1 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
Master Distiller Tom Bulleit
2 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
3 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
Tom and the ultimate tailgating accoutrement: the Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Woody Trailer
4 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
Adding to its retro-allure, the Woody has vintage wheels and chrome hubcaps and fenders from a Model A Ford, as well as replica 1939 Ford taillights and reproduction vintage chrome car handles.
5 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
6 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
The pullout bar features a two-compartment copper tub for ice and beverage cooling.
7 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
8 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
9 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
Relax on the posh leather cushions and inhale the scent of bourbon still infused in the reclaimed whiskey barrel wood that lines the trailer's ceiling.
10 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
Dark-stained white oak lends a rickhouse vibe to the trailer's exterior.
11 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
12 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
Glassware includes Baccarat highball glasses and tumblers and Bulleit Frontier Whiskey rocks glasses
13 of 13
Photos by David Toczko
It’s appropriate that this interview was conducted under an ample shade tree on the Indiana side of the Ohio River. Augustus Bulleit, the shadowy ancestor upon whom Tom Bulleit Jr. based his bourbon and its lore, lived on both sides of the river prior to his mysterious disappearance in the months leading up to the Civil War. As for Tom, who grew up in Louisville’s Crescent Hill neighborhood, he spent much of his childhood exploring the Beargrass, Goose and Harrods creeks, and the Ohio River.
“Augustus was an interesting character—as interesting as people often could be in those days,” says Tom, the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame distiller who resurrected his fourth great-grandfather’s recipe in 1987 after walking away from a successful law career. “It was always my dream,” he says.
Augustus, a Frenchman by birth, arrived in America in 1841 and married 21-year-old Marie Dulieu, originally from Belgium, in Harrison County, Ind., across the river from Louisville. They had five sons and at least two daughters. Augustus worked as a miller, distiller and tavern keeper, and he often made long trips down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans with his bourbon. “In 1860, he didn’t come back. There’s no telling what happened to him,” Tom says.He could have gone overboard. He could have headed west, as many people did in those days. “We’ll probably never know,” says Tom, who jokingly casts an alternative ending to Augustus’ story: “With all the time I’ve spent in New Orleans, I’m kind of surprised I haven’t met any Bulleit cousins.”
What lives on is Tom’s dream to recreate his family’s legacy, the recipe Augustus created—a high-rye bourbon that today is 68 percent corn, 4 percent barley and 28 percent rye—which was passed from generation to generation. “We have the highest rye content that I’m aware of,” Tom says. “If you look at the range of bourbons and picture them on a shelf, Maker’s Mark would be on one end, and we’d be on the other. Everyone else, as good as they are, falls somewhere in between in terms of rye content."
Tom was born in Louisville and says he grew up working at Bernheim Distillery. He attended St. Francis of Rome grade school and Trinity High School. When he left the University of Kentucky in 1966, he told his father he was going to be a master distiller. “No, you’re not. You’re going into the military,” Tom recalls his father responding.
“Until then, I was a lackluster student at best,” Tom says. “But, as they say, the military will mature you. It did.”
While serving in Vietnam, he took the LSAT to gain entry to law school and scored well on his first attempt. After his honorable discharge from the U.S. Marines in 1969, he entered the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, and then went to Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and worked at the U.S. Treasury Department until he opened a law firm in Lexington.
“I still wanted to bring Augustus’ recipe back, and in 1987, we started that process,” says Tom. In 2011, he launched the company’s second offering: Bulleit Rye American Whiskey. Bulleit Bourbon 10 Years Old was released in 2013.
A fifth-generation Bulleit—Tom’s daughter, Hollis, an inductee into the Dame Hall of Fame—is Bulleit Bourbon’s global brand ambassador and carries the title First Lady of Bourbon. His son, Tucker, is a senior at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.
