Elmer T. Lee

Elmer T. Lee (born 1919 in Franklin County , Kentucky ; died 2013 ) was a bourbon whiskey master distiller. Lee ran the George T. Stagg / Ancient Age Distillery (now Buffalo Trace ) for over 16 years . He gained particular importance through the invention of the single barrel whiskey, in which whiskey is not blended, but the whiskey is filled from a single barrel into the bottle. A whiskey brand, Elmter T Lee Single Barrel, is named after Lee .

The Blanton's whiskey, created by Lee in 1984, was the first single barrel whiskey in the USA. Numerous other distilleries followed the successful example, so that now every major manufacturer has one or more single barrels in their range.

Life

Lee worked after the shoe factory ended before joining the US Air Force during World War II . Among other things, he worked there as a gunner on board a Boeing B-29 . After completing his military service in 1946, he studied engineering at the University of Kentucky and began working at the George T. Stagg Distillery. From 1969 to 1985 he was works manager and master distiller there.

He developed the single barrel when the owners at the time asked him to develop a new product for the premium market. He knew that his predecessor Albert Blanton had already entertained guests with whiskey from individually selected barrels and had given the contents away in bottles. Lee himself felt the same way. He had the idea to market this whiskey directly and named it Blanton's after its predecessor . Whiskey matures differently in different casks, depending on the wood of the cask and its location in the warehouse, and so after a few years it can take on significantly different taste nuances. This is why the contents of many barrels are usually mixed together in order to maintain a consistent taste over the years. When removing from just one barrel, the differences between individual fillings are clearer; the main challenge here is to choose the right barrel. Lee went to the distillery regularly until he was 92 to personally select the barrels from which Blanton's was produced. At the same time he ran marketing for Buffalo Trace and Blanton's until the end of his life

Lee was inducted into the Bourbon Hall of Fame in 2001, received the Whiskey Advocate Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, and has been a member of the Whiskey Magazine Hall of Fame since 2012 .

Remarks

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Elmer T. Lee - An obituary to the inventor of the Single Barrel Bourbon ( Memento of the original from November 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Eye for Spirits July 17, 2013.