Bill Samuels, Sr. purchases what is known today as the Maker’s Mark distillery and burns the 170-year old family recipe. He develops a bourbon whisky made with red winter wheat and soon after begins barreling Maker’s Mark®.

Hornitos® Tequila, named after the “little ovens” used to roast agave, is introduced by founder Don Francisco Javier Sauza in honor of Mexican Independence Day.

After refinements are made to suit the discriminating Japanese market, Kakubin whisky is born.

Jim Beam rebuilds the family distillery after Prohibition and establishes the James B. Beam Distilling Co.

Construction of the Yamazaki Distillery, Japan’s first malt whisky distillery, begins in Yamazaki, in the outskirts of Kyoto, marking the first step towards production of Japanese whisky. Distillation will begin in 1924.

Shinjiro Torii opens the Torii Shoten store in Osaka, Japan and initiates production and sales of grape wine, founding what is now Suntory Holdings.

Don Cenobio Sauza founds a distillery in Tequila, Mexico and takes Sauza® tequila to market.

Canadian Club® Whisky is born in Windsor, Canada.

T.W. Samuels builds the family’s first commercial distillery in Samuels Depot, Kentucky.

William Teacher, young and ambitious, starts selling a whisky blended from carefully selected distilleries at his wife’s grocery shop.