Interview with Chris Morris, November 6, 2013

 AL YOUNG: This is Al Young interviewing Woodford Reserve's Master Distiller, Chris Morris, on November 6, 2013, for the Kentucky Bourbon Tales Oral History Project. Chris, thank your for agreeing to be interviewed for the project. Would you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself? I mean, who is Chris Morris?

CHRIS MORRIS: (laughs) I sometimes wonder. Uh, I'm a very fortunate person. I'm very fortunate to, uh, my mother and father were Brown-Forman employees, my father for forty-one years. And I'll never forget the day in 1976, May the eighth, I was sitting at home. He came home from work. And I was going to graduate from high school the next week. And Dad said, "Are you going to work this summer?" Now, I had always worked, cutting grass, you know, odd jobs. And I said, "Yes, I'm going to work." He said, "Good, you start tomorrow." And I said, "What do you mean, 'I start tomorrow?'" "Do you want to work or not?" "Yes, sir." "You start tomorrow." So the next day, even before I graduated from high school, I had to put on a tie and coat, and I was ushered into the 00:01:00Brown-Forman central laboratory. And I started my career that day.

YOUNG: So what was your first job like, there, when you started the intern program with Brown-Forman?

MORRIS: Yes, I went into the central laboratory. And my very first thing I remember is being handed over to a co-op student from the University of Louisville, Dan ----------(??) son, Doug, who is now at Wild Turkey. And Doug taught me how to run the grain lab, how to analyze grain. And I just thought that was fascinating. I never had any idea that you would analyze grain before receiving it into a distillery. And then, from there turn it into a great whiskey.

YOUNG: Well now, even, even from your perspective, in the quality lab in the early days, even, what do you recall the, the state of the bourbon business was back then?

[Pause in recording.]

YOUNG: Well now, even with your beginning in the, in the lab situation, uh, in 00:02:00that early time in the int-, intern program, what do you recall as the state of the bourbon business back then?

MORRIS: It's really interesting. Um, the bourbon industry was full, I would say, Al, of the old brands. You know, we're going to talk about the new, exciting brands of today as we go through our interview, but everything was status quo. Our flagship brand was Old Forester, the founding brand of the company, Early Times, competitors like Old Grand-Dad, Old Crow, Old Taylor, Old Fitzgerald. The old, it just went, went down the road. And nothing had changed. You maybe had two or three expressions of each. And they were all pretty well priced at the same price point. So everybody was fighting for the same pie. And the pie was shrinking at the time. Sales were going down, because tequila was growing, vodka was growing, and then, of course, what was 00:03:00really red-hot in those days was Canadian whiskey. And the cry was, "Everybody's drinking lighter, drinking lighter!" So fortunately Brown-Forman had a very large Canadian whiskey brand that became the number-one-selling Canadian whiskey brand in the world, our Canadian Mist brand. So we had a, we had an option for, uh, consumer interface. But everything was just slowly declining. And I, I sensed, uh, a feeling of, "What do we do? How we do address this?" And no one really quite knew. So they kept advertising brands, just like, as, uh, as always advertised brands. And today, of course, we have a bartending culture and there's, there's bar promotions. We call it on-trade promotions. Back then everything was driven through the package stores. It was put a bottle in a store and someone will buy it. And we didn't realize at the time but we were on the cusp of a change. So I would say, when I entered the bourbon business, it was, it was, uh, maybe the worst of times.

YOUNG: Well now, how did these early experiences, or the previous work 00:04:00experiences you had, in the early days of your career, uh, prepare you to be the master distiller for Woodford Reserve?

MORRIS: Well, one of the things that, uh, I remember, uh, striking my fancy was the differences between products. And after I graduated from Bellarmine, my intern-, internship was over and I took a job in Brown-Forman sales. Uh, because back then, that was the way, the way up. Sales was the hot ticket to a successful career. And as I went out into the marketplace, first in Kentucky, later Texas, and then Georgia, I found that there was a lack of knowledge at the retail and consumer level about whiskeys. What's a Scotch whisky? How's it different than a Canadian whisky? Tell me about a bourbon whiskey. And what's this stuff called Tennessee whiskey? And forget rye and corn. There was just, 00:05:00uh, uh, a lack of information. And I'd come from the lab. And Brown-Forman made some corn whiskey. Had rye whiskey. There were flavors for Canadian whisky, of course. We imported Scotch. We had Canadian, bourbon, and Tennessee whiskey, so I was exposed to these different whiskey types, and I understood how they were crafted, I understand what their flavor profiles were. So I don't want to brag but I may have been the first person in the United States to start doing whiskey seminars in the early 1980s. And I would have a seminar. "This is bourbon; it's Old Forester. Here's Tennessee whiskey; it's Jack Daniel's." And I'd buy a corn whiskey such as Georgia Moon and, and our Usher's Scotch, and our Canadian Mist. And I would start teaching seminars about whiskey types. And that really helped, I think, lay the foundation for understanding what makes a whiskey "whiskey," what makes a particular brand unique amongst all the brands 00:06:00of its category. And I just started this self-learning process.

YOUNG: Well now, as an outgrowth(??) of that self-learning process, and obviously quite a number of those teaching-by-example situations where you were pouring different products and explaining them to people, what in, in your words does it take to make a good bourbon?

MORRIS: Well, a good bourbon, as I was taught, um, requires the discipline of, of excelling across the five sources of flavor. The five sources of flavor are the grain recipe; the grains must be select, they must be up to specifications, and, of course, whatever you recipe is, it's going to be important; your water, the purity of your water, the iron-free, limestone water, if you're fortunate to have that; how you ferment the grain, water-yeast combination; of course, 00:07:00distillation, the fourth source of flavor; and then maturation in an oak barrel. All five components are key and you can't let one of them slide. And certainly, across the first four sources of flavor, when we make our new spirit, I was taught you can't make a lousy new spirit and fix it in the warehouse. But you can take a great new spirit and you can wreck it in the warehouse. So in other words, the message was, do all five processes perfect every day. Make them the best you can. So what makes a good bourbon is the attention to detail, and keeping with your specs, keeping with your standards. And if you do that, you're going to have the product that you want. Now, to me, what is a good bourbon? A good bourbon is a balanced bourbon. And I like a rich bourbon; I like a balance of sweet, spice, fruit, oak, and grain character. Some people 00:08:00prefer a lighter, some people prefer an out-of-balance, which is not a bad thing, but maybe more wood-driven. So I like to get a little bit of everything in a bourbon. And that, that's just my standard.

