Original subtitles

- [Narrator] Americans drink over

500 million gallons of spirits per year,

and vodka is the best selling liquor in America.

While bourbon is king of the iconic American whiskey market,

raking in $19 billion a year-

- Could you really picture an American drinking landscape

without vodka or bourbon?

- [Narrator] But less than 90 years ago,

vodka is seen as unfamiliar Russian swill.

- You see the problem? - It's got no taste.

- [Narrator] While bourbon was the bitter-tasting product

of a dying industry,

getting swallowed up by the invasion of foreign imports.

- A lot of whiskey brands don't survive.

- We are going to get crushed.

- [Narrator] Until two visionary leaders risk it all.

- Smirnoff Vodka started in the US as an underdog.

- To create two of the most celebrated liquor brands

of all time, Maker's Mark and Smirnoff.

- This is it.

- [Narrator] Transforming a floundering business

into an $87 billion industry.

- That red dripping wax

changed not only the bourbon industry,

but all of spirits.

- [Narrator] They'll bring distilling

back to American shores.

- I think we might have something there.

- This was one of those moments

that would help change the game.

- [Narrator] And almost single-handedly create

the top shelf of American spirits.

- These spirits become real lynchpins

to the celebratory moments in our lives,

and it all comes back to these risk-takers.

(dramatic music)

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] It's 1933

and after 13 years of futile enforcement efforts,

the nationwide ban on the manufacturing,

transportation, and sale of alcohol

known as prohibition is repealed.

And the once thriving American spirit industry

now must attempt to rise from the ashes.

- American spirits are the roots of American culture.

George Washington was a distiller.

This stuff built the United States of America.

There is not a single road or city

that is built without alcohol taxes.

- [Narrator] While beer, wine, gin,

brandy, and rum were all enjoyed prior to prohibition,

one uniquely American drink

was king of the spirits world.

- In the British colonial era,

Americans really turned to whiskey as something

that could be grown from grain

that grows in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania.

- Prior to prohibition, this was an all-out whiskey country.

- [Narrator] Of the approximately 2,000 distilleries

that made alcohol before prohibition, only six survived

under the pretense of selling medicinal alcohol.

- This American ban on alcohol

creates an opportunity

for all kinds of international boot legging

and the rise of a cross-border alcohol industry.

- Canada didn't have prohibition.

You could just take a rowboat out to international water,

and there were all these boats

that were floating liquor stores

with Canadian whiskey, Scotch whiskey, some Irish whiskey,

all that were very happy to sell you illegally.

So, their distilling industry flourished

during American prohibition.

- [Narrator] The illicit trade flooded American shores

with millions of cases of exotic liquors during prohibition.

- It helped undercut the entire American whiskey industry

while the Americans

are shackled to having bootlegged whiskey

that started opening the door for spirits

that Americans had not really had before.

- [Narrator] With American bootleggers

cutting corners to illegally produce liquor,

foreign companies became renowned

for their authentic taste and high quality.

And now, the US market

is overrun with international products.

- Scotch whiskey and Canadian whiskey

both are very different

and lighter bodied than American whiskey.

They were swooping in and really taught Americans

to appreciate this more flavorful,

more experiential spirits.

- [Narrator] And now, American distillers are rushing

to stop the onslaught of international liquors.

In Kentucky,

a 92-year-old whiskey distillery is desperate to rebuild.

- TW Samuels was a distiller in Deatsville, Kentucky

that has this rich legacy in American history.

- Robert Samuels originally hailed from Pennsylvania

and served in George Washington's continental army,

making whiskey that he shared with his comrades-in-arms.

After he mustered out after the war,

he moved himself and his family, along with

ther 60 gallon copper still to central Kentucky.

- He has a child, Taylor William,

and he teaches TW how to distill

and they start a distillery.

They start TW Samuels.

Then, the distillery gets to passed down for generations.

- [Narrator] Now, after the 13 lifeless years

of prohibition, TW Samuels' descendants,

father and son, Leslie and Bill,

are determined to revive the family business.

But the deck is stacked against them.

- Bill being the fourth generation in a family business,

he wanted to preserve the family legacy,

but it takes time to rebuild a distillery,

to put the equipment back together.

Then, you have to have time for the whiskey to age.

So, really, the world was conspiring

against the Samuels family at this particular moment.

- [Narrator] Not only are they years behind the competition,

but at the same time, the spirit TW Samuels makes

is considered a substandard form of American whiskey.

