I don’t go to many concerts. Not for lack of love for music, but because my dream line-up is closer to a memorial than a festival. Almost all the bands I love – enought to be hours in a line, under rain or sun – no longer exist. I will never hear Johnny Cash or Audioslave live, for example. The exception is the Rolling Stones, who stubbornly keep defying biology. But, by the looks of it, that tour is also coming to an end. Or maybe not.

As unlikely as it may seem, the world of whisky fills that void left by music. It has its own living legends – and thanks to this site, sometimes I get the chance to talk to one or another. And thankfully, admiration for some of them not only survives the face-to-face encounter but actually turns up the volume. Fred Noe is like that.

Grandson of Jim Beam and son of the legendary Booker, he runs the distillery of the world’s No. 1 bourbon like someone leading a guitar riff. I sat down to interview him during his recent trip to Brazil with the same apprehension as someone going to a Coldplay show – which would already be bad enough – with the head of RH. But I left convinced that some legends truly deserve to be seen up close.

What follows is the full interview. Undiluted – barrel proof – just like a good Booker’s.

The first question actually, was about Bookers, tell me a little more and more about it, I know it’s one of your favorite whiskeys, right?

Oh yeah. My dad created Bookers as a gift for our distributors, back years and years ago, and Booker’s Bourbon is the first uncut, unfiltered spirit, released to the public. Nobody had uncut stuff straight from their cask at anytime when dad did. He was a little crazy.

You know, the consumer was not ready for spirit of that strength. But dad’s theory was that you can cut it, it’s down to the strength that you want to drink. You know, all the bourbon’s and spirits are cut with water down to the bottling strength. Booker’s allows you to cut into the strength that you enjoy at most.

That’s perfect. That’s perfect, and he created it, and then you inherited the brand right?

Yes. He was very ill. And then he said “take care of my Booker’s”. And I will do that.
And your son is working – Freddy’s working with this Distillery, do you feel like your father, passing the knowledge? How do you feel about passing the knowledge to him and working in the family?

I mean, it’s a very proud moment for father and son. Follow in your footsteps and be successful. I have a lot of friends who have sons who inherit businesses. And they pass businesses on. But a lot of times the son doesn’t want to work hard. Sometimes they take the business forward, sometimes they leave it the same, sometimes the business goes backwards. Freddy, he seized the opportunity that he was given, and has really done well with new innovative thinking and coming up with new products for the future.

A little book, for example.

That’s his creation, totally him. And it’s what it’s all about. To put your mark on this business. When I came in, following dad’s footsteps, Bourbon was moving slowly. Dad released his Booker’s and the small batch bourbons, and went on the road and started promoting them. Telling his story to the public.

And when he got older, there was a time when he didn’t want to travel anymore. So he put me out there doing the same thing, educating the consumers. But all in all, we’re still concentrating on Jim Beam, because Jim Beam the number one bourbon in the world. And you know, that’s the thing. That’s the one.
It allows us to do the fun stuff. To do the Booker’s. The Basil Hayden’s, the Knob Creeks. All these special bourbons, without Jim Beam keeping the lights on the Distillery, and being the number one bourbon.

That’s true. Let’s go to Jim Beam. On the 7 years old. Why change it to 7YO?

Well, Jim Beam Black, over the years, was 101 months, originally, back in the 1970s. Over the years, we would redefine the age, change the strength, all trying to find the sweet spot where consumers would enjoy it more. And Freddie was actually tasked by our leaders “is there any way to look at Jim Beam Black and improve the quality of the liquid in the bottle?”

And so he assembled a team with older employees. I was one. Another was a lady who worked in the lab for 40 years. And they also looked for from younger people. And we sat and blind taste tested different bourbons, with different ages, different strengths. And between the group, 7 years old is where we started seeing the vanilla coming out of the barrel.

And 90 proof – I love Freddie’s guess. He describes it as the “swiss army kinfe of bourbons”. Because you can, you can drink it neat, It works well on the rocks, you can also put it in a cocktail.

And dad always told me, when he was teaching me the business, it takes 7 years for that vanilla to start coming from that oak barrel, and you can see it, plain as day. At 7 years, then you start seeing big vanilla notes, the sweetness.

When the bourbon is first in the barrel, the corn is so sweet and the whiskey is real grainy. But over time, the barrel starts influencing the flavor. And then your graininess goes away and you start getting notes from inside of that barrel. The vanilla, sweet and brown spices. And that’s where is the sweet spot.
And we tried it older than 7 years. But 7 years – It’s where the group as a whole picked it. Blind! We didn’t know what it was. The age or the strength.

And do you think that consumers are still attached to like age statement?

I think uh, uh, for a while, people weren’t. I think now consumers are more educated and they know that they like to know what they’re purchasing inside of that bottle. I want to know what’s in there.

I mean, they’re, they’re more educated. They know what they’re looking for and I think the age statement lets you know what’s inside of that bottle.

And no colouring, no flavours…

That’s Bourbon – no colors, no flavors can be added. Everything has to come naturally from that oak barrel we aged it

Uh, I heard a funny story about yeast. You guys bring the yeast home, right?

Right! Our yeast was actually caught by our great-grandfather, Jim Beam, in the backyard of his house where I live today. And we still propagate the yeast on-site. There’s hardly any distillery that still propagate their yeast. Most people give their yeast to an outside company and let them make the yeast. So, they just take a brown, a big bag, dump it into the fermenter.

Freddie and his team still propagate the yeast at the plant. The same strain that my great-grandfather caught. I mean, when we make our bourbons, there’s only 3 ingredients. Water, yeast, grain – and that’s it. So there’s no enzymes added to help fermenting. No enzymes at our property! We’re doing an essentially the same way that Jim Beam did after prohibition.

And I think it’s pretty cool that our waters, our water source, it comes from a nature reserve. So we’re not dealing with any city water that’s been treated chemically. We are using limestone water.

And one last question – what do you really love about the job and what you hate?

What I love about it, I guess, is carrying this legacy we have started over 230 years ago and putting my mark on it. Passing it on to my son watching him seize this opportunity to take the business forward.
And someday I’ll meet up with the other generations – hopefully we all go to the same place – and we can sit down and I can say “Hey, hope I didn’t mess it up!”

And hate, well, I don’t hate much. Sometimes the meetings, with grand managers. When people come in, and think they need to change things sell more. But there’s only one direction, you can take this when you are number 1! There’s only 1 direction you can go, and that’s down. So, don’t mess with something that’s number one.

Do not change the team that’s winning, we say…

That’s a good thing to say, because that’s what we do. I didn’t make it number one. That’s on my dad and others. I was created at number one, you know, my job is to keep it there. And my son, Freddie. That’s what we do.

You guys are really doing a really, really good job.

Thank you, appreciate that.