YOUNG: So how does Woodford Reserve match up to your definition of a good bourbon? Does it meet all of those--

MORRIS: --Woodford Reserve--

YOUNG: --criteria--

MORRIS: --hits the target right in the middle. I, that is what is what is, to me, um, so nice about Woodford Reserve. It is a well-balanced bourbon. Um, it's not overly sweet because you can get the spice notes. The fruit comes through. We get hints of grain, mainly rye. And there's a nice balance of wood as well. So it's very balanced. And that's why that brand in particular, Woodford Reserve, I think everybody can like it. It might not be your choice, first choice, of drink, but there's going to be something in it that your favorite brand has. And hopefully, from the Brown-Forman standpoint, Woodford is your favorite brand. But it does have that nice balance. And that, to me, 00:09:00going back to your earlier point, a good bourbon is going to be versatile. You can enjoy it neat, on the rocks, a splash of water. But in this great wave of the cocktail culture returning--thank goodness--a good bourbon will make a great Manhattan, make a great Old Fashioned. We'll go into these classic cocktails. So it's versatile, it's well-rounded, and balanced.

YOUNG: Now, we're sitting in a Woodford Reserve warehouse right now.

MORRIS: Yeah, Warehouse C.

YOUNG: So it's hard to ignore the barrels.

MORRIS: (laughs) Yes.

YOUNG: But is there any aging, uh, statement that you want to make about Woodford Reserve? I mean, is it, how many years is it aged, generally, or?

MORRIS: Well, that's a great question. And I think there's, that's a little, not a controversy, but, um, uh, a division within the world of bourbon: age claim or no age claim. And we don't use age claims at Brown-Forman. Period. Whether--(clears throat)--excuse me--it's a Woodford, Old Forester, Early Times, 00:10:00or our Tennessee whiskeys from Jack Daniel's, because we don't believe it does justice to the brand. Because on an international marketplace, as you're well aware, we are competing with Scotch whisky. Scotch whisky has had age claims as their chief selling point. We are not going to have a thirty-year-old bourbon.

[Pause in recording.]

YOUNG: You know, we're in the warehouse here at Woodford Reserve. And it's hard to ignore the barrels that are in here aging. Um, do you all make any age, age claims on your bourbons?

MORRIS: No, we don't, Al. As you know, there's, there's a bit of a, it's not a controversy, but there's a bit of a split in the world of bourbon between having age claims and having no age claims. And at Brown-Forman, whether it's here at Woodford Reserve at our Brown-Forman distillery, with Old Forester and Early Times, or our Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distillery, we don't use age claims. Because we don't believe it does justice to our product. Cause as you 00:11:00know, as we expand bourbon and Tennessee whiskey into the global market, we are competing in a world of Scotch. And Scotch whisky has long used age claims as its quality statement. And we can't do that because number one, we use a new charred oak barrel that they reuse, that we sell to them. We extract, as you know, 85-plus percent of the flavor, color, and aroma characteristics of the barrel. So we get powerful flavor, aroma, and color very quickly. A second thing is our warehouses. We have these open-ricked warehouses that get extremely in the summer, which expands and contracts the wood, furthering maturation, building a huge angel share. And in Scotland, not only are they using the used barrels time and time, again,they're stored in low warehouses, in cold, damp conditions. So it's the, the, the proverbial apples and oranges 00:12:00comparison. We cannot go as long as they do. After seven years in oak, a Woodford Reserve barrel has lost 7--not seven--6 percent a year. We are 50 percent gone. At twelve years, our barrels are completely empty. So, of course, we're not going to go there. We can't. So we bottle barrels, batching them together, based on flavor profile, based on our standards, not on an arbitrary age claim. So we don't go with age. We go with what we call the peak of perfection.

YOUNG: Well, now, with this in mind, what is in store for the future with the Woodford Reserve brand? Do you have any new expressions or things out there you want to offer to the public?

MORRIS: Well, the Woodford Reserve Distillery is very interesting. Obviously, a lot of the distilleries in the commonwealth have been adding rye whiskeys or might have a corn whiskey in their portfolio. When we reopened the Woodford Reserve Distillery, everybody thinks it's a bourbon distillery. Of course it 00:13:00is. But we have a charter and our charter says the Woodford Reserve Distillery is to be, to be the home of innovative whiskeys. Not bourbon, but whiskeys. And we have taken that to heart. Of course, we have Woodford Reserve and Woodford Reserve Double Oaked as our only two full-time expressions available in the marketplace. But we've launched the Master's Collection back in 2004. And the Master's Collection has included malt whiskeys and rye whiskeys and finished whiskeys. And from the learning of the Master's Collection, in the future Woodford Reserve will have rye whiskey on an everyday basis, straight rye. We will have malt whiskey, straight malt whiskey. And probably others going out into the future. So we are going to expand the conception of whiskey from Kentucky. Of course, bourbon is our, our heart. Bourbon's our core expression. But we will have some other expressions which are designed to compete in this 00:14:00global market with other types of whiskeys.

YOUNG: Well now, as a master distiller, I know you wear many hats. But would you share with us some of the other alcoholic beverages that are a part of your responsibility?

MORRIS: Well, I actually have two titles; I'm Woodford Reserve Master Distiller and Brown-Forman Master Distiller. So I'm so proud that, as Brown-Forman Master Distiller. Our CEO, Paul Varga said, literally, "Chris, you're the master distiller. You can work on any damn thing you want to." So I do get involved in some of our tequila projects, our great American liqueur, Southern Comfort, and, of course, very active in our Brown-Forman distillery, which is in Louisville--

YOUNG: --um-hm--

MORRIS: --with the production of Early Times and Old Forester. And, um, but my, my heart lies so strongly in two brands: Woodford Reserve and in Old Forester, the brand that founded Brown-Forman back in 1870.

YOUNG: Well, you know, uh, we talked earlier about how the, you, uh, thought 00:15:00the, the, uh, state of the bourbon industry was when you first became part of Brown-Forman. Uh, would you like to, uh, share with us what the state of the bourbon industry, in your opinion, is in today's beverage/alcohol market?

