Bernie Lubbers, known by many as The Whiskey Professor, is the Whiskey Ambassador for Heaven Hill Brands, a family-owned, Kentucky-based spirits company with many bourbons and American whiskeys in its portfolio. He’s perhaps most well-known for advocating Bottled in Bond whiskeys and educating through bluegrass music. The Whiskey Wash recently caught up with Lubbers for a few questions about his role:
1) What are your primary duties as Heaven Hill’s Whiskey Ambassador?
One thing I like about this job is that it is different every day, and in every market, but also somewhat the same. My primary duty is to be the face of the whiskey brands here at Heaven Hill and educate and train people on them. Our Master Distillers aren’t able to travel as much as I can because they’re making the whiskey, so it’s up to me to train servers and bartenders that touch our brands in accounts where our whiskies are carried. I train them not only on our brands but the whole category, and show how our whiskeys fit in their locations. I also train staff and consumers in retail package store locations. I train and work with our distributor partners to help them understand our brands and how they complement the whiskey category, and how best to sell our brands through in those retail locations. I also do consumer tastings, bourbon dinners, and other types of tastings. And I represent the brands alongside our master distillers at events like the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, Whiskey Fest, Whiskey Live, and other whiskey shows.
2) How did your career path lead you to this role?
I was a stand-up comic for 20 years prior to this role. I closed my act with a routine about my father who drank bourbon every day and lived to be 94 years old, and I ended up doing a toast to him from stage. Folks in the industry needed someone to represent brands, and at the time basically only master distillers were doing that. As a stand-up comic I was not shy in going in and giving presentations in front of any type of audience or crowd, so after I started training and learning more about bourbon I realized I had at my disposal several great distillers and others that were willing to impart all kinds of knowledge and answer my questions. When bourbon and rye and American Whiskey just started to make noise just a short few years ago, I was given the freedom to write my own tastings and presentations and kind of put my own mark on what an ambassador does. That’s when we came up with the title, “Whiskey Professor” since I’m more of a teacher of bourbon and whiskey history, and how those whiskeys are relevant today. As ongoing training and education I then wrote a book on bourbon titled Bourbon Whiskey Our Native Spirit, so I could learn more about it . I also host the popular website WhiskeyProf.com. This is a subject you’re never the true expert on, so ongoing training and education and curiosity are vital to this position. I’ve been working with Heaven Hill over three years now, and because we are a family-owned and family-operated distillery, I’ve been given even more freedom to write presentations and tastings, so it is quite fun and really rewarding.
3) You have a pretty popular program with Hickory Vaught where you tell the history of whiskey through Bluegrass music. How did you come up with this concept? Where are some of the places you’ve showcased this program?
When I first started working at Heaven Hill it was a challenge to figure out just how to put a whiskey tasting together, because we produce six different types of American Whiskeys. One night after one of my friend Hickory’s weekly gigs at the downtown Marriott in Louisville, we were having some bourbon at Freddie’s on Broadway near there. I told him I was excited because I was putting together a tasting that explained the evolution of bourbon in Kentucky from un-aged corn whiskey in the style of the 1700’s when Evan Williams, Elijah Craig, and Jacob Beam were making whiskey, to aged corn whiskey in the style of the early 1800’s, to wheat whiskeys from the middle 1800’s, to bottled-in-bond whiskeys of the early 1900’s, and then finally to the single barrel and small batch bourbons of today. He thought that was really interesting and added, “Hey, I think we can play music from or about all those eras and put live bluegrass music along with a tasting and really bring it alive!” So Bourbon Thru Bluegrass was born, and after almost a year and a half of writing the show and rehearsing it (we wanted it right) we have performed the show at the Music City Center in Nashville representing the Louisville Convention and Visitors Bureau for 1,800 attendees at the Tour Bus Convention. We also have performed at the House of Blues in New Orleans for Tales Of The Cocktail, and have been honored to be the opening event the past two years for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown, Kentucky.
4) What are some of the coolest things you’ve done and where are some of the coolest places you’ve been to educate people about Heaven Hill’s many bourbon brands?
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San Fran, New York, Chicago, Vancouver, Nashville, Bratislava, Slovakia, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, and Vienna I’d have to say is are some of the coolest places I have presented Heaven Hill whiskeys. I really enjoy going to small and out of the way places that usually don’t get a lot of bourbon love too, but since my territory is the entire United States (and about three weeks a year international travel) it’s really hard to get everywhere I am requested. But the two coolest memories I have are:
- When we were in Teplice, Slovakia, and there happened to be a bluegrass festival there, I played bluegrass with the locals. (As a not-so-accomplished bluegrass picker I held my own and represented Kentucky well I hope!)
- When I got to do a bourbon tasting on the popular internet and television show “Live From Daryl’s House” with Daryl Hall (Hall and Oates), Booker T. Jones, and Mayer Hawthorne… sounds like I’m bragging now, but I guess I am… it’s a damn cool job!
5) What’s your favorite bourbon? Top five?
Goodness, people always ask the top one or three, so here’s my top five – without hesitation – in no particular order:
- Henry McKenna Single Barrel Bottled in Bond
- Heaven Hill 6 Year Bottled in Bond
- Mellow Corn
- Rittenhouse Rye
- Elijah Craig Barrel Proof
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