Photo by Clay Cook
In the two years since the departure of master distiller Denny Potter, Maker’s Mark went without filling the principal role, functioning instead with a collective distilling team. That changed this week, with the announcement of Dr. Blake Layfield as the new master distiller.
Layfield joined Suntory Global Spirits (the distillery’s parent company) in 2019, coming on board as its senior manager of research and development. He became exclusively Maker’s-oriented in 2022 upon being named head of innovation, blending, and quality. Before joining Suntory, he spent nearly five years at Diageo; before that, he was hard at work on his Ph.D. in food science, which had him wading through brewing sciences, yeast biology, and fermentation processes for over a decade—suffice to say he knows what he’s doing!
As master distiller, Layfield will oversee not just the production of Maker’s Mark whiskeys, from its legacy expressions to innovative offshoots, but also the distillery’s Star Hill Farm. The sprawling, 1,100-acre property in Loretto, Kentucky spotlights the natural resources that go into bourbon and stands as an ideal of regenerative agriculture and sustainable farming practices in the area.
Layfield was not the only member of the Maker’s distilling team to take on a new role—Beth Buckner, the distillery’s innovation manager, is now lead blender. Buckner began her Maker’s career in 2013 and has since been influential in developing the distillery’s limited releases, including the Wood Finishing Series and Cellar Aged, the latter of which earned a spot on our Top 20 list last year.