MORRIS: Of course, the state of our industry today is very strong and growing. I just came back from a trip with our DISCUS colleagues in Germany, um, and prior to that, at the Global Duty-Free Show in Cannes, France. And I was exposed, again, to this world of Scotch whisky. But the buzz was about American whiskey. Now, that includes bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. And our category is growing faster than Irish, growing faster than Scotch whisky, and growing faster than Canadian whisky around the world. And I was asked, "Why American whiskey? Why bourbon?" And it goes back to your great question about what makes a good 00:16:00bourbon. Uh, bourbon culture is growing because of a cocktail culture. Because bourbon is so tasty and it's so versatile that consumers around the world are either rediscovering it or discovering it for the first time. And they can have a bourbon and Coke, they can have a bourbon-based Manhattan, or bourbon-based mint julep. Try making a mint julep with Scotch whisky. Trying making a bourbon and Coke--a Scotch and Coke. It doesn't quite work. So we have a distinct advantage over the other great whiskeys of the world about how mixable we are. And one of the neat part of that, that proposition is drive home the cocktail as an American invention. If, as New Orleans is America is, as you know, the cocktail comes to us in the late 1700s. And it's based on American whiskey. And that American whiskey was bourbon whiskey coming down from Kentucky. So the cocktail concept--bitters, sugar, water, and bourbon--is an 00:17:00American invention. So it's only appropriate that as cocktails spread around the world, it's based on our product. So we, we're looking at some really exciting times. And what's encouraging, of course, is that bourbon is growing in the United States but elsewhere. So I'm, I'm really excited about our future.

YOUNG: Now, some have called this resurgence of interest in bourbon, "a bourbon renaissance." How do you feel about that term?

MORRIS: A "bourbon renaissance," you know, I do like that, because ren-, renaissance, a renaissance man or, or a renaissance woman would have known a little bit about everything, would have been, um, an expert of many things. And again, I think, that is what our industry is. We have taken upon ourselves to raise the image of bourbon to that of cognac and Scotch around the world. We've 00:18:00increased our, our quality. We've increased our packaging excellence. We have, uh, made bourbon a, a spirit that any consumer can enjoy around the world. That doesn't mean they quit drinking their cognac in China or they quit drinking their single malt in France, but now they can appreciate this great, new spirit to many parts of the world, uh, bourbon whiskey. So I think renaissance is a good term. We've become a spirit for all people.

YOUNG: Well now, I wonder if we could take a few minutes and just focus on the distillery itself, here, at Woodford Reserve. You know, could you share with us a little bit about not only the history of the distillery, and not only what you've got here right now, but maybe some of your expansion project? And something that's getting a lot of press right now is that archaeological dig out there--

MORRIS: --ah, yes, we've had a lot going on here at the Woodford Reserve--

YOUNG: --and, and what makes all of this so unique?

MORRIS: Well, um, you and I are big advocates and fans of the history, the 00:19:00heritage of our industry. And, and Brown-Forman is very keen on integrity of our industry, integrity of story. So this distilling site is very historic. It dates back, as far as our records indicate, good old tax records, to 1812, when the Pepper family moved their farm and distilling operation from down the road in Versailles, here, to the grassy springs bank of Glenn's Creek. And small farmer-distiller. Farming was the chief operation, distilling only in the dead of winter. The Pepper family, second generation, Oscar Pepper, moves into the commercial distilling operation. But even in his will of 1865, he's listed foremost as a farmer, then distiller. And it's Oscar Pepper who lays the foundation, the, the original distilling building here in 1838-1840 that we still use today. Then his son, James E. Pepper, takes over the company and 00:20:00eventually sells it and its chief brands, Old Crow and Oscar Pepper, to Labrot & Graham, who was a new company formed from a Frankfort and Cincinnati business consortium. And Labrot & Graham operates the distillery typical off and on, closed during Prohibition, until 1940. And in 1940, Brown-Forman bought this site--and we like to say for the first time--bought this site in 1940 and didn't change the name. Operated the distillery as Labrot & Graham, because its chief brand was Labrot & Graham bourbon. And it made other products, such as R.A. Baker, Grassy Springs, Glenn's Creek, all small labels that are long gone. And then in 1957, Brown-Forman closed the distillery. It was the beginning of that long thirty-plus-year decline in our spirits sales.

[Pause in recording.]

MORRIS: Okay, it was really interesting. So the distillery's closed in 1957. 00:21:00We hold onto it. Have our care-, well, caretaker here, a little bit of security. And then, finally, in 1971, with all the key equipment, and, of course, barrel inventory, removed to Louisville, we sell the distillery to a neighboring farmer. Why--(laughs)--did he want the distillery? Because it came with five hundred acres. The Peppers had been farmers, remember. And the Brown family had raised cattle here as well. So our history was Labrot & Graham, we think, is, is to an end. Well, this renaissance in bourbon, as it was beginning back in the late 1980s, our company, with Owsley Brown II, as chairman, decided and realized that we needed to do some changes, because we saw single malt Scotches starting their eventual rise and popularity, imported vodkas started coming into the United States, and all of a sudden, Americans were drinking what we now would call super-premium and ultra-premium spirits. And that was unheard 00:22:00of when basically we had a standard price business. And we look at what Brown-Forman had at the time. We had Early Times, Old Forester, and Jack Daniel's Green [Label] and Black Label, all priced pretty much in the same general area. So what are we going to do? How are we going to respond? Well, down in Tennessee, we could take care of the Jack Daniel's family, but here, in Kentucky, Mr. Owsley decided that we were going to create a whole, brand new bourbon. And that new bourbon would have a homeplace all to itself. And the company got a couple of University of Kentucky graduate students from the history department and gave them a summer project: go into Central Kentucky, and review all the historic bourbon sites, and we want a report back. If there's one stone standing, we want to know about it. So they went out and did their, their study. They came back to Brown-Forman, and said, uh, "You know what, 00:23:00there's a lot of places. But there's one place, there's one place, and you've probably never heard of it. It's called Labrot & Graham." And I think we had one of those V-8 moments. Everybody's like, "Of course! We used to own that." (Young laughs) So we bought the distillery back and some of the, some of the land. Didn't need it all. And began this restoration project and the creation of what is now Woodford Reserve, of course, taking the name of the brand and distillery from Woodford County, the county in which the distiller sits. So history being as important as it is, this is a historic site, but we make no claim that Woodford Reserve has been made for two hundred years, that the famous Oscar Pepper and famous James Christopher Crow, his master distiller for who the Old Crow brandname is named for, had anything to do with Woodford. All we are using is the water they used, the environment, and some of the buildings they 00:24:00gave us, which have been terrific. But we created Woodford Reserve new. Brown-Forman created it new for this, this new market, this renaissance of bourbon. So there's quite a history here. But we like to say we're part of it, but Woodford Reserve is our history. We created it.

