Sitting at the bar, one day, a friend of mine comes up with the following analogy. “Look, imagine that your life is a huge jar. And you have in front of you, two portions of marbles. One of them is all transparent. The other has marbles of various colors” – he took a sip of beer, before continuing, for dramatic purposes – “At the end of each day, you have to put a marble in the jar. If you did something cool, important, you put a colored one. But if you were just there, wandering around, slipping through your routine, you have to use a transparent one.” – he said, pursing his lips.
“And then, you’ll see that in the end, there will be many more transparent marbles than colored ones.” I raised my eyebrows “Okay, and drinking beer here, does that count as colored or transparent?” By the way he rolled his eyes, I could tell he didn’t like the beating. But the analogy, deep down, was a good one. It could lead to reckless behavior, but it was basically the same old line that Jack Daniel’s had a few years ago. “Make it Count”.
And I got practical proof of this philosophy when I traveled with Brown Forman to the United States. The goal was to get to know the group’s distilleries and the people behind their brands. It was only five days, but every minute was filled. We passed through four cities, visited three distilleries and took part in a horse race at Churchill Downs – as spectators, of course. We slept in three different places, including a trailer camp right in the middle of Jack. We visited bars, historic houses and even a cemetery.
But the highlight of the whole experience, without a doubt, was getting to know the people behind these iconic brands. Seeing that the whiskey in the glass is, in fact, the sum of the knowledge of dozens of exceptional professionals. Like, for example, Elizabeth McCall, the master distiller of Woodford Reserve. Which we had the opportunity to interview, right after a visit to the distillery. The result you can see here.
This was certainly the day of a colorful marble.
How do you see consumers drinking whiskey nowadays?
My friends are not drinking whiskey because it is High Proof, or high ABV. So, if you teach people how to cut it down to simple cocktails, it makes it even more approachable. My favourite cocktail is a Manhattan.
But in the summertime, we do a whiskey lemonade, with Woodford Bourbon. It is really good because it stretches it out, lowers the ABV, and makes a good sipping drink for a hot day. So there are a lot of ways to have it, that are not alcohol forward.
What is your favourite way to have it?
It would be on ice, like when I drink it at home. I just fill up an on-the-rocks glass with ice, and then fill it up with woodford. A big one with ice!
And what is your favourite expression of Woodford Reserve?
That’s Double Oaked. It was actually my first time I ever drank whiskey on the rocks. Not in a cocktail, but I just had it on the rocks. Maybe it had a little squeeze of lemon, but that was it. I think that this was back in 2012 or 2013. We were at a work dinner with colleagues and one of my colleagues orderd it. I was like “oh, ok, so let’s give it a try”.
I was working for Brown-Forman at the time, already. But I was still in the research and development lab in quality control. So I wasn’t working at the distillery. I worked with all (Brown-Forman) brands. But I have always had a fondness for Woodford. It is just a beautiful Brand in every way possible.
Did you see it coming, when you became a master distiller?
No! When I started, it (Woodford) was so small. But it always was this boutique high luxury, high quality, aspirational sort of brand. It’s always been something that you think “that’s good, I want that in my backbar, and I want to be part of it”. And now, working for the brand, is just like a dream come true.
And how did it happen?
It evolved, by getting the opportunity to be the “master taster”, so it was just like an elevated role for brand ambassadorship, to be working with the master distiller on how to know and taste our products and help with innovation. And I started working on more quality out here. Worked at the production at Woodford, and it developed into now being the master distiller. But it was never my go to when I started working.
What’s the biggest challenge on being a master distiller?
I think the biggest challenge right now is innovation, and getting things out the door as fast as we can. And this is really hard. Just thinking of new exciting ways to present our whiskey, that is not gimmicky or is not just to grab attention. But that really stays true to the brand and the heart and the soul of Woodford. Because there are so many trends out there.
There are people that just jump on the trend, and you know it is not authentic to the brand. So, the challenge is, “How do you stay fresh on consumers minds, still keep innovation, but be true?”
How is the creative process of creating these innovations?
It is really drawing inspiration from the World. What are people interested in? And then, also, what is at your fingertips. Like, what can we do? So, when I was mentioning barrel finishes, for example. We’ve have a winery that we work with. It is in the Brown-Forman family (Sonoma Cutrer). So, there is an opportunity there!
That’s a big piece of it. And then, the brain recipes. What sounds like fun. And also, we uphold from historical documents what we can bring back to life. So there are just a lot of areas you can play with.
What product would be fresh from Woodford?
We just produced a caramel chocolate whiskey. That will come out in 10 years from now. You have to wait a long time, but maybe shorter. But the minimum 5 years so you just have to wait a long time, so when we innovate today, it takes us a lot.
But it goes faster than you think. And then and then some of the other things are just kind of fun blends that we’ve done looking in the warehouse. What inventory do we have in excess of or leftover barrels from something and you start thinkering in the lab and putting batches together and have fun to go.