Photo Credit: © Shannon Graham
The visitor center at Maker's Mark Bourbon Whiskey distillery includes a 1950 style kitchen with samples of grains on the shelves.
The tidy kitchen, decked in baby blue with red accents, is straight out of the 1950's. Above the vintage white stove jars of grain lay in wait on the shelf for the next loaf of bread which will not be made in this particular kitchen. No, this kitchen is meant to symbolize the hours, days and weeks that Bill Samuels Sr. and his wife, Marge, spent developing their new bourbon. After burning the long-standing family recipe in grand fashion that almost burned down their home in 1953, it was the goal of Samuels to create a non-bitter bourbon and, with the help of fellow distillers as well as Marge, he created what we still drink today in each bottle of Maker's Mark. Bill Samuels Jr. does not remember much about this time other than "Mom baked a lot of bread and it was intense." In a kitchen such as this loaf after loaf went into the oven and came out until the perfect grain recipe was found: corn, red winter wheat and barley.