YOUNG: Well now, as a result of that creation, you found a very favorable place in the marketplace for your bourbon as Woodford Reserve. What about expansion? Are you going to have to keep up with that demand? And how?

MORRIS: Oh yes, now, expansion has been interesting. It's, it's been great to be here all these years. I remember when we would have one fermenter going a week and we would bottle one order every so often. Because in those early years, at this, this, the cusp of this new movement, um, and, and you've been there. I remember going with our salespeople into Lexington and into Louisville. "Here's this new bourbon called Woodford Reserve. Would you, would you put it on your bar? Would you put in your store?" "Who needs another 00:25:00bourbon? We've got all these old bourbons." And it's, like, "Come on." And they'd taste and say, "That's pretty good. Oh, that's really good. Well, we'll start to sell it." So, you know, momentum started. And the nice thing is we started mashing more, had more fermentations, bottling picked up. And then, of course, the launch of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in 1999 was a real shot in the arm to start building this new, this new unheard of thing called bourbon tourism. And I remember walking down our staircase here from the visitor center to the distillery, with our, um, with our brand director, Wayne Rose, and the two of us going, "You think anyone will ever come here?" And now we're flooded with people from all fifty states and multiple countries. So that's led to the need for expansion. We're expanding the visitor center. And, uh, that's great for tourism. But, of course, the key is expanding production. So, as part of 00:26:00that, we've bought back more of the original farmland. Another fifty-plus acres this last year, and we are building over the next seven years five new warehouses. We are going to add more stills, more pot stills, more fermenters. We're going to completely, uh, blow up--uh, I shouldn't use that term--our bottling hall and make it more efficient and larger. And we are building for the future, which is just terrific. And, uh, uh, consumers think, "Oh, you're going to, Woodford will change." No, we're not going to change a thing. We're just going to be able to do more of the same. We're not going to change the fermentation process, we're not going to change the distillation. We're just going to have more equipment, doing more of the same, more operators doing that, more jobs for the commonwealth, more jobs for the industry, so it's all a positive. And, uh, and the end result is more Woodford to enjoy, which is terrific.

YOUNG: Now, we did talk a little bit--or, you did, in talking about it--uh, about the University of Kentucky's role in finding a site for Brown-Forman to, 00:27:00to get a, a distillery again. But they're also back now in terms of the archaeological dig--

MORRIS: --yes--

YOUNG: --that's going on.

MORRIS: That's been so, uh, it's so interesting to me. Um, we have onsite the Pepper House, the Elijah Pepper House, which was built in 1812. And it's the oldest building onsite. We have the springhouse from the Pepper family. And we have the, the site of the original distillery from 1812. The site is overgrown with trees and jumbled stones because it was basically a log cabin distillery set atop a, a stone foundation. So, as we are expanding our footprint, we wanted to know what's under that footprint, what's around the Pepper House, how did the Peppers live, was their evidence of distillation, uh, uh, at their headquarters, the home? So we had an extensive dig around the home and found 00:28:00out a lot about the lifestyle. Of course, we haven't gotten the report back from, uh, U.K. But we know somebody liked marbles because they found forty marbles, um, in the, the, the, uh, in the various trenches they've dug. Um, they ate a lot of pork because we found a lot of, uh, bones of, of hogs. Um, there was even a, the remnants of a pool cue. So did they have a pool table? Who knows. Or maybe a traveling salesman left it behind. But we've found a lot of very interesting items. Where their smokehouse was, um, where their kitchen was, which was always separate from the main house. So we found how they lived, but no distillation equipment, no distillation, uh, artifacts. So now the U.K. team has moved to the site of the distillery. And early on, we know the, uh, the stills would have been fired by, by cordwood, but they have found evidence that it had moved into a coal-fired distillery. So, because they found layers 00:29:00of coal with an old coal bucket smashed under about three feet of earth. They found some copper measuring instruments, different types of scales. Uh, found a mysterious copper coil, which I think must have bound together poplar wooden pipes. Um, so more to find. But what we are doing is trying to preserve and under-, uncover and preserve, um, a better knowledge of what Kentucky distilling and Kentucky distilling families were like at the very, you know, beginning of the modern era.

YOUNG: Now, I see another opportunity for an outstanding display of some of the early days of distilling in Kentucky right here at the Woodford Reserve distillery--

MORRIS: --yes, yes, once U.K. cleans and, uh, and, uh, investigates and interprets what these items are, they come back to us and we will certainly put some of them on display.

YOUNG: Well now, as we know, we know that Woodford Reserve was one of the first 00:30:00distilleries to renovate with the tourist in mind. We touched on that briefly. But would you comment on this and how it has led, uh, along with the other members, distilleries to the incredible growth of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail?

MORRIS: Yes, we were fortunate being basically the first new distillery in some time to, uh, to open in the commonwealth. And we built a visitor center. Because we had a visitor center, a very popular visitor center at the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, and, of course, our colleague in the KDA, Maker's Mark had a wonderful visitor center. So we knew we needed a visitor center. And, and coming on anew, we were able to build a brand new visitor center, which was, at that time we set the bar. This was cool. This was modern. This was terrific. And other distilleries had to retrofit existing buildings and, and, uh, and join the club, which was the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. 00:31:00Ironically, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail has been so successful that our colleagues in the industry, including your great distillery, has improved their visitor distillery, um, experience, that the bar was passed, bypassed. And now we're renovated again to catch up and hopefully set the bar again within the industry. So it's real fun, this, this, uh, competitive nature, this friendly competitive nature between the distilleries is, is, is just pushing us all forward in, uh, positive momentum. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail has just been terrific. Um, we know that visitors come through. They are coming to Kentucky because of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, um, which is just tremendous. We're becoming a major source of tourism for this state. And that is building bed, bed, bed and breakfast business, bar business, the urban trail, Bourbon Trail in 00:32:00Louisville. It just, we just created this whole new excitement and coined that new term, "bourbon tourism." And we're proud to be part of it.

YOUNG: Well now, you've also raised the bar in, in the culinary area, as well, by having your own resident chef. Would you like to comment on that?

