Sipping bourbon at six months old: Kentucky master distiller on changing tastes
How did you get into the bourbon business? "Our family is from a small town in central Kentucky [in the United States, with a population] of 10,000 people. Most of our bourbons are from that area so I grew up around bourbon, listening to Dad and his friends talk about it, but I didn't really think I was going to work there. My plan was to get a college education and move away to have my own business. But I went to Wild Turkey for a summer job in my last year of college and never left. It was home for me."
What do you like about bourbon? "I love the vanilla caramel that you get, the spiciness, the character of it. I drink a lot of water when I drink bourbon. My parents drink a lot of tea but I drink mainly water and Pepsi. Now I try not to drink Pepsi [laughs]."
Your grandfather worked at Wild Turkey, too? "He was more involved in maintenance, taking care of the equipment. He had the knowledge but he was never called the master distiller. My great-grandfather worked at a distillery called Old Joe, which is now Four Roses. So there are four generations of us who have been in the business."
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"In the Scotch and Irish whiskey industry, there's a person who makes the whiskey, a person who ages the whiskey and a master blender who blends the products. In our industry, we do everything from start to finish. So I'm involved in the grain selection to the making of the mash, to the distillation and then picking out the barrels for each of the products."
How has drinking bourbon changed? "People my Dad's age drink it neat with an ice cube or some water. These days, bartenders make mixed drinks with bourbon, like Manhattans and Old Fashioneds. In the Asian market, I see bourbon with soda water, highballs. I think ginger ale goes great with bourbon as a mixer."
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What do you do when you're not working? "We have freshwater lakes and rivers where I live and I like to catch freshwater fish like bass and catfish, bream and crappie. I have two dogs I like to take out, so basically just relaxing and getting away from the work world. When I'm playing golf with my friends, we don't talk about business. They aren't in the bourbon industry but they want to hear about what I've been doing and about the business because it's interesting to them. I just tell them little bits."
Eddie Russell was recently in Hong Kong to promote Wild Turkey's range of bourbons.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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