Not so long ago, bourbon drinkers didn’t know the names of the folks who made their favorite brands. Men like Booker Noe or Bill Samuels, who went into the business because that’s what their daddies did, and their daddies’ daddies before them. Or men like Jimmy Russell, a star athlete who’d tried out for the Cincinnati Reds but needed to get an honest job when his wife got pregnant. These men didn’t do it to become celebrities. But once computerization freed them from standing guard over the stills, they hit the road, giving devotees a face to go with the name.

The sons and grandsons of that first generation of bourbon rock stars are now coming of age. Freddie Noe, 30, is the son of Jim Beam’s current Master Distiller, Fred Noe, and the grandson of the late Booker Noe. Rob Samuels, 42, is the grandson of Maker's Mark founder Bill Samuels, Sr., and the son of Bill Samuels, Jr., who helped turn it into America’s best-selling bourbon. Bruce Russell, the national brand ambassador for Wild Turkey at 28, is the grandson of Jimmy Russell, who’s been working at Wild Turkey since 1954, and the son of Eddie Russell, who’s been in the fold since 1981.

What’s it like for them as they try to blaze their own trails in the shadows of legendary dads? Do they fear turning into the Kentucky equivalent of Frank Sinatra, Jr.? I asked these three princes of bourbon to sit down together for the first time to talk about their relationships with their dads and granddads, and learning the family trade.



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Bruce Russell (Wild Turkey): I thought for sure when I was 12 that this is what I wanted to do, because that was the first time I ever drank whiskey out of a barrel. It was the first my dad ever had any hand in making—he helped my granddad pick out these barrels for a product we came out with called American Spirit—and he took me and my brother aside and gave us a little sip. I remember at 12 thinking, “My father’s never spoken four words to me in his life. He just spoke to me and my brother for 45 minutes. This is a big deal. Whatever this is, it’s super important, because my dad cares about it. He doesn’t care about anything, ‘cept for my mom.”

Freddie Noe (Jim Beam): I knew I wanted to go into the business when I was at Granddaddy’s funeral. That’s when I knew that I really wanted to do this, because of how many people he touched. All these people were coming, and they were like his friends, and yet he may have only met them one time.

Rob Samuels (Maker's Mark): When I graduated from university, my dad gave me great advice. I’d come home to Kentucky, and I said, “Would you think about hiring me?” He looked at me and he said, “Well, what can you do?” And I wasn’t prepared to answer that question! He said, “Why don’t you leave the boundaries of Kentucky and go work for a competitor?” So I did. I wanted to prove to myself, beyond just admiring the family legacy. And you know, I was completely fulfilled from a career standpoint, and I wanted to be invited home. I never wanted my father to feel like he had to hire his son.

The Samuels and Beam families go way back.

Rob: The Samuels lived next to the Beams on Whiskey Row in Bardstown for 90 years. Col. Jim Beam is my dad’s godfather and was very close with my grandfather. When my grandparents were married in 1933, as a wedding gift, Col. Jim Beam presented my grandfather with a diamond studded stickpin. Then when my dad turned 50, my grandfather gave it to him, and then my dad gave it to me just this holiday season. A gift between two of the most famous people who ever lived within the industry is pretty special.

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They can't slack off, even if they come from bourbon royalty.

Freddie: All the eyes are on you, you know? The name gets you there, but once you’re there, it’s gotta be your hard work, your dedication. With our workforce especially, seeing me in there on third shift working as the distillery supervisor, or seeing me on second shift when I was working in bottling, working 12 to 13 hours on a Saturday, knowing that I’m missing out on my family time and I’m right there with ‘em just developing that relationship—it’s almost like a family.

Bruce: When you grow up in places like we grew up, everybody works in the distillery, or somebody in their family does. So all I knew until I was probably 12 or 13 is that Jimmy [Russell] was Dad’s boss, because Jimmy had an office and Dad did not. Dad still rolled barrels on the warehousing side until I was in 7th or 8th grade. When I was like 14, 15 years old, I saw Jimmy on the front cover of a magazine, and I thought, “Why in the hell is Mimmy [Bruce’s nickname for Jimmy] on the front cover of a magazine?” That’s when I realized, oh, this is something a little bit bigger than just Lawrenceburg folk.

They butt heads with their dads on the job.

Freddie: Working with him is definitely a lot easier than when I was going to school and he was being my father. Now, him being a co-worker and mentor, it’s great, because we have a lot of the same vision of what we want Beam to be. It’s good knowing that when we walk into a meeting, we didn’t have to have a pre-meeting to know that we’re probably on the same page.

Rob: For the first six or seven years, all the Maker’s 46, which was my father’s creation, he could only make it in the wintertime. The summertime pushes the whiskey too far into those French oak staves, and brings out a negative taste through some of the tannins. It was almost just casual one time when my dad and I were together, and I said, “What if we built a cave? A natural underground space to finish your creation so we can make it year round.” And he said, “You’re gonna do what? Set off dynamite in the hillside?” I don’t think he was completely supportive of this idea, but he was really proud of the result.

Freddie: I was talking blended whiskey to my dad—“What?!” His traditional thought of a blended whiskey involved grain neutral spirits and caramel coloring.

Bruce: Yeah, blended whiskey in the States is a very nasty term.

Freddie: He didn’t let me finish my whole sentence before he started jumping down my ass. But after he tasted it, he quickly realized.

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They're trying to make their families proud.

Freddie: Little Book’s the name on the bottle [of the first expression Freddie created, a blended whiskey]. That’s the nickname my granddaddy gave me, basically from the time I was born. I was always with him, so it’s kinda fitting that my first product was named in honor of him. My dad’s gotten choked up. He’s gotten very emotional in his older years, I think. He was a hardass on me, like I said, when I wasn’t getting good grades. But you know, I can really see the pride and joy he gets in seeing my success now.

Rob: He’s proud of you!

Bruce: Yeah, he talks about you in a way that I’ve never seen your daddy talk about anything in his life…except maybe his boat.

They're ready to carry on the Kentucky bourbon legacy.

Freddie: We’re in a very unique position, with how bourbon is. We have the ability to get out there and do some innovations.

Bruce: We can screw a product up and get away with it! You know what would happen if somebody screwed up something in the ‘80s? You’d go bankrupt.

Freddie: I don’t really feel any pressure. We’ve got a lot of good products already out there, you know? Just between the three of us.

Bruce: Although we’re a little spoiled. It’d be different if you stuck me in a place that never made anything and said, “Here you go.” I’ve got Jimmy and Dad. That takes a lot of the pressure off.

Rob: While we three are here in this room, it’s a lot more than the three of us. Our first case was sold in 1959, and today we have almost 200 team members. If all 200 of those team members were in the room with us, almost all of them have the same passion, the same belief—they live it. It’s their distillery every bit as much as it is mine.

Bruce: What Freddie will actually blend and sell for the next however long is not whiskey he made. That’s whiskey that either his dad or granddad made. Same with Rob. There might still be whiskey around that his granddad touched. The whiskey that I will blend one day will be stuff my dad made. It’s carrying on that legacy, through the whiskey.

Freddie is currently working on blending, which he calls a "newfound passion." He'll be releasing the second chapter in the Little Book collection later this year. Rob is experimenting with wood to expand the taste profile of Maker's Mark—while "keeping it distinctly Maker's Mark," he assures. And Bruce, outside his duties as brand ambassador, is working with his father to innovate at Wild Turkey and "learn the business inside and out."



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