MORRIS: Oh, our resident chef program, we've been really fortunate that, uh, when we launched Woodford Reserve and what, what we thought was a very appealing flavor profile, we thought two things: cocktails and the world of culinary arts. Because Brown-Forman, um, is just very interested in that. The Brown family has, has always championed those causes, those, those aspects of our life, um, because Brown-Forman's always had an executive dining room. And now the dining room is open to all employees as the Bourbon Street Café with an executive chef. So Brown-Forman knows cooking with bourbon, enjoying bourbon with meals. 00:33:00And that led us to have a chef-in-residency program here. And we're so fortunate that we had David Larsen, from Lexington, first, and David retired. And now, Ouita Michel, from the famous Holly Hill Inn, and Wallace Station, and the list goes on, because she is quite a restaurant entrepreneur here in Central Kentucky. Classically trained chefs, um, have come through. We've actually, in this very spot, hosted Julia Child and she chose a barrel of Woodford Reserve. We've had Bobby Flay, and Emeril, and Wolfgang Puck, and other celebrity chefs come through, cooking with Woodford Reserve. So it's been wonderful. Because when I joined the industry--and you probably remember the days--bourbon went into baked beans, barbecue sauce, and pecan pie, and maybe anything that had chocolate with it. And maybe the occasional sweet potato casserole. And that was it. And because, I really believe because of Woodford Reserve and 00:34:00Brown-Forman's efforts, you can have rosemary shrimp glazed with bourbon. You can have --------(??). You can have filet mignon, roasted vegetables. The list goes on and on with bourbon in the recipe, bourbon in the basting, bourbon accompanying it with a specific cocktail. And now we have these wonderful things called bourbon dinners that restaurants around the country are doing. Theming bourbon-specific brands or groups of bourbons with the chef's creations from the kitchen. And it's just amazing. So we have really seen another sea change in how bourbon is appreciated. So now, we're, we're not going to, we're not going to replace wine at a fine dining, uh, establishment, but we can be there with wine, which just blows people's minds.

[Pause in recording.]

YOUNG: You know, it's well-known that Brown-Forman is noted for its philanthropy and civic responsibility. Their accomplishments are legion 00:35:00throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky and beyond. Would you, uh, like to share with us some of the things that Woodford Reserve is doing to give back to both the local community and to Kentucky?

MORRIS: Yes, Brown-Forman has long been, uh, a, a proud member of the Louisville and the Kentucky communities and has given back so much, including the employees themselves. And Woodford Reserve is part of that, part of that, uh, that picture. Now, one of the things we have done is had a wonderful program, uh, now, at the Kentucky Derby called the $1,000 Mint Julep program. And we sell mint juleps, very fancy mint juleps, for a thousand each. And we make sure that thousand goes to a charity every year, a thoroughbred-related charity. And over the past five/six years, we've raised over, well, nearly five hundred thousand for charity. We're working with local farmers in trying to 00:36:00get, uh, uh, rye and organic crops established in Woodford County. We're working with the Nature Conservatory to bring native plants to tour 150-plus acres and restore this beautiful little, uh, uh, Glenn's Creek Hollow to the way it would have been in 1812. And people will now be able to experience Kentucky as it was two hundred years ago. And those are just a couple of things we've been involved in, as well as Metro United Way, American Heart Association, the charitable, charitable list goes on and on.

YOUNG: You--

BRITTANY ALLISON: --assuming this(??) from that topic, can we, um, one thing I'm going to kind of emphasize this with the Brown family interviews, so I'd like to hear if you can say something about, like, the tradition of philanthropy with Brown-Forman, a little bit --------(??)--

MORRIS: --okay--

ALLISON: --that.

YOUNG: So this, indeed, carries on the tradition of the philanthropic, uh, efforts that the Brown family is so noted for, uh, over the last many years.

MORRIS: Yes, and that tradition is, is one we just hold dear. Um, the Brown-Forman Amphitheater on the new Waterfront Park, supporting the lighting of the Big Four Bridge, um, the Cathedral of the Assumption, um, Gar-, George Garvin Brown Garden, and, uh, and, um, sandwich and, uh, food service for the homeless. Again, the Brown family has not only given to the needy, but to the community at large. It's just, it just makes you feel so proud to be a part of Brown-Forman.

YOUNG: You know, I'd like to go back to what we were talking about earlier, about the need for knowledge and the need for--

MORRIS: --um-hm--

YOUNG: --educating the public about, um, bourbon itself, as well as other alcoholic beverages. But I'd also like to, uh, make note of the fact that you are actively engaged in training and mentoring people who want to know more about the art of distilling. Would you like to--

MORRIS: --um-hm--

YOUNG: --tell us a little bit about that?

MORRIS: Oh, yes, we have a couple of really fun programs, there, Al, called the Woodford Reserve Bourbon Academy. And we hold it on, um, on weekends, during the course of the year. And we want to teach about bourbon. So it's bourbon in general, but using Woodford Reserve, Early Times, and Old Forester, the other two Brown-Forman brands as the textbooks, but to talk about bourbon. And it's a full-day experience. And it does include some of our culinary arts and sometimes some cocktail, uh, preparation. So we have that program. We also have the Spirits Academy, which is a full-week program. And it's an intense dive into bourbon and includes visits to our members in the KDA. So not only do you learn about Woodford and the other Brown-Forman brands, you will visit Maker's Mark, you will visit, uh, the, uh, Heritage Center at Heaven Hill, and more. So we teach about bourbon in general, as well, using the great resources 00:39:00of our colleagues in the industry. So we are very strong on, on education. And we want, again, to raise the awareness and appreciation of bourbon whiskey to that of cognac, Armagnac, single malt Scotches, Irish whiskeys, and make our spirit top, you know, the, the top drawer, as some of these other spirits are considered around the world. So that does take education. You know, we were talking earlier about, I'm, I'm very fortunate because I was on that, that change from the, the, uh, the, the old, uh, old school to the new school. And, um, I'll never forget having some Japanese distributors in--and I won't name the distillery because I, as you know, I worked for a while for United Distillers and in between my Brown-Forman careers. And, um, master distiller who, uh, I 00:40:00trained under there, uh, I asked him to do a tasting of, of some bourbon brands, and give us, uh, his knowledge. And each--(laughs)--each glass he knows, he would simply say, "Smells like mature bourbon. Smells like bourbon." And I just thought, That's not good enough. That's not good enough. Because these same(??) Japanese customers had come from Scotland, and they would have heard, "Hints of heather. I can smell the sea. Here's, you know, here's the, the malt. And you can." Oh, it's, like, they had poetry because Scotch whisky had started using taste notes, which had been borrowed--no one, no one invented anything--it had borrowed from the wine industry. And I thought, My gosh, we can do better than that." So I introduced taste notes to the industry back in 1992, describing bourbons as you would Scotch, as you would do wine. And very quickly the other members of, of the industry started added taste notes, 00:41:00especially on their super-premium and ultra-premium, uh, products. So, again, that's part of that effort. That's just those simple steps we can take to bring our product to the forefront. So, again, some years passed, and I see the Scotch whisky flavor wheel, the beer flavor wheel, the very famous wine flavor wheel. I said, "There's no bourbon flavor wheel?" So I designed the bourbon flavor wheel, based on science and on sensory science. So, using the, our Brown-Forman central lab with analysis of bourbons from every distillery, the chemical compounds, the naturally occurring flavors, what does bourbon have? Give them their, their, their sensory name. Instead of eugenol, we put clove. And we built the flavor wheel that is for everybody. And then we have our specific Woodford flavor wheel and Old Forester flavor wheel, based on the individual brands. And that flavor wheel then goes into the world of cocktails 00:42:00and culinary arts. So bartenders and chefs can build drinks and dishes based on the flavor wheel. So, again, we keep raising the bar, making sure our product is viewed as exceptional as these other spirits around the world. It's all about knowledge.