- Bourbon is seen as a low rent,

real tough drink

that's only for heavy-duty drinkers and for getting drunk.

- To be bourbon,

it must be made in the United States of America.

It must come from a fermented mash.

It can have wheat, it can have oats,

it can have rye, it can have barley,

but it must always be 51% corn.

Traditionally, bourbon was made with corn and rye.

- So, rye has a special peppery, fiery kick,

which is not an easy sell

when you're competing with smoother whiskeys

coming from Canada, Ireland, and Scotland.

- Now, the consumer taste for bourbon is fading.

But Bill Samuels was someone who loved making whiskey

and his father raised him, mentored him,

as a distiller and in business.

And he just wanted to make TW Samuels

one of the best in the spirits industry.

- Did you think about my idea?

- Bill Samuels knew that there was a shift in flavor

in American drinking culture,

and he wanted to make a palatable product,

which is definitely an extraordinary challenge.

- Americans are thirsty.

They'll drink whatever we give them.

- We are going to get crushed.

- Hmm. (tense music)

- Bill Samuels wanted to make a new smoother-tasting bourbon

for a new generation of drinkers,

but his father, Leslie, is a traditionalist.

He wanted to make whiskey the same way

they'd always done it using the same family recipe.

- [Narrator] Bill Samuels' ambition

to make his whiskey the best in the country

will almost single handedly save American whiskey

from being overtaken by an overseas surge,

pushing it to become the nearly $19 billion business

it is today, with over 800 whiskey brands

that almost a quarter of Americans

consume at least once a week.

(suspenseful music)

But for now,

his father is committed to starting up their stills

with the family's 170-year-old recipe.

As whiskey producers rush to restart their businesses,

in Connecticut, another former whiskey supplier

is trying to pick up the pieces in a post-prohibition world.

In the 1890s, GF Heublein found success

selling the first pre-mixed and bottled whiskey cocktails.

- They were a pioneer of ready-to-drink cocktails

as we call 'em today,

decades before they became a big thing.

- [Narrator] During the 19th century,

doctors prescribed alcohol-based extracts

of plants and roots known as Bitters,

for everything from indigestion to jaundice.

- So, from Bitters

comes the idea that you could flavor alcohol.

- You find in the later 19th century

the first mention of the word cocktail

in a New York newspaper,

and they mention it as being made from spirits,

sugar, water, and bitters.

- [Narrator] While cocktails don't become

the national obsession they are today,

GF Heublein produced bottled whiskey cocktails

like the Manhattan up until prohibition.

- When prohibition comes along,

Heublein begins buying smaller brands in the food space.

And in fact, one of the brands is A1 Steak Sauce.

Yes, that A1 Steak Sauce.

- [Narrator] While prohibition

destroyed many alcohol producers,

Heublein survived off of their A1 sales alone.

- They would eventually go on

to invest in a style of mustard from France,

a company called Grey-Poupon.

But then, Gilbert Heublein passes

and his grandson, John Martin, takes the reigns.

- John Martin is this great character born in England,

educated at Oxford, and he loves the hunt.

- He was a big risk-taker, but also understood business.

He understood that A1 Steak Sauce

may have carried them through prohibition,

but that might not be enough to keep them afloat.

- [Narrator] Now, under pressure from his board of directors,

the rookie leader will need to somehow

restore the company's once lucrative liquor business.

- In the late 1800s,

they had an American club cocktail

that was made with whiskey,

but post-prohibition,

they found it extremely difficult due to low supply

and fewer distillers

to find the whiskey they needed for their cocktail.

- [Narrator] But just as Martin

is attempting to get back into the whiskey game,

a few towns away, another entrepreneur

is about to stumble upon an unknown spirit

that has the potential

to take down American whiskey for good.

(suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] In 1934, Heublein president, John Martin,

is desperate to get his company back in the whiskey business,

but American alcohol is being overrun

by an invasion of foreign liquor companies,

threatening the once dominant American whiskey industry.

And just 50 miles away from him,

a once penniless immigrant is about to make a gamble

that will be another blow to whiskey.

- So, Rudolph Kunett is born in what was part of Russia then

is now part of Ukraine, comes to the US.

- Through hard work,

he eventually joins Helena Rubinstein

and becomes general manager

of their whole cosmetics enterprise.

- But he still wants more. He craves more.

