Trey Zoeller, Co-Founder of Jefferson’s Bourbon, Looks Back In Time

Since 1997, Trey Zoeller has been bottling Jefferson’s Bourbon with the help of his father, Chet, a published bourbon historian. For the Zoellers, bourbon is deep-rooted in their family history — more than 200 years ago, his great-grandmother was arrested for the production and sales of spirituous liquors, becoming the first woman to be documented in the American whiskey trade.

Fast forward, and Zoeller is protecting a part of American history that is often misunderstood and until only recently, underappreciated. Twenty-seven years after bottling their first bourbon, Jefferson’s finds itself in Canada, with Zoeller on a worldwide tour educating industry professionals on bourbon history and how Jefferson’s is bridging the gap between innovation and tradition. Arguably one of the most nuanced of all whiskeys, bourbon is also the most regulated whiskey product in the world; when sitting down with Zoeller, he explains why an industry so heavily protected might be in need of destabilizing.

Jefferson’s is known for blending and aging in unconventional places. How has the reception been among bourbon purists?

At first, we were definitely getting some pushback from those who would say, “Hey man, you can’t do that, you’re stepping over the lines.” At the very least, there are six laws in place to protect the integrity of bourbon. Just by following those rules, you have some damn good bourbon; but by putting a bit more time, money, and effort into that product, you can potentially get something that people will like more, or perhaps less, and at times a product that people will completely disagree with. It’s all personal preferences, but we will always try and push the boundaries of what bourbon might be, without bastardizing it.

Jefferson’s Ocean is aged on the water. How does this stylistic choice have an effect on the bourbon, relative to decisions regarding mash bill and blending?

It’s in the maturation that we have found a majority of the [changes] to the flavour and texture. And we can trace it back to the history of bourbon — this is something I have been fortunate enough to learn through my father. When there was a whiskey tax, they were distilling it west of the Appalachians, and then putting freshly distilled whiskey into old barrels and floating them down the Ohio River and then placing them on ships back toward the heavily populated cities like New York and Philadelphia. It was along this journey that the whiskey gained its flavour through its interaction with the barrel, and inevitably became bourbon.

As technology advanced, it became cheaper to age the whiskey in Kentucky and ship it from there, and so began the massive growth of the Kentucky bourbon trade. The journey on the water was a forgotten part of the story of bourbon, and it was only after I did the journey with my own whiskey to try and simulate that, that I realized it’s less about the aging of the bourbon so much as it’s the interaction with the oak that actually gives it its flavour. That’s why, in my opinion, Jefferson’s Ocean probably tastes closer to what bourbon originally tasted like than it generally does today through aging. When I first tapped those barrels that were on the ships, I didn’t have any preconceived notions about what it would or should taste like, but once I tasted, I thought, “Ah, now I get it, it was the journey that made bourbon proliferate in Kentucky.”

What is the best way to drink bourbon?

Interestingly, I, along with most people in Kentucky, drink bourbon on the rocks. It being so hot there, we drink everything with ice, including water. I went to a bar once and asked the bartender for a Jefferson’s Reserve on the rocks, and the bartender nearly refused to serve it to me because he said it was too good, and I’d be doing it a disservice. That’s just how we grew up drinking it, and as a result I personally don’t care how someone drinks it.

Bourbon is finally being respected on a global scale. How do you think that Kentucky’s ownership or identification with it changes?

Back when they were writing the laws, they weren’t clever enough to make it a provincial product that could only come from Kentucky. Before, 99 percent of bourbon came from Kentucky. Now, about 95 percent of bourbon comes from Kentucky, even though it is made all over the U.S. Over time, that number will continue to decrease, but we want to stay true to our heritage and always use 100 percent Kentucky whiskey to produce Jefferson’s Bourbon.

That said, we innovate by aging it in various climates, like Singapore, or by using barrels from Napa or Bordeaux to impose different notes. You’re taking a slice of different parts of the world to help contribute to the main flavours of that specific bourbon. This will open it up to becoming more of a world product, as opposed to just a Kentucky or American product.

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