[Pause in recording]

YOUNG: Well, you know, the history of bourbon can be attacked in many different ways. It can be the process. It can be the distillery itself. It can be, uh, any little subtle nuance of all of that. But when it comes down to it, a lot of it has to do with the people. And--

MORRIS: --it, it, it sure does--

YOUNG: --they're making the bourbon over the years. So can you fill us in on some of the people that you've known and the friends that you've made throughout your career?

MORRIS: Oh, yes, I've been very fortunate. Of course, fortunate to, uh, have met, uh, members of the Brown family, going back to the third generation, as, as a small boy when Dad would take me down to the Brown-Forman distillery on 00:43:00weekends, and, and meet Mr. Lyons or Mr. Garvin. Um, and he would tell me, my father would tell me stories of the second generation of the Brown family, going back to Owsley Brown I, himself, which was just tremendous. So I cherish those stories from my father. And of course, he knew people throughout the industry as an industrial(??) relations manager who, he interfaced with his colleagues across the industry. So a lot, a lot comes through my association with, with Brown-Forman. And then, of course, the Kentucky Distillers Association has allowed me to meet and work with folks like yourself, and Jimmy Russell, and Booker Noe. And of course, we know Freddy, and Eddie, and, and those generations. Um, Ed Foote, when I was at United Distillers, of course. Um, um, um, uh, Norm Hayden, who is a descendant of Basil Hayden, who ran Stitzel-Weller. Uh, uh, it was great to hear stories. The great Ralph Dupps, 00:44:00at Schenley, who ran I. W. Harper and Bernheim, and then created for Lou Rosenstiel, the George Dickel brand. And of course, who can't forget, uh, Bill Samuels and all the stories that Bill would tell. I met some Brofmans along the way from Seagram's. Um, it's just been tremendous that, uh, I've been able to meet, even if it's just a handshake, one time only, a legendary figure who, unfortunately is no longer with us, or still work today with a great set of men and women. So I've been really, really fortunate.

YOUNG: Well now, it's, it is a fact that you've been heavily involved in the re-launch of the Kentucky Distillers Association about six years ago. And now you're now chairman of the membership standards committee, bylaws committee. From your perspective, what challenges were faced resulting from these activities?

MORRIS: Well, the Kentucky Distillers Association has a long history, of 00:45:00course, dating back to 1880. And one thing that I'm personally proud of--and I know Brown-Forman is--is that we were instrumental in bringing it back in 1933-1934 with the repeal of Prohibition. And the first post-Prohibition president of the KDA was Owsley Brown I. So it gives me great, great pleasure and, and, uh, uh, a point of pride that I'm one of numerous Brown-Forman, uh, employees who've, who've headed our organization over the time in some capacity. And the Kentucky Distillers Association, I, I think, Al, with the, the doldrums in our industry had slipped into, had followed suite, and was not very proactive, and was really focused just in Kentucky on, on legislative and maybe some technical issues. And we recognized the time for a new KDA had come. So we're very proud to have been part of that rebirth, as you, as you note, in 00:46:00selecting our current president and his great team, in setting an agenda and objectives for the future. And we have been ticking the box, as we have move forward, of each one of our objectives is being met. And that means we add new objectives. And of course, one of those was to add members, because we had this new wave of craft distillers and new distilleries opening up, and we want everybody to be a member of the KDA. And we've been proud to set new standards for membership. And we've had to update our bylaws because the world is changed, and now we have very modern bylaws, which govern our industry, govern our organization, which are tremendous. We've reached out linked with the DISCUS, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, in a partnership. We'll be working with The Century Council. But more importantly, I believe, as we go forward, where we're still very active in, in statehouse politics here in Kentucky, and we still have technical issues to worry about, but we are now 00:47:00working as a marketing organization, of course, with the Kentucky Bourbon Trail as our, our foundation to begin to educate, and build awareness, and promote bourbon around the world. So that's the next big, biggest step is to make the KDA the marketing organization, collectively, for our great spirit. Just as the Scotch Whisky Association has done for many years for Scotch whisky, now we are moving, moving up. So that's just tremendous.

YOUNG: Well now, we know, and we know well, that you have led the charge in bringing craft distilleries into the KDA organization. Would you care to comment about that and what does that hold for them in the future in the world of bourbon? Probably should go back and do that--

MORRIS: --yeah, we'll start over, there. That--

YOUNG: --one over again.

MORRIS: I wonder if that was a slop truck, or a barrel truck, or a grain truck.

YOUNG: Well, the--

MORRIS: --we'll make sure, what--

ALLISON: --you can't tell by--

YOUNG: --the sound of the engine, it sounds like it's probably a slop truck. (laughs)

MORRIS: Yeah, let's hope he'll be quiet for a bit.

JOANNA HAY: We're good.

MORRIS: Sound good. Alright.

YOUNG: Well now, we know that, uh, you have led the charge in bringing craft distilleries into the KDA organization. And we know it quite well. Would you care to comment about that? What does the future hold for them, in the world of bourbon?

