Buffalo Trace’s Freddie Johnson brings bourbon history to life for The Bourbon Society in Louisville

By Brian G. Miller

If the Master Distillers are the rock star celebrities of the bourbon world, third-generation Buffalo Trace Distillery worker and tour guide Freddie Johnson is an impressive opening act. 

Freddie brought his show on the road to speak to The Bourbon Society meeting this week at the Henry Clay ballroom in Louisville. The result: a standing ovation from the crowd of more than 150 people before even starting his passionate talk about why history, family, friends, and bourbon are inextricably intertwined.

There’s no doubt that Freddie brings the bourbon bona fides: he’s a member of the Bourbon Hall of Fame, has been featured in the documentary film Neat: The Story of Bourbon,and has his own profile piece in Garden and Gun Magazine. Buffalo Trace Distillery even sells Freddie’s Root Beer in its gift shop, named in his honor.

Three generations of bourbon

Freddie’s roots go back three generations to what is now Buffalo Trace Distillery. His grandfather, Jimmy Johnson, worked with bourbon legend Albert B. Blanton at what was then George T. Stagg Distillery.

“The kicker is that my grandfather and Colonel Blanton actually met on a riverbank behind the distillery as kids. They were throwing rocks and became friends,” Freddie said. 

Both men eventually went to work there. ”Those two old guys were around that distillery 52 years,” Freddie said.

Freddie’s father, Jimmy Johnson, Jr. and another eventual bourbon legend, Elmer T. Lee, were both in the Army Air Corps during World War II.  Johnson was a civil engineer and Lee was a radar bombardier. “Elmer’s planes landed on Dad’s landing strips during the war,” Freddie said. 

The post-war period found them both working at the distillery. “Those two guys were there together for 47 years,” Freddie said. During that time, Elmer T. Lee pioneered the idea of Blanton’s single barrel bourbon, traveling around the country promoting it. People were initially skeptical, according to Freddie, telling Lee, “Nobody is going to pay $25 for a bottle of bourbon.”

Jimmy, Jr. took care of the bourbon barrels in the warehouse, including rolling out each millionth barrel from the first to the sixth. “My father, at 94 years old, became the only living person to handle every millionth barrel that came from Buffalo Trace Distillery,” Freddie said. 

“Elmer, at 90 years old, still traveled around the country as an ambassador for the distillery…Dad, 94 years old, still pushing these 550-pound barrels around,” Freddie said. “I found out the secret: those old guys had a shot of bourbon a day.”

Since then Freddie had the honor of rolling out the seventh millionth barrel of Buffalo Trace bourbon.

Despite being at the distillery since he was five years old, Freddie initially found a career outside bourbon. He retired early from a long career as a manager for AT&T to come home to care for his ailing father and fulfill a promise that three generations of Johnsons would work at the distillery. Freddie became a Buffalo Trace tour guide in 2002. In addition to leading some of the most popular tours, Freddie’s role as ambassador includes speaking at events like The Bourbon Society and leading groups in bourbon tastings.

Waking the Dog

And, by the way, Freddie knows his bourbon tasting techniques. He begins this night with an exercise he calls “waking the dog” as a way to learn about the whiskey before it even touches our lips.

Freddie pointed to the first of three samples in front of everyone, one white and two brown: “The first cup is white dog. Everclear. Georgia moon. White lightning…Right now that dog’s asleep.” 

After having us nose the moonshine, Freddie pointed out that it smells like hot buttered popcorn. He instructed us to pour some of the white dog into our hands, rub them and then smack them together, which released the smell and strength of the alcohol. A second smack brings on the smell of corn, the dominant grain in the whiskey. A third smack and smell brings out a bread/yeast smell. 

So, without putting anything to your lips, Freddie said, “I know the strength of your whiskey, the dominant grain, I know the kind of yeast you used.”

The final thing the white dog did for us was to make our hands soft and smooth as if we’d just applied hand lotion. That’s thanks to the suspended solids in the bourbon, Freddie tells us. These are the same elements that give bourbon long legs as you swirl it in the glass after it’s spent time in the barrel.

Freddie’s advice for the second step for our tasting was to “just bump it up against your lips and stick out your tongue.” 

“The tingling on your lips tells you this is a higher concentration of alcohol,” he said. Freddie advised everyone to use this technique with a flight of bourbon to determine which samples have the highest alcohol technique and drink them last.

The final step, Freddie tells us, is to take a sip of water and then take the white dog into our mouths. No Kentucky Chew here.

With the second and third brown samples (Buffalo Trace and E.H. Taylor), Freddie encouraged the group to “bump it up against your lips and tongue” just like with the white dog.  

Next, Freddie again recommended holding a big swig of water in our mouths (“Water is your friend.”) before adding that initial taste of bourbon. Freddie said, “You’ll be amazed that just by holding a little bit of water in your mouth, it opens it up. It brings out other flavors that you’ve been missing, while you were sipping it neat.”

Freddie cautioned taking your wine and beer drinking friends and family who are used to a low 6 to 14 percentage alcohol range straight to a higher proof bourbon without some education to help make it a pleasant memory.

Freddie pointed out there are traditionally unspoken rules for your quality bourbon collection and bringing out “the good stuff.” The first is “you’ll never bring it out for people you don’t like.” Another: ”No matter how much you like someone, if you’re in a hurry to go somewhere else, you still won’t bring it out.” But perhaps the worst unspoken rule is thinking there are is only one way to drink bourbon.

Let’s Make a Memory

 Closing with a story about his father’s final days undergoing chemotherapy,. Freddie described the frustration he felt. His father wanted to do a toast with him each night, but the chemo affected his tastebuds and he didn’t tolerate the taste of bourbon. As a joke, Freddie mixed it with Diet Pepsi. “I thought that was the worst thing in the world you could do to a bottle of bourbon,” Freddie said. But his dad smiled and said, “Freddie, I can drink this.”

Freddie began a final toast for the evening with something his father said to him during the last bottle of bourbon they shared (with Diet Pepsi): 

“Freddie, always remember, there will always be old barrels and bottles of whiskey. But friends and family won’t always be around. And if you’re blessed enough to have a good bottle of bourbon that you’re about to share with friends and family, he said, it is far better to have the memories that the bottle creates than to know that the memories never got created because you didn’t like the way somebody drank your whiskey.”

Freddie raised his glass and said, “So here’s to family and memories. Here is a moment, let’s make a memory together.”

Everyone took a final sip and then the crowd rose to its feet for the second ovation of the night. Like Freddie’s many other accolades, this one was well deserved.

By Brian G. Miller, CTA