Julius Kessler was an important person in distilling history. He was born in 1855 in Budapest, Hungary. He came to America in the 1870s. He worked as a journalist, first in Omaha, Nebraska and then in Denver Colorado, before he decided to change careers and went into whiskey sales. In 1900, he purchased two Kentucky distilleries – Old Lewis Hunter and Crab Orchard distilleries. He sold his whiskeys directly to retailers instead of commission merchants. He was later hired by the Whiskey Trust to sell their whiskey. 

In 1913, Kessler became the president of the Distillers Securities Company (the new name for the Whiskey Trust) and sold excess stocks of whiskey to his competitors, who feared he would dump this whiskey at a low price and drive prices down, reducing the profitability of whiskey. He earned the respect of his peers in doing so.  In 1921 he resigned as president of Distillers Securities Company (now known as U.S. Food Products because of Prohibition) and toured Europe. 

He returned to the United States after Repeal and Samuel Bronfman of Seagram’s approached him with an offer. He was known as the person who sold the most whiskey in the United States before Prohibition. They would create a blended whiskey named for Kessler and offered to make him the president of a distillery that made the whiskey. Julius Kessler became the president of Kessler Distilling Company. He remained in that position until his death on December 10, 1940.

Julius Kessler was an important person in the distilling industry. His brand, Kessler’s Blended Whiskey, is still produced by Suntory and is the number two best-selling blended whiskey in America.