He sees what the American dream can be

and he starts to think now that prohibition is over,

he sees an opportunity.

He says, you know what?

This is the time to get involved in the alcohol business.

- [Narrator] One day,

Kunett finds an interesting business for sale.

It's one that produces a little known liquor

from his homeland called vodka.

- At the time, vodka in the US

is really the way Haggis is today.

Some people have heard about it,

very few people have tried it,

maybe with immigrant communities.

It's not very common at all.

He stumbles upon this newspaper ad,

advertising that this guy is selling the recipe

to his father's vodka,

and it's a name that Rudolph knows well.

He drank that vodka growing up

and it's just pure chance that he happens to see this.

- [Narrator] It's a recipe

that will one day popularize vodka in America,

pushing it to become the best-selling

premium spirit in the world.

Smirnoff Vodka will spawn over 30 varieties,

selling six bottles every second

and create an empire worth over $3 billion.

But in 1930s America, vodka is almost completely unknown.

- No one in the US is really clamoring for this product,

so he's taking a big risk.

He's convinced that Americans are gonna love vodka.

- [Narrator] The Smirnoff name

is famous in Russia with a rich history.

- Smirnoff was the drink of the masses

and was enjoyed by the Russian nobility.

It became official vodka of the royal family in Russia.

- [Narrator] 15 years earlier,

Vladimir Smirnov was one of the richest men in Russia.

- Then, the Bolshevik Revolution happens in Russia about 1918,

and private industry is outlawed.

- [Narrator] Smirnov is subsequently jailed

and his company seized.

- He's brought in front of the firing squad,

and then there is a raid on the prison

and he escapes in the confusion, flees

all throughout the world and ends up in Paris.

- He has almost nothing

but his family name and his father's recipe

for charcoal distilled vodka.

And then, he places an ad in America,

and that ad is seen by Rudolph Kunett.

- [Narrator] Now, Kunett is betting everything

he has on the Russian spirit,

buying the US rights to Smirnoff for $2,700

or $60,000 in today's money.

- Thank you.

- I think he feels like I would feel

if I went to another country

and I could buy the Cadillac brand name for pittance.

- [Narrator] In March of 1934,

Kunett opens America's first vodka factory

in Bethel, Connecticut,

making Smirnoff in the exact same way

as the original Russian recipe.

- So, vodka is made with grains or other materials

and it's triple distilled and filtered through charcoal.

- What set Smirnoff apart was they'd make the charcoal

from white birch trees and then they would filter the vodka

through it to get a very clean, very neutral taste.

- [Narrator] But he soon finds out

turning skeptical Americans

onto this Russian staple is proving impossible.

- He's taking a big risk,

because so few people have had vodka,

so he's investing to import

a lot of the equipment from overseas,

because it doesn't exist locally and it is not going well.

- But as Kunett is struggling to get vodka

in America off the ground, 50 miles away,

John Martin sees a major threat

to the whiskey business from the Russian spirit.

- Smirnoff came across their plate

and he knew that this is a moment

when people are just coming out of prohibition.

Their tastes have changed.

(pensive music)

- [Associate] It's got no taste.

(dramatic music)

- John Martin was this guy

that while he had his foot in whiskey,

he saw opportunity in the places

where nobody was paying attention.

- I think Martin realizes the potential of vodka in America.

He starts thinking, what are we gonna do about this?

How are we gonna respond?

- [Narrator] Back in Bethel, in his first year of business,

Kunett sells just 1,200 cases of Smirnoff,

bringing in only $25,000.

And now, unable to even turn a profit,

Kunett instead looks for a way to cash out.

- The story of American vodka could have been like sake

or any number of drinks

that are still not a major part of the American bar

and the American drinking landscape,

but it does become a household name.

Thanks in part to John Martin.

- Mr. Martin.

(soft upbeat music)

- So, Rudolph Kunett

approaches none other than John G. Martin of Heublein,

offers to sell him Smirnoff, lock, stock, and barrel.

- [Narrator] By offering Kunett a job

as head of Heublein's advertising and $50,000,

Martin secures the rights to Smirnoff,

a company which today is worth over $3 billion.

And now, instead of rebuilding Heublein's whiskey business,

John Martin will leave whiskey behind

to try to introduce vodka to the nation.

- [Narrator] In 1939, John Martin goes out on a limb

to buy an unknown brand

of an unknown liquor called Smirnoff Vodka.

