish.
07:35We see whiskey headed all over the world, and it's a great honor for me as part of the
07:41family to not just host folks from all over the world at the distillery, but to travel
07:46all over the world and to see how consumers of every age are drawn to the authenticity
07:54and the versatility of bourbon.
07:57The vision is to become the most culturally rich, endearing, and environmentally responsible
08:02home place of any brand in the world, to ensure the sustainability of whiskey for the next
08:09generation of whiskey lovers.