The Big Man of Jim Beam

Chapter 10The Shutdown Years

In the bourbon industry, the lost decade of the seventies gave way to the equally stagnant eighties. In addition to vodka and wine, consumers were now turning their attention to newfangled single-malt scotches, nosing and sipping high-priced brands. Beer sales were also on the upswing. To the distillers it seemed that America was drinking everything but bourbon.

There were rays of hope, however; beams of light down the mineshaft. In August of 1980 the venerable Wall Street Journal ran an article about a little-known distillery in Loretto, a postage stamp of a town in the Kentucky foothills. The article passionately touted the bourbon this distillery was putting out—Maker's Mark:

Maker's Mark Distillery has made its mark by going against the grain. In producing its premium priced Maker's Mark bourbon, it continues to use an intricate six-year aging process and a small bottling line that are models of efficiency. It distills only 19 barrels of bourbon daily, compared with hundreds distilled by other producers. Its ad budget is a meager $1.2 million a year. But most remarkably, its volume of business has more than tripled, to about 150,000 cases a year, in the past 10 years, while the bourbon industry's sales have slipped 26%, to $23.7 million.

The front-page piece was not only a godsend to the company—sales soared—but also served as a beacon of hope for the industry; America still had some interest in its native spirit. Maybe this small, handcrafted ...