FRANKFORT, Ky. – Harlen Wheatley may be best known in Northern Kentucky for playing linebacker on the Boone County High School football team that made it to the state title game in the late 1980s.

But elsewhere around the world, Wheatley is recognized as one of the driving forces behind the resurgence and explosion of Kentucky's bourbon industry in his role as master distiller for Buffalo Trace Distillery.

"I have lots of good memories of growing up there and going to Boone County," said Wheatley, who was brought up in Union and got a degree from Northern Kentucky University before joining what would become Buffalo Trace as a supervisor in 1995. "Football was a big passion of mine."

Now, Wheatley oversees production for the privately-owned facility, which is one of America's oldest and longest running distilleries, dating back to the late 1700s.

He is credited with not only helping craft the recipe that became the company's flagship product but is also instilling several other innovations. That includes overseeing the explosion of the craft bourbon scene and production of some of the industry's most famous brands including Blanton's and Pappy Van Winkle.

"Back when I lived there and was in school, there were different styles of bourbon but nothing like it is today," he said. "You basically had 4-5 choices ... and the thinking was no one would pay $25 for a bottle of bourbon. There were only 6-7 distilleries in the first place making bourbon.

"Now look where we are today with 1,400 nationally. It's an entirely different landscape."

Industry almost didn't get its man

And to think it almost didn't happen, at least for Wheatley.

Wheatley says after he graduated from high school, he considered a career with Eastman Kodak as a chemist, following in his uncle's footsteps.

But after a few years studying at NKU, Wheatley realized he didn't want to spend that much time in a lab.

So he finished his chemistry degree at NKU and got a chemical engineering degree from the University of Kentucky.

He says Kodak, then the world's largest camera film manufacturer, hired "a couple thousand" engineers nationally the year he graduated from college. Four years later, they laid off 4,000 people.

"I did make that comment back then that boy, that could have been me," Wheatley said.

By that point, Wheatley had been recruited by what was then known as the George T. Stagg Distillery, which was about to transform not just itself but help take the bourbon industry to another level.

"When I was hired, that was the plan – for me to apprentice and eventually take over," said Wheatley, now 49. "I never knew it would take me here."

Wheatley says the distillers came to him after asking UK officials for possible candidates, he was still working for the water treatment company that hired him as a college student.

By that point, he had fallen in love with the history of the state's bourbon industry and all that he had learned during his time in Lexington.

"There was a lot you didn't hear about growing up in Northern Kentucky – brands we didn't get," Wheatley said.

Within a few years, Stagg had been transformed into Buffalo Trace Distillery in the heart of Frankfort, launching its flagship product that helped put Wheatley on the map.

Local product made good

Wheatley was brought up in Union, where his mother still lives. His brother also lives in nearby Walton.

His fondest memories are playing for legendary Boone County coach Owen Hauck as well as visiting the bars along the Ohio River "once I was of legal drinking age, of course," Wheatley said.

He also recalls one of his first experiences that touched an engineering nerve when he made an operational crossbow in shop class at Ockerman Middle School.

"First of all, can you imagine that now?" Wheatley said. "And secondly, it's too bad that they don't even teach shop much anymore."

He routinely flies in and out of Cincinnati when he travels around the world pushing the Buffalo Trace brand and makes frequent visits to Northern Kentucky.

Locals within the alcohol industry view him with reverence, even as they don't quite understand why the area hasn't embraced its native son.

"He is such a quiet guy, but he is a genius when it comes to making good product," said Molly Wellmann, a well-known Cincinnati area mixologist and owner of Molly's Brands. "What's funny is that there is a lot of connection between Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky and the bourbon industry through the years that not a lot of people know about.

"Heck, even Pappy Van Winkle lived in Northern Kentucky for a while and sold Weller bourbon up here," said Wellmann, one of the area's foremost liquor historians.

Indeed, Wheatley comes off as quiet and reserved, unlike some of his predecessors and contemporaries such as Jimmy Russell of Wild Turkey and Booker or Fred Noe of Jim Beam.

The engineer in him makes Wheatley more apt to dive into a discussion of the lifespan of the white oak trees that supply the wood for bourbon barrels than about bars or cocktails.

But he is as passionate about the industry as his compatriots.

"To us, it's all about the quality of the product," Wheatley said. "That and the stories behind it. There is such history here that we need to honor as we move forward."

Role of distiller expands

In his role, Wheatley oversees the actual making of the bourbons for the distillery. He is a member of a "leadership team" that includes someone from marketing, bottling/distribution, and the maintenance/grounds/tourism department – they all report up to Buffalo Trace's owners at the Louisville-based Sazerac Co., which also makes Fireball Whiskey.

But he acknowledges that he's the public face of the company.

"It's just part of the job," he said with a shrug.

And unlike the old days, where a distillery might put out one or two different kinds of bourbon, Wheatley is busy overseeing the distilling of more than 18 different brands from the Frankfort site. All are based on yeast that dates back to the 1930s.

That includes the brand that helped start the current craze, which was a non-starter at other distillers.

Elmer T. Lee had tried in vain to pitch a concept of a "single-barrel" high-end bourbon to several distillers in Kentucky in the 1980s. It was only the Stagg company that took a chance.

That idea became Blanton's, which launched in 1984 as the world's first single-barrel bourbon, which means that what comes out of the distinctive bottle with the bronze horse stopper was aged from a single source and wasn't mixed with bourbon from other barrels.

Wheatley says it took a while for the concept to catch on, however. The company even agreed to make a special blend of Blanton's for Japanese customers that is different than the American counterpart – because the Asian market initially was the only one to embrace high-end bourbon.

"We said we'll make it if you buy it, and boy did they ever," Wheatley said. (For bourbon aficionados, the overseas Blanton's blend has a green label with a gold horse instead of the traditional tan and bronze motif).

Now, all the major distilleries have multiple higher-end offerings.

Next steps for the distillery

Just as he was in on the ground floor of the first major rebranding, Wheatley is onboard as Buffalo Trace embarks on another $1.6 billion expansion.

He says given that it's hard to predict what people will be drinking or what trends will be in place in 20 to 30 years, it is a huge gamble.

"Every drop of whiskey that we have aging is sold already, and we just don't see the demand for our product diminishing," Wheatley said.

And just as he was picked out of the crowd (he joined the distillery when he was only in his mid-20s and only 36 when named master distiller), Wheatley is starting to groom his own replacement.

"We've hired some younger people just like I was hired to try to make sure that this continues on," he said



Not just that, but he's not done the experimenting. Buffalo Trace recently launched a new line of vodka called Wheatley, named after its master distiller. He also oversaw the opening of Warehouse X, a special section of the campus where experimental whiskeys are made.

"I actually can't wait until they put out a single barrel bourbon with his name on it," said liquor historian Wellmann.

For Wheatley, it's just about keeping the legacy going.

"This place has been here 180 years and is not going anywhere," Wheatley said. "And neither am I."