- At this time,

vodka represents less than 1% of liquor sales in the US.

It is still almost non-existent as a beverage category.

- No one really appreciated the smell.

And to be fair, vodka isn't something

that one normally sniffs

and enjoys the bouquet of like a bourbon or a glass of wine.

- [Narrator] Martin knows that Americans

won't sip vodka like they do a whiskey or brandy.

So, he looks for a new way to pitch it to consumers.

(tense music)

- You can see with vodka,

you just add anything to it

and get it to taste like whatever you want.

Because vodka, it doesn't taste like anything.

- [Narrator] Martin believed Smirnoff Vodka

can find success as a mixer in cocktails.

- Because his business was bottled cocktails,

he was familiar with the opportunity of cocktails.

- Before prohibition, cocktails were mostly drunken tavern,

but in the 1920s due to prohibition

moving alcohol establishments underground,

cocktails are associated with rebellious behavior.

- [Narrator] During prohibition,

cocktails became a way to mask the harsh taste

of bootlegged alcohol, leading to a surge in popularity

for a colorless liquor that originated in Britain, gin.

- One thing thing people don't realize is that essentially,

vodka and gin are more or less the same spirit,

minus that incredible pungent juniper note you get with gin.

- [Narrator] As drinks like the gin martini and the gimlet

help make gin an increasingly popular choice

in bars and homes across America,

Martin believes vodka

can have even more success as a cocktail mixer.

- Martin needs to choose his cocktail very carefully.

He needs to find something that vodka can really own,

that's gonna show you that great tasteless aspect of vodka.

So, a drink that has its own flavor,

but that can get that extra vodka hit.

- [Narrator] But in 1941, just as Martin begins his search,

(bomb exploding)

America's entry into the second World War

stops him in his tracks.

- Many distillers had a very hard time

recovering from prohibition,

and then World War II broke out

and that really hobbled the industry.

- America was rationing commodities

that were needed at the warfront

and grains were one of those commodities.

And that put a strain on the American spirits industries.

- [Narrator] On top of strict controls

on their primary ingredient,

distillers wishing to remain open

are forced to convert their stills

to produce a nearly 100%,

or 200 proof product called industrial alcohol.

- It was used in weapons,

it was used to produce rubber for tires,

and it was used in antifreeze.

Not to mention all the medical uses.

- [Narrator] In Kentucky,

Bill Samuels still believes that a new recipe for bourbon

can save the American whiskey industry,

but his business also grinds to a halt.

- They could make industrial alcohol

if they wanted to make any money,

but then it was very costly to do that.

So, they're probably white-knuckling it.

They're like, are we gonna make it?

- [Narrator] And now, the business is rocked

by another blow, as Bill Samuels

is going to have to navigate the industry pitfalls

without his father.

- Leslie dies and that leaves Bill Samuels

really on his own.

He's very young and they have to shut down the distillery.

That really crushed the opportunity

to try to call the shots.

But what could Bill do? He didn't have enough money.

(Bill sighs) - Let's do it.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] In 1943, just one year shy

of the company's 100th anniversary,

TW Samuels is sold to a New York conglomerate.

And so too are the rights to the Samuels name,

ensuring Bill's dream of creating a smoother bourbon

under his family brand is all but gone.

- Interestingly, this was one of those moments

that would help save bourbon,

because it forced him to think fresh, to think different.

That doesn't happen

if he's able to continue as old Samuels distillery.

So, that was probably the best thing that could have happened

to Bill Samuels and the bourbon industry,

because what would happen next changed the game.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] With the end of World War II,

the government stops rationing grain supplies

and American spirit makers can fire up their stills again.

But for John Martin,

who's recently returned from serving in the US Army

as a Lieutenant Colonel, Smirnoff Vodka still only

represents less than 1% of alcohol sales.

- John Martin, I think really gets what makes vodka special.

He gets what can make it work in the US

and that is it's a great chameleon as a mixer.

- [Narrator] With the war behind him,

Martin goes on a hunt for a cocktail

that can showcase the unique properties of vodka,

but finding the perfect mix is not so easy.

- After a month-long search, he's given up,

but he goes to Elliot

and he stops off at a bar, the Cock N' Bull,

which is run by a guy named Jack Morgan,

who's a bartender friend of his.

- It's a little too sweet.

- [Jack] Okay.

- Jack Morgan, much like Kunett and John Martin,

wants to import a product

that's popular in another country, ginger beer.

