by cowdery » Wed Feb 13, 2008 9:34 pm
The recipe burning is attributed to Bill Samuels Senior, father of the guy most of us know as Bill Samuels.
I think something of the kind actually did happen, although in different tellings the date changes. Supposedly, he did it with a bit of a flourish, tossing the burning paper into a waste basket, and igniting nearby curtains in the process.
The point is real too, which is that by the time the T. W. Samuels plant in Deatsville closed it was making some pretty bad whiskey, attributed to a problem with the cooker that was scorching the mash, and consequently the Samuels name had gotten a bad reputation. What's usually not mentioned is that Bill Samuels was a minority shareholder by that time, so he didn't really control the operation. When the majority owners decided to close the place he tried to buy it but couldn't put enough money together.
Sam Cecil was also working there at the time and tells the story in detail in his book.
The other point not usually mentioned is that the Samuels family no longer owned the T. W. Samuels brand name, which bounced around before eventually landing at Heaven Hill. Heaven Hill doesn't make any special recipe for it. In fact, Heaven Hill only makes two bourbon formulas, one with rye and one with wheat. There was never any effort made to duplicate the Deatsville product and why would you?
I don't know of any other members of the Samuels family who were distilling then and to the best of my knowledge, Bills Senior and Junior are the only Samuels who made whiskey in the post-Prohibition era.
As for the names, the guy we all know as Bill Samuels is Taylor William Samuels VII. His father was Taylor William Samuels VI, but his grandfather was Leslie B. Samuels.