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(Credit score: Elisa Miller)
Maker’s Mark, the enduring Kentucky bourbon pushed by the pursuit of higher taste and a greater world, has introduced Dr. Blake Layfield because the model’s subsequent Grasp Distiller and Beth Buckner as lead blender.
“Visionary management has been a vital and constant issue within the success of Maker’s Mark, from the second Invoice Sr. and Margie Samuels determined to create one thing fully completely different within the bourbon class 70 years in the past,” stated Rob Samuels, eighth era whisky maker and managing director, Maker’s Mark. “Blake embodies the model’s dedication to tradition, high quality and the next objective, and I’m thrilled he and the Maker’s Mark management staff are guardians of the model’s legacy and vanguards driving the model ahead.”
The appointments fill a niche that has been left open within the Loretto, Kentucky firm since September 2022, when Grasp Distiller Denny Potter and Lead Blender Jane Bowie left the corporate. That pair later went on to discovered Potter Jane Distilling Firm in Springfield, Kentucky.
Though it might strike some as odd that Maker’s Mark was left with out a Grasp Distiller for 2 years, that isn’t the one fashionable occasion of a serious American distillery was left with out senior manufacturing management for a chronic interval time. George Dickel (now Cascade Hole) was left with out a Grasp and Deputy Grasp Distiller for years following the departure of John Lunn and Alissa Henley in 2015. That hole was not stuffed till present Grasp Distiller Nicole Austin was appointed.
And in contrast to Dickel, Maker’s Mark continues to be very a lot below the supervision of the Samuels household. Additionally, Kim Harmon was there as basic supervisor on the distillery, and can proceed on in that submit. She joined Maker’s Mark in 2019 as director of security and sustainability, and amongst different achievements, was instrumental in Maker’s Mark’s B Corp certification in 2022 – a milestone achievement inside the business. Harmon’s profession, with tenures at Heaven Hill and Suntory International Spirits, might be characterised by distinctive imaginative and prescient and a extremely efficient and collaborative management fashion.
On this key management function, Blake Layfield will oversee the consistency and style imaginative and prescient of Maker’s Mark bourbon, in addition to new product innovation. As well as, Layfield will advance the various environmental and agricultural initiatives on Star Hill Farm, dwelling to the Maker’s Mark distillery – enhancing taste by means of nature and main the business to a extra sustainable future.
Since becoming a member of Suntory International Spirits from Diageo in 2019, Layfield has held a sequence of R&D and high quality management roles in Kentucky, serving most lately as senior director of innovation, mixing and high quality for Maker’s Mark. Layfield holds a doctorate in Meals Science from North Carolina State College in Raleigh, NC and a Normal Certificates in Distilling from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling. He’s additionally Co-Chair on the Analysis Committee of the Kentucky Distillers’ Affiliation and serves on the board of the James B. Beam Institute on the College of Kentucky.
Layfield will proceed to be supported by the gifted Beth Buckner in her function as lead blender, a vital place because the model continues to innovate to ship unbelievable experiences for shoppers. Buckner started her tenure at Maker’s Mark in 2013 and her distinctive palate, creativity, and management qualities led to her important function within the improvement of the acclaimed Wooden Ending Sequence. Buckner leads the model’s push for innovation and the advanced, tremendous artwork of mixing.
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