- [Jack] All right, I got plenty of this.

(box thuds)

- He wants to bring it to the US

and it certainly hasn't been the glowing success he thought.

The story is, they take these two products,

neither of which is doing well on their own,

ginger beer, vodka, they put 'em together,

they add some lime juice, they throw it in a copper mug.

(tense music)

- I think we might have something there.

- And the Moscow mule is born.

John Martin was asked years later,

where did you get the name Moscow mule?

He said, "I don't know. We had been drinking a lot,

but it probably had something to do with it having a kick."

- [Narrator] Smirnoff begins selling their bottles

along with a booklet,

containing a recipe for the Moscow mule,

showcasing vodka as the ideal mixer for cocktails.

- What vodka can do really well

is it's appealing to American sensibilities and drinkers

who maybe don't always want to taste alcohol.

- [Narrator] But the launch comes at a precarious time

for a drink that originated in Russia.

- This ideological conflict between the United States

and the Soviet Union growing out of the Second World War

casts a long shadow, and it really defines people's fear

about a nuclear holocaust

and this impending apocalyptic battle

between the United States and the Soviet Union.

- [Narrator] The wave of anti-Russian sentiment,

led by senators like Joseph McCarthy,

is a potential death knell for the Moscow mule,

for Smirnoff, and for the future of vodka in America.

- There's suddenly protests

about the Moscow mule in New York City,

and there's people marching and saying,

"No more Moscow mules."

- [Narrator] As John Martin

watches the Smirnoff name come under fire,

Bill Samuels watches his family name fall into the hands

of its new corporate owners, Country Distillers,

and he leaves the liquor business altogether.

- He goes on to the Navy.

He goes on to sell timber and he's selling pneumatic scales.

He's doing all these things in between,

but it's probably always weighing in the back of his mind

that he couldn't buy his family name.

The family legend is, is that he was moping around

and his wife Marjorie kicked him and said,

"Get off your ass and go make some whiskey."

(paper slams) (intense music)

- Because bourbon is seen as a rough, hard drink,

he's literally and figuratively cutting ties with the past,

deciding that it's time for a new generation of bourbon.

How does he wanna make it? What's he want it to taste like?

- [Narrator] For five generations,

his family has been making their namesake bourbon

from a recipe that's more than 170 years old,

and Bill Samuels has the only written copy.

(intense music)

He'll now forge a new path

and concoct a whole new type of bourbon from scratch.

(robust music)

- [Narrator] In the late 1940s,

America is grappling with its Russian enemy

and Smirnoff's newly invented cocktail, the Moscow mule,

is no longer welcome in American bars.

But knowing the new drink

is a key to popularizing vodka nationwide,

John Martin wants to fight back

and he uses a cutting edge piece of technology.

- At that time,

Polaroid had just come out with the Instamatic,

the very first camera that could develop

and produce a picture right after you took it.

He got one and went and into this bar

and he tells the bartender,

if you try this drink, a Moscow mule,

I'll take a picture of you

that you can take home to your wife right now.

The bartender says, "That's not possible.

How you gonna do that?" (Instamatic snaps)

- [Narrator] Seeing the photos develop right in front of them,

Martin's potential customers are amazed.

- This, to most people at the time,

seems like a time machine.

Martin, he takes two pictures.

He takes one to give to the bartender,

and he keeps one for himself.

He immediately walks right down the street to the next bar

and he says, "Hey, this guy just did this thing.

He had this drink.

I can give you a picture of you making the Moscow mule,

and guess what?

I can also sell you the vodka."

- [Narrator] In the 1940s, most liquor companies

rely almost exclusively on print advertising,

but Martin personally visits bars

up and down the East Coast.

The stunt creates a snowball effect,

helping spread word of the Moscow mule,

and it becomes one of the first-ever

viral marketing campaigns in America.

- John Martin was a brilliant marketer.

He knew how to press the right buttons.

Things like that, which now is common,

but back then, it was sophisticated gorilla marketing.

- [Narrator] Soon, word of mouth

sparks widespread interest in vodka and sales take off.

- Now, he's got this new piece of technology,

which is blowing people's minds on its own,

and he's really showing Smirnoff

to be this cutting edge product.

It's not just a vodka,

it's something that represents the future.

- [Narrator] By 1955, sales of Smirnoff

reach over 1 million cases a year,

securing a 99% share of this new vodka market.

