The Big Man of Jim Beam

Chapter 9The Party's Just Getting Started

In the same year that the tornado hit the Boston plant, Booker created his own storm with the media. In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, his response to a question about the surging popularity of vodka was simple and from the gut.

“How can anyone drink that stuff? It don't taste and it don't smell.”

Booker then went on to give a spirited defense of bourbon, offering the reporter at his kitchen table a snort. “Taste that,” he said, handing her a glass. “That's got taste.”

Booker's argument fell on deaf ears, however. While the reporter was sympathetic to Booker, seemingly agreeing with him, she concluded her widely read piece (headlined “Bourbon Folks Don't Mix with the Vodka Crowd”) by writing, “Taste is out. America doesn't want anything that perks up the taste buds.”

Words like that were a dagger in the heart of the Big Man, who based his life around making a whiskey with a distinct and robust taste and aroma. Yet the numbers bore her out: by the mid-seventies, vodka was officially the number-one consumed spirit in America.

As sales of bourbon continued to slide year after year, Beam and the other distillers were deer-in-the-headlights confused, powerless to stop it. The moves they did make, such as cutting the price of their whiskey, ended up hurting more than helping. The stuff was now old and cheap, perfect for men on a budget. (“Hey, I got my social security check today. Think I'm going buy a bottle of bourbon.”)

In response, ...