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requested a bottle of Maker’s Mark be left on his hotel pillow. “I swear he drank the whole damn bottle. That had to be his worst debate of his career,” Samuels says. Maker’s 46 He’s full of great stories like this, but the best tale of all—the one most near and dear to his heart these days—is the story of Maker’s 46. “I was starting to do some retirement planning a couple years ago, and I’m thinking, I haven’t done anything. I don’t have a legacy,” Samuels says. He and then Master Distiller Kevin Smith “jerked around for about a year, using the original Maker’s, and had 123 experiments,” he says. “We didn’t come up with anything, because every time we got more acid. We were about ready to give up.” But working with Independent Stave’s Brad Boswell, a “wood chef,” whose cooperage makes all of Maker’s Mark’s barrels, they added seared French oak staves. “We were so excited about it,” Samuels says. “It’s the damnedest thing you ever tasted.” Maker’s 46 was the first new Maker’s product in more than 50 years and was absolutely genius, says Matthew J. Shattock, President and CEO of Fortune subsidiary Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. “Maker’s 46 is a reflection of Bill’s extraordinary creativity,” he says. For Shattock, working with Samuels has been one of his career highlights. “This man is known for his intelligence, has a youthful energy and is so inquisitive about the world,” Shattock says. “He behaves like a man a third his age.” So What Happens Now? Bill says he’s signed about 250,000 bottles in his lifetime. “This is Rob’s job now,” he says of his son and successor. Like his father, Rob has a natural busi- ness sense and although he’s probably not ready to don a purple wig anytime soon, he did wear tennis shoes with his designer suit at the track. “Rob’s got a tremendous track record in our company of working in both the United States and internationally,” Shattock says. “The Maker’s future is not just going to be in the U.S.; it’s going to be international. Rob is going to lead us into being a truly big global brand.” Rob has wanted to run Maker’s Mark Rob Samuels, photographed at Keeneland Race track in Lexington, KY, will take over leadership of the Maker’s Mark brand from his father, Bill Jr. since he was ten. Now that he’s taking over Maker’s Mark, as his father did once for his own father, he believes he’s been groomed the right way. “When I graduated from the University of South Carolina, Bill gave me the best advice he’s ever given. He said, ‘Don’t go to work at Maker’s Mark; go out and learn the business. Get outside Kentucky and see if you enjoy it. See if you like the industry.’ I knew I always had a deep love and affection for what my grandparents invented, their passion, their dream. So, I knew I loved Maker’s Mark, but I didn’t know if I had an affection or a passion for the industry.” Just a Few More Bottles to Sign Back at the distillery, a day after Bill’s crazy costume retirement party, hundreds of brand lovers have driven to Loretto to buy a bottle displaying Bill’s likeness on the label. The frigid temperatures and steady hard rain could not keep these people away from hand-dipping their own bottles to be signed by Bill. An older lady with gentle blue eyes and soft gray hair was smiling from ear to ear as she handed Bill her bottle. “So, what are you going to do now?” she asks. He’d been asked this prob- ably a few hundred times by now, and he answered everybody pretty much the same. “Sh**, I don’t know,” Bill says. Meanwhile, he’s wearing a hat with the words RETIRED: PLEASE TELL MY WIFE. To read the extended version of this story, go to www.tastingpanelmag.com. june 201 1 / the tasting panel / 113