Where is the Bourbon Industry's Future?
This seems to be the most poignant question of our time. Over the last few decades we have seen remarkable bourbons either released or become more prominant in the market, yet there is the question of where the industry is going. Where Irish and Scotch whiskies were once the "high end" in many consumer's minds, the American brands are making a significant play at the world-wide market.
We talk about bourbons as "America's future in whiskey" for the particular reason that the most popular brands of American whiskey are bourbons (excluding my earlier year's preference, Jack Daniel's, of course) and the bourbon distillers have come together as a whole to promote this specific segment of the industry in particular. The year of 2007 was an indication of this as we saw the first indication that the U.S. government recognized whiskey's importance on the nation's history by declaring September as National Bourbon Heritage Month. Bourbon is America's past and future of whiskey and (most) of these distillers are not stopping where they are at right now.
The one exception to the inovation rule (which most Maker's fans will agree with) is Bill Samuel's conception that and which every time I have met him has been a staunch, "We have a good thing and don't feel like we need to go further." It is true, the Maker's Mark bourbon is fantastic, unique and semi-modern (1950's rendition on an old bourbon recipe, with other bourbon distiller's of the time - the biggest names - having input, mind you), yet other brands are making significant innovations.
One of the prominent questions for Fred Noe was essentially, "What about this Red Stag that Jim Beam has produced?" The black cherry-flavored bourbon is delightful but Noe admits that his traditional bourbon values got in the way of it. " I'll be honest and I was probably the biggest hurdle they had to jump. Booker taught me a lot about bourbon and I know what he enjoyed but it's something that we worked on quite a bit and the flavor is good. It brings people into the bourbon category who normally wouldn't drink bourbon." That's a great thing for those of us who want to allow our non-bourbon-induced friends to enjoy our American whiskey experiences, and quite honestly it is really good (see review of Red Stag).
On another hand, the Buffalo Trace team is also all about experimentation. When they get a request from a consumer they will consider it and it has led to some of their most innovative products. Harlen Wheatley says that although his elder, Bill Samuels, may not agree, "the best bourbon might have not been made yet." There are many "experiments" in the works constantly at the Buffalo Trace distillery that we may never hear of, but there's a good reason for that - it simply didn't work out. What will come out of this train of thought, we will all have to wait for - I do know that Jim Beam's Red Stag caught me by surprise, so where it goes from here is anyone's guess.
Final Notes:
I want to leave you with my favorite quotes from this seminar because, unless you have spoken to bourbon distillers in a one-on-one or intimate (100 person) experience, you may not appreciate the candidneces of these masters of bourbon...
.Bill Samuels - "If I could just throw a turd on the table here....": The rest of the dialogue... Pacult -" I wouldn't know you to do anything else" Samuels -"When we talk about when did whiskey really start to get better, you almost have to go back to when did it start to go bad."
Fred Noe - "Harlan talking about our loss factor, they call it the Angel's Share. Since Dad passed away I call it Booker's Share. Our's was probably 4% before he passed, now it's probably 6-8. As much as he drank here on Earth, now he can do it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and all his new buddies up there."
Tom Bulleit - "We have a big and little kids, our daughter Holace is coming into the business and has been working with us for the last couple years"... Pacult - "It's about time we get some female perspective in the american whiskey industry.."
Harlen Wheatley - "I don't think its going to balloon up in sales but I think it's going to be slow and steady. As long as the cocktails are increasing in popularity the rye will go with it. If it goes down I think the rye will go down as that's mainly what people use the rye for."
