Bulleit Proof

14 Vows

STANDING REGALLY ON STAGE, Deirdre Mahlan, president of Diageo North America, leans into the microphone and says to the audience, “Join me in welcoming the founder of the Bulleit brand … Tom Bulleit.”

March 14, 2017.

Shelbyville, Kentucky.

Moments later, standing on the stage next to Deirdre, overwhelmed by the enormity of it all and the ridiculousness of it all, I look over the crowd gathered before me, I find my voice once again, and I continue to speak.

“Thirty years,” I say, scanning the hundreds of people sitting before me on folding chairs inside this tent on the grounds of our new—and first ever—Bulleit Bourbon distillery. Then the faces before me mesh into a kind of collage—scores of Diageo folks, members of the media, local and state politicians, my family, and friends, some who’ve traveled thousands of miles to celebrate this day, this momentous event, the dedication of the distillery.

“Betsy and I,” I say, shaking my head, my voice cracking. I stop and then I say again, trying to process the very concept, “Thirty years.” I pull myself together and say, “That’s when we officially started our journey together. And that’s when all this began. Of course, if I go back to the very beginning, when my great-great-grandfather Augustus created the original recipe for Bulleit Bourbon, we go back 170 years or so. And speaking of old, did I mention that today is my birthday?”

Applause. I bow slightly, feeling an imaginary spotlight on me burning through me and I suddenly ...