THE FUNDAMENTALS

As legends of their craft go, Michter’s Andrea Wilson is right up there with the best of them. Whiskey has always been in her blood, growing up listening to stories from her great uncle who worked for Seagram and a grandfather who was a moonshiner for many years. On the other side of her family was a grandpa who worked for many years as a police detective and, later, a sheriff, who hosted numerous parties at which a toast with Kentucky Bourbon would always be made.

As the years went by, Andrea saw that she wanted to develop her career in the whiskey industry. However, with a distinct lack of schooling in the area at the time, she took time to learn the trade through family and mentors before discovering that a degree in chemical engineering would provide a large proportion of the curriculum she would need to be successful in making spirits.

Upon her graduation in 1996, the Kentucky Bourbon industry certainly wasn’t