I recently had the opportunity to meet the CEO of Maker’s Mark, Bill Samuels, at a hosted lunch at Frank, where he gave us an advance preview of his newest, and ONLY Maker’s spin-off, Maker’s Mark 46.
Prior to taking the helm of the family business 30 years ago, Bill went to law school and got his masters in physics. After a misadventure in rocket science resulted in him blowing up his boss’s office, Bill returned to Kentucky and has done everything not to “f*ck up his old man’s invention”, as he so eloquently put it.
Bill has held up his end of the bargain and has built Maker’s Mark into a billion dollar business, but he wanted to improve on the family recipe and leave his mark. In a nod to one of my favorite movies - the Goonies - “Their time! Up there! Down here, it’s our time. It’s our time down here.”
After brainstorming with the master distiller, he has successfully taken the alcohol notes out of the original recipe through an advance in wood treating technology, and the result is spectacular. The new Maker’s 46 is the most drinkable whiskey I have ever tasted, and it will be available in stores late this summer. An interesting tidbit: no business or marketing folks were brought into the development of the product. Bill credits this fact to the success of the product. When they get their hands on it, I don’t think they will have a hard time selling it.
