Legendary Master Distiller Dave Pickerell Has Passed Away

Dave Pickerell, former Maker’s Mark master distiller and the creative force behind such whiskey brands as WhistlePig , Metallica’s Blackened , and Hillrock Estate , passed away on november 1, 2018 in San Francisco. He was 62.

With his signature wide-brimmed hat, huge smile, and warm embraces, Pickerell was both a beloved and a legendary figure in American whiskey. A 1978 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he played football, he later went on to earn a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Louisville. That expertise led him to a position at...