How Did I Get Here?
How does a guy from South Florida end up having a long career in bourbon, a drink that’s synonymous with Kentucky, family legacy, and knowledge passed down from generation to generation? That’s a good question, and one I’ve heard more than a few times over the years. It’s a story I like to tell because it’s a true one.
Born in Miami and raised just outside Ft. Lauderdale, I wasn’t much of a bourbon guy when I started enjoying a drink. In fact, my only real experience was – much to the chagrin of my friends who drank rum, flavored vodkas, wine coolers, and new “Ice” beers – mixing Jack and Coke. It wasn’t until the summer of ’96 when I moved to Lexington to attend the University of Kentucky, that I took the first step on a journey that I knew would become my calling.
A friend had arranged for me to start a job as a bouncer at a line-dancing bar when I arrived. It wasn’t my taste in music, but it introduced me to new people, who much to my delight, drank bourbon – real bourbon, not what I had been drinking in Florida. The drink of choice was that famous red wax sealed bottle, Maker’s Mark. The funny thing about my friends and their Maker’s Mark is that they were doing something I found curious at the time. They were collecting certain bottles, putting them on shelves and never opening them. There was nothing special about the whiskey in those bottles, but the label was different, or the wax dip wasn’t the usual red. I thought it was ridiculous, but also intriguing, and I wanted to be part of it.
Never doing anything halfway, I threw myself into collecting Maker’s Mark bottles and currently own one of the largest collections in the world. This hobby led me to forge some strong relationships. I learnt from Maker’s Mark luminaries like Bill Samuels Jr., the son of the brand’s founder, and his son Rob, as well as the late Dave Pickerell, a former master distiller for the brand. My eyes were firmly opened to other American whiskeys and the industry as a whole.
I fell in love with the variety found in American whiskey. I discovered that there was more to it than just bourbon and old-timers telling stories about their granddads’ stills. There was a culture, a lifestyle, and a mystique that drew me in and made me want to learn about every aspect of the industry. I developed friendships with producers, distributors, and consumers, and started hosting tastings and sharing my thoughts on podcasts. It was a social outlet, not something I ever thought would turn into a career that could pay the bills. I even co-founded a charitable group called The Bourbon Mafia, which raises money for various causes across the country through bourbon-themed events.
A phone call from a friend, Fred Minnick, who was building his own identity in the industry, started to change things. Fred asked if I was available to host a bourbon tasting at the Kentucky Derby Museum. That event turned out to be a turning point in my journey. I became the museum’s Bourbon Authority and began hosting tastings and classes for groups and organizations that used the museum’s facilities for conferences, conventions, and dinners. It gave me the opportunity to share the knowledge I had gathered over the years with people from all over the world and the opportunity to give back.
A couple of years later, another big break came when a friend I met through one of The Bourbon Mafia’s events invited me to join his new brand. Kaveh Zamanian had just announced the launch of Rabbit Hole Whiskeys in Kentucky and asked me to help as an ambassador. I joined as the brand’s Bourbon Curator, assisting with the launch of Rabbit Hole in Kentucky and a few other states.
This was when I realized I wanted to make a career of educating people about the history of bourbon and American whiskeys. I wanted to share these spirits with everyone and make them fall in love with them just like I had. That desire eventually led me to take the leap and start my own company.
In 2020, as the world dealt with the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had thoughts of starting my own business. A friend at a distillery in Kentucky, who knew I had always wanted to do something for myself, informed me that he had some barrels of bourbon I might be interested in. With strongly worded encouragement from my wife, I knew it was time to make it happen. I partnered with my long-time friend and a fixture in the Louisville cigar market, J Paul Tucker, to create the Broadleaf Whiskey Company and buy our first 250 barrels of Kentucky bourbon. The whiskey was young, so the plan was to let it age while we figured out what our brands and expressions might eventually become. Many conversations with the friends I had made led me to decide that I didn’t want to just take someone else’s whiskey and bottle it under my brand name. I worked with a local cooperage to craft specific finishing casks to develop the flavor profiles I desired. The result was the launch of Brothers of the Leaf Finished American Whiskeys in September 2022.
Just a few months after launching Brothers of the Leaf, my business partner passed away, and I experienced a few other life-changing events, including lunch with my great friend, Wes Henderson, the founder of Angel’s Envy. Wes and I had been friends for over a decade, and for years, we had tried to find a way to work together at Angel’s Envy. But the timing and circumstances had never aligned. During this lunch, Wes shocked me by saying he wanted to incorporate my brand into the new company he was planning and bring me on to represent both his new brand and mine.
When I told my wife, she gave me the same advice she had in 2020: “Shit or get off the pot.” That encouragement led me to double-down on Brothers of the Leaf and myself and join forces with the Henderson family and Saga Spirits in 2024 as their Chief Whiskey Advocate.
In October 2024, the Hendersons launched the next chapter of their whiskey legacy with True Story Finished Bourbon and Rye Whiskeys. The family’s expertise in finishing and my desire to continue developing finished whiskeys with Brothers of the Leaf made for the perfect partnership. Though our stories are different, our whiskeys complement each other beautifully. The Henderson family treats me like one of their own, and it has been incredible to share their story and their whiskeys alongside my own creations.
Not a bad journey for a guy from South Florida!