Jim Rutledge Talks of Four Roses Past, Distillery Future

When Four Roses master distiller Jim Rutledge retired last year, he wasn’t the first master distiller to retire before his career was truly over. Woodford Reserve’s Lincoln Henderson retired from Brown-Forman and then started Angel’s Envy. Now, Rutledge joins the extremely rare crop of Kentucky blue blood master distillers to leave the corporate ranks and start his own distillery, which he announced yesterday. Read the Whisky Advocate blog story.

Fred Minnick caught up with Rutledge to discuss his past and new venture.

First, let’s discuss Four Roses. After you retired, speculation surfaced that you were pushed out as Four Roses master...