We visit the Blending House in Kentucky and sit down with Ashleigh Barnes, the master blender behind Lucky Seven and Curley. Ashleigh brings us the New Yorker, an Amburana finished bourbon that tastes like hummingbird cake, oatmeal cream pies and dessert in a glass. She explains how she manages such a powerful finishing wood by tasting at day five, pulling liquid at the exact moment it peaks, and reusing the same barrels to create deeper and more controlled layers.

Ashleigh also walks us through the new blending and bottling facility, the innovative rick houses and the approach to scaling without losing craft. She tells stories about the teams she works with, the people she blends for, and the festival moments that make the bourbon world feel like family.

Chapters:

00:13 The perfect pop 00:49 Meeting Ashleigh at the Blending House 01:23 What Amburana really does 02:23 Dessert notes and childhood memories 04:47 Building the blending facility 06:11 Rick houses and innovation 07:42 Blending and meeting drinkers 09:10 Bourbon, stories and family 10:35 Ashleigh’s path through Buffalo Trace and Four Roses 11:30 The Elmer T. Lee project 12:17 Keeping memories in every bottle

We talk through her background at Buffalo Trace and Four Roses, the skills she learned from legendary mentors, and the moment she helped blend the commemorative Elmer T. Lee release. It is a conversation filled with flavour, memory and joy, and the perfect look at what it means to shape a bourbon from idea to bottle.

We’re back at Star Hill Farm in Kentucky, sitting in the Heritage Room at Maker’s Mark, joined by Dr. Blake Layfield, the master distiller and head of innovation and blending. It’s the perfect day for bourbon, and Blake takes us through one of the most fascinating tastings we’ve ever done on the show.

In front of us are three glasses that tell the whole story of Maker’s Mark: the classic cask strength expression that represents the founders’ original taste vision, an eleven and a half year over-aged barrel that shows what happens when oak and tannin push a whiskey outside those guardrails, and finally the new Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged release, a blend of eleven, thirteen and fourteen year old whiskey that is rich, dark and complex without drifting into bitterness.

Blake explains how Maker’s Mark has kept the same mash bill, yeast and process since 1953 and why they focus on intensity, velocity, complexity and finish instead of simply naming tasting notes. He talks about what makes wheat spice feel so different to rye spice, why age is not a measure of quality in American whiskey, and what “age to taste” really means inside the distillery.

We hear the story of the limestone cellar, why dynamiting a hill changed what was possible for Maker’s Mark, and how the Cellar Aged project shows a new dimension of the classic house style. Blake also lifts the curtain on their blending process, where weeks of blind tasting eventually shape each year’s release.

If you’ve ever wondered how far Maker’s Mark can push maturity, what really happens in their warehouses, or why Cellar Aged tastes the way it does, this episode is a brilliant deep dive right from the source.

Chapters:

• 00:00 Welcome from Star Hill Farm and the Heritage Room

• 00:13 Introducing Dr Blake Layfield and why this room matters

• 00:35 Heritage, culture and what makes Maker’s Mark unique

• 01:08 Returning to Maker’s, where you first fell in love with bourbon

• 01:20 Three glasses on the table and what each one is

• 01:50 Glass 1: Maker’s Mark Cask Strength and the founder’s taste vision

• 02:32 How Maker’s has kept the same recipe since 1953

• 03:00 How Blake thinks about tasting: intensity, velocity, complexity and finish

• 04:10 Cherry notes from the yeast and wheat spice versus rye spice

• 05:49 Mash bill details and why the high malted barley is unusual

• 06:11 Velocity in the glass and how aroma meets you halfway

• 06:46 The history of classic 45 percent Maker’s and the first innovation, Maker’s 46

• 08:10 Opening up Cask Strength as a regular offering

• 08:36 Glass 2: an eleven and a half year over aged Maker’s Mark at cask strength

• 09:30 Why age is not automatically better and how American oak can take over

• 11:08 Tannins, dryness and the “I want water” reaction

• 12:16 Learning that bitterness and astringency are a choice, not a requirement

• 13:19 Talking about hand rotation, ricked barrels and low entry proof

• 14:09 Age to taste, not to a number

• 15:10 The limestone cellar and the birth of Maker’s Mark 46

• 16:10 Glass 3: Maker’s Mark Cellar Aged, dark, rich and complex, no bitterness

• 17:26 Aroma and flavor of Cellar Aged, bright cherry to dark cordial cherry

• 18:05 How long it spends in warehouses versus the cellar

• 18:33 Year by year blends and showing what cellaring can do to flavor

• 19:04 Inside the blending team and how they choose the final profile

• 19:45 Beth’s winning streak and Rob Samuels’ final sign off

• 20:32 How old can the cellar go, and where they expect the inflection point

In this episode of Aussie Bourbon Lovers we crack open Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Revival a barrel finished bourbon that sparks one big question should you drink it or collect it?

We are joined by Denver Cramer from Denver & Liely who tells the story of being paid by Wild Turkey’s owners, Campari not in cash but in bottles, two of every Master’s Keep release.

Together we talk about

• What Master’s Keep is and where Revival fits in the series

• Why barrel finishes do not always taste like the label suggests and why that is sometimes the whole point

• Eddie Russell’s experimentation and what Bruce Russell might bring next

• Why Wild Turkey has such a huge following in Australia especially through RTDs and mixers

• How to move from cans to special pours and really taste what Turkey can do

• Denver’s favourite distillery memory drinking old Dusties with Bruce at Wild Turkey

• Which Wild Turkey bottles are great value in Australia including Wild Turkey 12 Year and Wild Turkey 101

We also dig into how mood, timing and glassware change the experience why some bottles do not land on night one and then become magic on another night.

If you love Wild Turkey, or you are just starting to explore beyond RTDs this episode is a relaxed, honest chat about flavour, memories and why these bottles matter.