MORRIS: Well, we thought, um, very important. Brown-Forman thought it was very important that these craft members become part of the KDA. And there's several reasons for it. And, and one of them's quite selfish. The, the more distillers we have across the commonwealth, the more our legislative footprint opens up. We now have legislators, representatives, in Western Kentucky and Northern Kentucky who had no distillery operations, uh, local who maybe weren't very 00:49:00supportive of our industry because they didn't need to be, they thought. And now they are. So that's been wonderful. Um, we've also strengthened the Kentucky Bourbon Trail through our craft tour segment, which has again helped tourism. Tourism helps local bars, restaurants, hotels, bed and breakfast. So, again, the KDA is adding value to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. And the craft members were instrumental in allowing us to do that. So, again, the KDA is very much a partner with the people of Kentucky. Thank you for supporting us over these years. And now we are giving back. And of course, what do we ask them to do, is to continue to support us, which is--(clapping sound)--we're hand-in-hand with that. Uh, the craft members, I think, have an exciting, uh, time ahead of them. As part of their membership, they decided, the Craft Advisory Council, committed that each distillery would make a bourbon whiskey. Because some are 00:50:00making brandy and some are making white spirits. They don't have to make bourbon to be in the Kentucky Distillers. But they have committed to making a bourbon whiskey. And I think that's just going to be tremendous. Again, the more bourbons on the market, the more there are to talk about. And, again, we'll become even more competitive with the other great whiskey traditions of the world. So they're, they're in for an exciting time.

YOUNG: Now, recently, uh, you and I were on a committee to construct a historical timeline about bourbon--

MORRIS: --uh-hm--

YOUNG: --for the Kentucky Distillers's website. And, uh, we're just about ready to launch that thing, if it hasn't been lynched all--launched or lynched, either way--(Morris laughs)--already. But through it all, uh, what, in your opinion, were some of the questions that, that still are ongoing in terms of getting an answer?

MORRIS: Oh, yes, there's a lot of questions. And I'm, I was very proud to 00:51:00serve with you, and Mike, and Dixie, and Chuck on that, uh, that working group. Um, again, our history is, is fabulous. And I don't see, uh, the need for some legend and lore when you have a terrific history. Uh, the truth is, uh, oftentimes, far better than the falsified stories. And Brown-Forman, we believe in, in, again, integrity. Our stories are accurate. For example, we don't say, "Early Times. Since 1860." We say, "Established 1860." Because the brand hasn't been produced continuously since 1860. It's been bought and sold, uh, over the years. So we're very precise with our language because we want the truth to underpin everything we do. So I love to find the truth. And some of those questions are, who invented bourbon? And, and, you know, some people have 00:52:00made claims. We know no one invented bourbon. Bourbon evolved. You know, I'm sorry, that's the fact. The fact is no one invented bourbon. So that's one of the things I would love, um, as we are doing in our timeline, to specify that people, other, uh, individuals had bits and pieces along the way to contribute but no one invented bourbon whiskey. Um, who invented sour mash process? Who invented this? Who invented that? Again, it's, it's fun to know and it's fun to know that no one did; it was again an evolutionary process. Um, some things we do know: who put the first distillery-bottled bourbon, uh, on the marketplace? George Garvin Brown, the founder of Brown-Forman. So it's good to get those bits and pieces solidified in the public awareness that we do have fact. And that's what that working group was so keen on doing. If it wasn't documented, definable, fact-based information, we weren't going to put it on the 00:53:00bourbon history timeline. Now, why do I think this is important? Scotch whisky doesn't run on legend and lore. The Scotch Whisky Association maintains a strict, accurate telling of the history of that industry. And if we want to compete successfully with that industry, we have to be every bit as precise and honest and open as they are. So this is the first step in that process to make our history second to none. And what we need to find collectively is who is aging in wood first. I want to find that because I'm convinced bourbon was in wood before Scotch whisky was. So those are the kind of things we'll keep digging for.

YOUNG: It's very intriguing. Very intriguing. And we might, uh, agree on one point and that's the fact that this timeline is ongoing; the work is not finished.

MORRIS: Never done. There is some diary. There's some set of letters in a truck. Maybe out at our archaeological dig, there's a box with, with the holy 00:54:00grail of who did what. I doubt that. But anyway, there's more information to be found, for sure.

YOUNG: Well now, as master distiller, not only for Woodford Reserve, but for Brown-Forman, you've certainly visited a lot of places in the United States and around the world to promote your different products. Do you have a favorite memory from the road?

MORRIS: Oh, a favorite memory from the road, one that really sticks out for me is, um, a trip to Japan. And we had done a bartender training course in a local hotel, in, uh, Nagano, which is up in the hills of, uh, uh, Central Japan. And there was a little temple in the courtyard of this hotel. And I said, "Can, is it okay if we visit that little temple? It looks to be very antique and I would 00:55:00be, you know, be very honored if we could." "Oh, yes, we'll visit a temple." "Because I don't want to step on any toes now. You know, I'm not Shinto or Buddhist." "Oh no, no problem." So after the training we get in the car. And I'm like, "Oh well, I guess the temple visit's off because, you know, they must have forgot. No big deal." And we drive up this mountain and there's this temple complex. Huge temples. And we walk into a temple. And it's all wood, big beams and tree trunks. And, and I said, uh, "Wow, how old is this?" "Oh, it's not very old. It's only thousand years old." I'm like, "Oh, yeah." (laughs) And all of a sudden, there's this uproar. And there is a Japanese movie star in--female--in her, in a geisha outfit, doing a photo shoot on the steps of the temple. And everybody, and the cameras, and everybody's just going crazy. And I, of course, I don't know who the name of the star is, and, and any 00:56:00Japanese. And, um, all of a sudden our people pull me over. And, of course, in Japanese, they're telling the handlers of this Japanese movie star that this is bourbon master distiller from Kentucky, very important person. So the next thing I know, I'm with her in this photo shoot. (laughter) And to this day, I still don't know who it was. But--(laughs)--that, that, to me, just stuck out, the power of bourbon. How cool is that?

YOUNG: Well now, you and I discussed off cam-, camera earlier, but I still have to throw this one out at you. What was it like for you to sign your first autograph, if you--

MORRIS: --yeah--

YOUNG: --can remember through all the many that you've signed?