But while vodka has climbed out of obscurity,

Martin is hoping it can at least catch gin.

Meanwhile, options for American whiskey

are becoming increasingly limited.

- The era of independent distillers

died out during World War II.

And in the 1950s, there were very few

independent distillers still alive and working.

They were all owned by like Schenley, Seagram's,

National Distillers, Brown-Forman.

- [Narrator] But in Kentucky,

after being out of the business for nearly a decade,

Bill Samuels invests $35,000 to start a new distillery.

- Bourbon is one of the few liquors

that really originated in America,

but at the time, there was no exciting market for bourbon.

It was considered a rough and tumble liquor,

the kind of thing like cowboys would drink out of the bottle.

But he's got a vision for a better bourbon,

something that people can enjoy in a different way.

Was this an idea that was researched? No.

This was a guy making a decision from his gut,

because he had lived and breathed

whiskey his entire life.

- If you are trying to reinvent the wheel

and create a new recipe,

it's not like a one day process

where you start with grains in the morning

and you have a glass of whiskey in the evening.

It takes quite a long time to develop those flavor profiles.

- [Narrator] Having financed his own operation,

Samuels can't afford

to wait out the years long aging process

to test out different kinds of wheat.

- He and his wife, Margie,

decide to do something wildly brilliant.

They decide to bake loaves of bread.

- This allows them to experiment with different ratios

to get strengths and smoothness and everything.

- They can see how the grains blend together,

see what flavor profile is created,

especially once heat's been added and a bit of fermentation.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] Bill and Margie Samuels

quickly decide to take out rye,

which gives bourbon a spicy kick

and find a smoother tasting wheat to replace it.

- Traditionally, bourbon was made with corn

and rye and barley,

and so the use of wheat was not normal.

- Smells good.

Let's try this.

- [Narrator] Finally, after testing 150 loaves of bread

with a wide range of different wheats-

(Bill chuckles)

- That is it.

- Oh!

- [Narrator] With a new, smoother wheat,

the Samuels begin production on their bourbon,

an aging process that will take six years.

But meanwhile, international whiskey brands

continue to flourish in America.

Imports of Scotch and Irish whiskey

have almost tripled since the end of the war.

Canadian whiskey giant, Seagram's,

locks down a 20% share of the US market,

becoming the largest distillery in the world.

Bill Samuels will be competing with them head-to-head.

(tense music)

Meanwhile, in Connecticut,

John Martin has grown vodka into a force in the industry,

but with sales lagging behind,

he'll need to do more

to overtake the number one clear spirit in America, gin.

- This was unquestionably the era of the liquid lunch.

And the martini was undoubtedly something

that this very hyper masculine, corporate society enjoyed.

- At this point, gin is the dominant drink

and drinkers prefer their martinis with gin.

- [Narrator] Martin knows that as long as the gin martini

continues its dominance,

Smirnoff will never become

the best-selling liquor in the country.

- You see the problem.

It's easier to write about the flavor of a gin martini.

They're fruity, they're herbal.

- [Narrator] To push vodka as the spirit

that belongs in a martini,

Martin has a unique idea

to make the biggest marketing splash that any liquor

has ever had by putting it on the silver screen.

- So much of drinking is tied up with identity.

People want to appear a certain way,

and if I drink a certain brand,

maybe that will say something about me.

- Well, who's in it?

- The British guy from the John Wayne movie.

Yeah. Here.

(paper crinkles) (tense music)

- John Martin, he likes taking risks.

He likes going out on a limb.

- Now, his board members and investors

thought he was absolutely insane.

This was a series of books

turned into a movie about a foreign main character.

It's too British and it's also too sexual.

- [Narrator] Martin makes an expensive deal

that puts the fate of vodka in the hands

of a little known Scottish actor in an unproven movie.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] In 1962,

John Martin is attempting to overthrow gin

as the most popular cocktail drink in America.

To do it, he secured a risky deal

to feature Smirnoff in a movie

about a jet-setting, British spy named James Bond.

- The very first James Bond movie, "Dr. No",

we see a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka.

The waiter brings him a drink and says,

"Vodka martini, sir,

as you ordered, shaken and not stirred."

- This upsets generations of connoisseurs

who prefer their martinis with gin and prefer it's stirred.

But it doesn't matter, because once James Bond does it,

who cares what the connoisseurs tell you?

- No one really knows how much

Martin paid for this deal to take place,

but my gosh, did it pay off.