Earlier this year, Tom was honored with a “Hometown Heroes” mural in Louisville—on Third Street between Main and Market—for his “entrepreneurial spirit and love of the city,” joining the likes of Muhammad Ali and Diane Sawyer. Pretty good for a guy who has called Lexington home for most of his adult life. “I could live anywhere, but Kentucky is home, and I can’t see myself living anywhere else,” Tom says. “Few people love it more than I do.”
While Tom lives in Lexington’s Chevy Chase neighborhood, he spends quite a bit of time at Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, where Bulleit Bourbon currently is produced (plans for building a Shelby County distillery are underway), and Louisville’s South End, where it is warehoused and is the location of the brand’s new visitors center.
His wife, Elizabeth Calloway Brooks, is from Winchester. She is named for her ancestor, Elizabeth Calloway, who was with Daniel Boone at Fort Boonesborough and was one of three women, along with Boone’s daughter, Jemima, captured by Indians and later rescued. “Her central Kentucky roots are pretty deep,” says Tom.
“Kentuckians have a great sense of place,” he says. “And part of that is our connection to water,” which often is credited for the quality of everything from our bourbon to our Thoroughbreds. “To me, water is what makes Kentucky so special,” says Tom as he surveys the Louisville riverfront and the Falls of the Ohio. “It’s our rivers, creeks and lakes that set us apart. I can’t remember a summer that wasn’t spent either boating to Six-Mile Island [in the Ohio] or playing on Boonesborough Beach [in Clark County]. We’d often go there for six weeks at a time.
“A boy can have much more fun in a creek than he’ll ever have at Disney World,” Bulleit says. “It’s a part of who we are.”
READ ABOUT THE BULLEIT EXPERIENCE AT STITZEL-WELLER DISTILLERY
Tailgating with Tom
You may not have a camper that transforms into the ultimate tailgating accessory, but that need not stop you from enjoying a bit of Frontier Whiskey flair à la Tom Bulleit.
Tom’s tailgating cocktail of choice: The Kentucky Colonel, a blend of bourbon (Bulleit, of course) and Benedictine, garnished with a lemon twist. GET THE RECIPE
Which he likes to enjoy with: A juicy, Kentucky Proud burger topped with Bulleit Bourbon BBQ Sauce. GET THE RECIPE
When he’s not drinking bourbon, he prefers: Refreshing Southern sweet teaTailgating companions: Wife, Betsy; daughter, Hollis; and son, Tucker
You may see him at: The Blue Grass Sportsmen’s League near Wilmore or the Elk Creek Hunt Club in Owen County. Tom and his son both enjoy clay target shooting.
If you’re lucky, you may see him with: Former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason. Tom and Tucker recently participated in a charity event at Elk Creek, benefiting Esiason’s Foundation for Cystic Fibrosis. They even got to throw around the ol’ pigskin with Esiason. “I thought, ‘If I drop this, I’m going to look so stupid,’ ” says Tom of preparing to do his best impersonation of a wide receiver. “I caught it! How many people have caught a pass from Boomer?”
Frontier Gear
“People freak out when they see it,” says Bulleit Brand Ambassador Bobby Burk about what is perhaps the ultimate tailgating accoutrement: the Bulleit Frontier Whiskey Woody Trailer. On the day of our photo shoot, the many passersby who stop to gawk at and ask questions about the trailer are a testament to the truth of Burk’s statement.
The Woody Trailer made its debut as part of the 2012 Neiman Marcus Christmas Book, and its $150,000 price tag included a one-year supply (stipulated as four cases each) of Bulleit Bourbon and Bulleit Rye. Designed by New York-based designer Brad Ford and custom built by Silver Tears Campers and Moore & Giles, both of Virginia, the trailer went unclaimed, and the window of purchasing opportunity closed.
Designed as a nod to the teardrop campers that first became popular in the 1940s, and with details that hint at a more spirited heritage, Bulleit Bourbon’s trailer is a brand ambassador in its own right. “Panache and Southern charm—that’s what we’re going for,” says Burk. The trailer can be seen at events across the country, eliciting freak-outs all along the way.