MORRIS: We had a good, a good chuckle over that. Uh, I don't remember the first, um, bottle I signed. Um, uh, cause we tend to sign a lot over the years. Um, I, I do remember, a few years ago, we did a, um, a bottle, a commemorative 00:57:00bottle for Bellarmine University's national basketball championship. Sold only through the university. A thousand bottles. And I had to sign a thousand bottles in two days. I thought, Oh, that's no big deal. It was an eight-hour job to sign five hundred bottles. It was an, it's an incredibly exhausting practice, if, for those of you who have ever signed a bottle know. Um, I do remember seeing my name for the first time on a bottle of Woodford Reserve, which was the 1990--uh, excuse me--200-, 2006. I'd been master distiller for, for two years. Uh, and I'd res-, resisted having my name on the bottle. Um, but everybody asked me to sign bottles. And the, the marketing people said, "We really need to have your name on a bottle." And I finally, "Okay, you can put my name on the bottle." And so, the 2006 Kentucky Derby bottle was the first to 00:58:00have my facsimile signature on it. And I thought that was pretty cool. So I still have that first bottle at home. And it's the only Derby bottle I've kept.

YOUNG: Well, since you've mentioned that special release, are there any upcoming special releases of Woodford Reserve, uh, that are noteworthy?

MORRIS: Well, we are just bringing out our Master's Collection for 2013. And it's a dual release; we have two bottles, uh, two 750s. Both are 100 percent malted barley spirit. One bottle contains a very rich-looking straight malt because we matured that in new charred oak barrels. And the other malt is very pale in color and it's called Classic Malt, because aged it in used Woodford Reserve barrels. So it's a great lesson for consumers, again, about the differences between the "old world" Scotch and Irish whiskys and the "new world" American and bourbon whiskeys and the barrel influence. So they're both the 00:59:00same spirit but matured in different oaks. And, um, they're out, very limited in supply. And, uh, they're both tremendous. They don't taste like bourbon because they're not; they're malt whiskeys. But that's the kind of fun things we have going on with our Master's Collection. To continue to push the boundaries, again, to look favorably back upon our core brands, bourbon. Look at how these bourbon guys are developing their, their knowledge and expertise in the world of whiskey. Because that's something Scotch and Irish whiskeys can't do. A Scotch and Irish distillery cannot make a bourbon whiskey. By definition, by law, they can't make a bourbon whiskey. But there's no law that says we can't make malt whiskey. Of course, we can't Scotch whisky, because we're not in Scotland, but we can make a malt whiskey. So we can do things they can't do. And everybody used to--you remember--sell us short. "The bourbon 01:00:00industry has painted itself into a corner. It can't innovate." Pff. Watch out. We're, we're going crazy. So we are really, I think, opening those proverbial eyes wide to the great whiskeys from Kentucky.

YOUNG: Well now, when it comes down to it, there's always one question that everybody gets asked, so I have to pose that one to you. How do you drink your bourbon?

MORRIS: I'm asked that question all the time, how do you drink your bourbon. And I have the fun answer. "Every day," is, uh, one answer, and, "as often as possible," "responsibly," of course. But I enjoy our product across the very range we've talked about. Um, uh, a cold winter night, maybe a, a glass of Woodford or Woodford Reserve Double Oak, neat, of course. Splash of water or on ice is, is wonderful. I love when bartenders are making it in a Woodford Reserve Old-Fashioned or Manhattan. And of course, at Derby time, I make a pretty good mint julep. So I'll, we'll get into the mint julep season. So I'll 01:01:00enjoy our spirit across the range of opportunity it has. And no way is wrong. As long as you enjoy it, that's what it's all about. We make Woodford, we make bourbon for people to enjoy.

YOUNG: Well, Chris Morris, Master Distiller of both Woodford Reserve and Brown-Forman, it's been a delightful interview with you today. I wonder, as we close out this particular interview, are there any other comments about anything have to do with bourbon that you'd like to make?

MORRIS: I can't think of anything. We've been, been pretty thorough on the questions today. Thank you.

[Pause in recording.]

ALLISON(??): --rolling.

YOUNG: You know, Chris, we've been, uh, conducting this interview here in this marvelous warehouse of yours, right on the Woodford Reserve property. Would you kind of describe to us how it's made up and, and some of the things that you're doing here with it as you age Woodford Reserve?

MORRIS: Yes, and, and maybe some of the sounds we've been hearing. That, that 01:02:00clicking is steam coursing through our radiator system. We've heard a truck drive by, because this is a working distillery, and grain is coming in, and slop is going out. And maybe a little rumble. It wasn't thunder; it was barrels moving along the, the floor going into the bottling hall. Uh, this is what, um, is Warehouse C, what we call Warehouse C. Because, well, that's its name. And Warehouse C was built in 1890. Uh, Warehouses A and B were lost to fire years ago while they were empty. Uh, this is a stone-built warehouse. All the warehouses onsite and all the warehouses at Brown-Forman distillery are masonry construction; they're either brick or stone. And these are patent warehouses. Open-rick warehouses and patent warehouses are the two patented warehouse types that our industry uses, as you know. The, uh, the, open-rick warehouses are 01:03:00normally built of, of wood with some kind of metal siding. And very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. The patent warehouses, and that patent process dates back to 1874--were built to be heated in the winter. Why do we heat warehouses in the winter? Because heat helps advance maturation. Keep, keep it going. So, this stone building, three-foot of limestone block, was built to be heated when the temperatures fall. And we're just now starting to heat this building. We're very comfortable in here today, thank goodness. Um, so patent warehouses are going to be operated, uh, each distillery will have its own criteria, but this barrel, right here, has a thermometer in it. That's our, that's our control barrel. And when that barrel last week read sixty degrees Fahrenheit, we slowly began to heat this building. And our other warehouses will have their control barrel and be dictated, uh, by that sixty-degree mark. 01:04:00And we will raise the temperature of this building, with our radiators that under this first floor, until this barrel reads eighty-five degrees, which means it'll be about ninety-five where we're sitting and then that would not be very--(laughs)--comfortable for our interviews. We will hold the temperature for eighty-five degrees for one week, and then we turn the heat off and let mother nature cool the building until that barrel reads sixty again. And then cycle again. And if we get two or three cycles a year, we're very happy. Because it takes a long time to heat up all this wood and whiskey. And it takes a long time for all this wood and whiskey to cool off. But we're mimicking the changes of the seasons. So the angel's share is very heavy here. We're losing more than your typical bourbon distillery would if your barrels are in an open-rick warehouse. But that's just part of the process that this distillery had used and we have adopted it as well. So it's quite a historic site. And it 01:05:00is the last all-stone warehouse in use in our industry. So it's, it's a bit of history.

YOUNG: Well, it's a been a pleasure to conduct this interview with you. And let's just say cheers and here's to many more.

MORRIS: Alright.

[End of interview.]