Because Smirnoff Vodkas

become the iconic drink of the world's most famous spy,

or as I like to say, the coolest guy in the room.

- So, this film goes on

to spawn a $7 billion, 25 film franchise,

cements Smirnoff as an iconic American brand

that American men actually didn't find foreign,

but rather wanted for the Smirnoff martini,

shaken not stirred.

- And now, vodka really dethroned gin

as the dominant drink in a martini.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, the bourbon industry

is on life support,

now controlled by just a few large corporations

making cheap liquor.

- The consumer taste for bourbon is fading.

It's going to vodka.

And so, for Bill Samuels trying to sell product,

that's a hard win.

- [Narrator] As Bill readies the launch

of America's first premium bourbon, his wife Margie

is trying to figure out how to make their product stand out.

- Marjorie Samuels was more than just support.

She was smart.

She had a degree in chemistry

from the University of Louisville,

and she's really the person

who plants the seeds for what bourbon is today.

You gotta remember, every bottle looked the same.

Some old man slapped on there

with old this, old that, same kind of dressing on the top.

They believe that the drinker that they were trying to get

wouldn't buy something unless it was expensive.

- [Narrator] To signal that theirs

is a high-end artisan product,

Margie Samuels hand dips each bottle

of their new whiskey in red wax melted on her home fryer,

creating America's most iconic liquor bottle.

- Also, she collected pewter

and pewter often had a little mark

at the bottom of the vessel

that was a little bit of an early brand.

- So, she sets about designing a maker's seal

to create the appearance of a higher-end product.

- [Narrator] The signature stamp on the bottle

inspires the whiskey's name,

Maker's Mark.

And while most bourbons cost $4 a bottle,

Maker's hits the shelf at $7,

defining its image as a premium product.

- They sought to create a top shelf item,

raising whiskey from something

the working man might swill to get drunk,

to something that the cultured American

might sip and really enjoy.

- [Narrator] While sales get off to a slow start,

Maker's soon makes its mark on another industry.

- In what is now considered the golden age of travel,

you were dressed to the nines,

you got lobster in there, you got fresh beef.

It was an elevated experience.

- This was like a sneak marketing tool,

because you have a captive audience.

Creating that pull on the customer directly

through the airline was a great opportunity.

- [Narrator] In 1961, Maker's Mark

becomes one of the first American whiskeys

to be served on a commercial flight.

And the smoother-tasting bourbon

captures national attention.

- This "Wall Street Journal" reporter,

he talks about the complexity

in the flavor and the smoothness.

Well, these moneyed "Wall Street Journal" readers,

they follow suit.

- Their phone would not stop ringing.

It was so bad that they had to take a full page ad

in the "Wall Street Journal" to say,

"Please stop calling us.

We will get to you at some point."

- In the following years, Maker's success ignites a boom

that puts America's whiskey

back in the hands of American distillers.

And over the next five decades,

yearly production grows by 50 million cases,

an increase that more than triples

the size of the industry.

In 2022, Maker's Mark

is the number one selling bourbon in America.

- Prohibition and the second World War

should have destroyed the industry.

And yet, simple, brilliant moves

solidified bourbon in America.

- There's very few things

that really are so singularly American

in the way that bourbon is.

- [Narrator] Today, Bill and Margie Samuels

are credited with saving American whiskey

and thwarting the industry takeover

by international companies, revolutionizing it

into the $19 billion industry it is today.

Margie Samuels' contributions to the recipe and the branding

push her to become the first woman

inducted into the Bourbon Hall of Fame.

- This is a huge established American brand now,

and the Samuels family

is still very much involved in running it.

- [Narrator] But while American-made whiskey

eclipses imported ones,

vodka reigns supreme, surpassing gin in 1976

and becoming the best-selling spirit in America,

a title it still holds to this day.

- Smirnoff changed the way every American drinks.

It changed cocktails.

It is the entry point for so many people to drink spirits.

- [Narrator] Thanks to John Martin,

the 159-year-old Smirnoff brand

becomes the best-selling spirit globally,

with nearly 27 million cases

sold in 130 countries every year.

And the once tasteless vodka

is now available in nearly 40 flavors.

- I think that these spirits become real lynchpins

to the celebratory moments in our lives,

the moments of relaxation, the moments of indulgence,

and it all comes back to these risk-takers.

And me and my bar at home salute all of you.

My liver would like to have a word with you, however.