Steve Nally

“The Humble Legend”

 Steve Nally was born in Loretto, Kentucky in, 1950. His family farm joined the Maker’s Mark property. As a young boy he roamed the Maker’s property hunting local game or just hiking the hills owned by the Samuels. He attended Loretto High School. After graduation from high school he bought a small farm. Times were hard in central Kentucky, and Steve found it necessary to find a job to support his young family. He knew the plant manager and general manager, Sam Cecil, at the Maker’s distillery. He was hired to grow and attend to the yeast. Nally was an ambitious young man and during his early years at the distillery he worked just about every job on the property, maintenance to night watchman. Anywhere there was a need, Steve would do his best.

In addition to his duties as plant and general manager, Sam Cecil was a chemist. Sam taught Steve the importance of a good yeast culture. Steve was trained in the very precise processes and procedures of maintaining the yeast culture. In those early days everything was manual. On the really hot days in July and August they would have to shut down because they could not get the product down to the temperature necessary to ferment. There were no computers to control the temperature. In order to ferment properly, the temperature needs to be around 95°. As technology improved and the distillery industry became more and more automated, it became easier to control temperatures. One of the early advancements was a thermostat that controlled the water temperature between the cooker and the fermenter.

 For many years, Nally also labored with the wheat recipe before more refined tools were available to help monitor the mash.  In early days wheat (unlike corn and rye) could be scorched and routinely ruined if not meticulously monitored.

T,hen in 1988, he was asked to become master distiller. Steve worked at Maker’s Mark for thirty-two years and had a significant role in keeping the standards of identity of the flagship Maker’s Mark brand consistent. 

In 2007 Steve was inducted into the prestigious Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame after almost 40 years of working in the whiskey industry. At that time he was the third member of the Maker’s Mark family to be bestowed such an honor behind Bill Samuels, Jr. and Sr. In 2015, Steve’s wife Donna was inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame for her contribution to the bourbon industry. Donna was instrumental in developing the tourism side of the industry. She helped develop the tour program at Marker’s Mark. Her program at Maker’s was a major influence in the development of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Steve and Donna are the only living husband-and-wife couple in the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame.

In his fifty years of service to the bourbon industry, Steve has worked every job in the distillery from grain receiving to barreling. While at Maker’s Mark, Steve was instrumental in growing the company from a producer of 32 barrels of bourbon a week to being one of the most prolifiv bourbon manufacturers in the world, producing millions of bottles of the amber colored liquid.

Steve recalls fondly that as he was growing in the industry it was like a big family. He looked up to the leaders in the industry. He admired the men such as Booker Noe, Parker Beam, Jimmy Russell, and Elmer T. Lee. These guys were legends and Steve never imagined he would be part of that group.

After leaving Maker’s, Steve drove a tractor trailer delivering grain to distilleries in the Bardstown area. This kept him abreast of what was happening in the industry. In 2007, Steve was recruited to build Wyoming Whiskey, which produced the first legal bourbon west of the Mississippi River since Prohibition.  While at Wyoming Whiskey, Steve oversaw the construction of the company’s distillery and served as Master Distiller for over four years.

         Steve and his family returned to Kentucky in 2013 to join The Bardstown Bourbon Company located on 100 acres in the heart of the Bourbon Capital of the World, This “State of the Art” facility.has the unique ability to produce over 60 mashbills.  Bardstown Bourbon Company was founded in 2014 on 100 acres of farmland, by Peter Lofton and Steve Nally.  It began as one concept, making bourbon, and quickly grew to an entire craft of making whiskey and bourbon. It is the first of its kind to combine distilling, tasting, a culinary experience and visitor tours all on one location.

         Bardstown Bourbon Company broke ground on its $25 million “destination experience” in mid-2015. It has grown beyond anyone’s wildest imagination, just a distillery. It has transitioned into multi-faceted bourbon experience

According to David Mandell, former CEO, this facility evolved into a unique Napa Valley experience, centered around a collaborative distilling program of great brands of bourbon and whiskey. To complete the concept, a “Bottle and Bond Kitchen and Bar” was added. This unique addition is the first full-service ultra-modern Kentucky Bourbon Trail restaurant and bar in a distillery.

To Nally, transparency is an important concept. It is evident in the architecture, the way the product is presented, and the overall philosophy of the company. Transparency to Bardstown Bourbon is showing the bourbon public exactly what is taking place. “Here is how it is done. Here is how it is made. We want to show it all to you.”

According to Peter Loften, “When this company set out in 2014, the original plan was to grow into it in 15 or 20 years, we accomplished this goal in 6 years. Nobody could imagine the velocity the bourbon industry would grow at.” Steve Nally was the right man to carry out this philosophy.

Steve Nally, “The Humble Legend” is currently heading the Development and Production Department of the Bardstown Bourbon Company’s distillery. In addition, he has served as Master Distiller since the opening of the distillery and continues in this position at present.

Contributed by: Jim Silliman, Bardstown, KY