Guaranteeing quality and consistency for nearly 30 years

One of the keys to running a successful distilled spirit company is the ability to offer quality, consistent products again and again. It takes a full team running tests and tasting product on a daily basis to make this a reality, and Tawnie Gootee, Quality Assurance Bottling Specialist, has been part of that process for nearly 30 years. Tawnie tastes every single Heaven Hill product produced, approves program barrels, tastes the product in tankers that are delivered, and much more. To say she has a big job is a bit of an understatement and we sat down with her to learn all about it.

Tawnie, a Nelson County native, grew up on a tobacco farm riding horses with her siblings. After graduation, she took a lab position testing product at Owen Illinois and fell in love with the work. Nine months later, Owen Illinois cut back staffing and Tawnie was unfortunately laid off.

“Back then you just headed to the unemployment office to see what positions they had available,” she said. “They asked if I would be interested in interviewing at Heaven Hill. I, of course, had heard of Heaven Hill my whole life living in Nelson County, so I took the opportunity to sit down with Steve Hobbs who worked in HR at the time. They offered me a full time tour guide position taking over for a gentleman named BB Cisco. I started on April 23, 1990 and I never looked back.”

Tawnie jumped in head-first, learning everything she could about the company. Mike Sonne, Process Engineer for Heaven Hill trained Tawnie when she joined the team, even teaching her how to read the processing tanks. Three years later, the company created a second shift quality position for Tawnie, allowing her to grow with the company and gain more experience in quality management. After ten years on second shift, she switched to a day shift position in the quality department where she still works to this day. Tawnie handles an array of tasks and it’s safe to say no two days are the same.  

“A typical day for me is ever changing​,” she says. “Since I am one of the company’s Master Tasters, I typically come in first thing in the morning to an entire countertop full of product I need to taste. I also taste most of the tanker trucks that come in before they break the seal to start production. Once I complete that I may lead a VIP tour of the Bardstown Plant. I also handle complaints for raw materials such as defective labels, breakage on a line, etc. which I then work with the appropriate people to remedy. I work with suppliers, run daily quality audits on the lines, review returned product, lock and unlock product for shipping, and just generally help with quality-related questions. I even lead the occasional tour at the Bourbon Heritage Center. I guess you could say I’m a jack of all trades, but teamwork is what makes it all happen.”

While every day is different, it all comes together to ensure the quality and consistency of our products. In addition to this list of responsibilities, Tawnie tastes most of the Private Barrel Program barrels, helps in the selection of barrels for higher end, small batch, and single barrel Bourbons, and helps Chris Briney with new product development. So, you must be wondering, what goes into testing a product for quality and ensuring it is up to standard? Tawnie explains:

“Every order we run comes with a shop order, which is essentially the recipe to what goes into a product,” Tawnie says. “It’s extremely important to make sure the shop order matches what we are running on the line. We also have to be careful to do line wash outs between bottling to make sure there is no contamination between products. I then taste two or three rounds of samples to make sure everything tastes consistent and the proof is correct or else the government can flag the product. I am also looking at the clarity of the product meaning it isn’t flocked or cloudy. Finally, we take a sample from every bottling tank we run and keep it in a library for up to one year. We utilize these samples for comparison to new product as well as to cross check customer complaints to determine what may be wrong with their bottle. It’s a big job and it keeps me on my toes so I take it very seriously.”

As the last person to taste a product before it goes into production, Tawnie truly is the key to Heaven Hill’s quality and consistency. Her years of experience allow her to know exactly what each product is supposed to taste like.

“I’m really good at picking up different notes in a product that make it taste off,” she says. “For example, I can taste something called Geosmin a Bourbon which gives it a sort of grassy, almost moldy flavor that cannot be reversed. After 30 years of tasting, I really know what the different Heaven Hill mashbills are supposed to taste like and I can pretty easily spot an inconsistency. I don’t do it alone though, Mike Sonne and the rest of the quality team work together to yield the most consistent product possible.”

Tawnie says her favorite part of her job is the variation from day to day. She loves having the ability to grow and learn every day and strongly believes her work here is an example of the adage ‘What you appreciate, appreciates.’

“I have spent 30 years of my life here and Heaven Hill has been and will continue to be a big part of my life journey,” she says. “I have a passion for what I do and I have come into this place the same person, willing and ready to go from day one. I have grown with the company and everyone that I work with has been incredible and taught me so many great lessons. I feel like when you know you’re doing the best you can do every day, and you love working with the people you do, it makes coming to work a pleasure and not a dread. I know that my growth here and watching others grow around me will never stop. I have never felt like Heaven Hill wasn’t my place.”