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Margie Samuels Gains Bourbon Hall Of Fame Honor

Makersmark.com

The woman behind the Maker's Mark name and red wax on its bottles is taking her place among Kentucky's bourbon greats.

Margie Mattingly Samuels will be inducted next Wednesday into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame.

The Kentucky Distillers' Association says Samuels is the first woman directly connected with a distillery to receive the honor.

She's the fifth woman inducted.

In 1953, Mrs. Samuels collaborated with her husband, Bill Samuels Sr., to create Maker's Mark, a new kind of bourbon using wheat instead of rye as a secondary grain. She came up with the brand's name and created the iconic red wax that drips down the neck of the bottles she designed.

Whiskey author Fred Minnick says Mrs. Samuels might be the most underrated bourbon figure of all time.

Mrs. Samuels died in 1985.

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