The Growing Influence Of Women In The Whiskey Industry

Several years ago, I wrote a blog about women in the industry. In that blog, I lamented about the fact that there were not more women in distilling. Things have changed since I wrote that blog and women are playing a larger part in the industry.

There have been several women who have taken the role as distillers and Master Distillers. There are several women that played a major role in breaking the glass ceiling for that role. Women such as Lisa Wicker, Marianne Eaves, Pam Heilmann, and Sherrie Moore. Lisa is the Head Distiller at Whiskey Thief Distillery, Marianne started at Castle & Key Distillery, but now is an independent consultant, Pam was the Master Distiller at Michter’s Distillery, replacing the legendary Willie Pratt. Sherrie is now the Master Distiller at Castle & Key. They have all had a hard road to their positions but all have made great whiskey and have proven that they can distill as well as any man.

There are also women such as Andrea Wilson at Michter’s. She started out as head of production at Diageo, but was later hired by Michter’s as their Master of Aging. She could have taken the role as Master Distiller, but her expertise is in aging whiskey and has a great talent for this skill as is proven by the great extra-aged whiskey Michter’s produces. There are also Master Blenders who are producing major brands. Nancy Fraley took her experience in the wine and brandy industry and transferred this ability to the whiskey industry, and has helped many distilleries create unique flavor profiles as an independent consultant. Heather Greene is the Master Blender at Milam & Greene Distillery and is bottling excellent whiskey.

Marianne eaves on the cover of American whiskey Magazine

There are also supporting roles in the distilleries that are being filled by women. April Weller Cantrell started life in Kentucky, moved to Tennessee where she worked in tourism and then became involved at Leiper’s Fork Distillery as Operations & Marketing Director and helped build that distillery’s tour and visitor’s program. Vicky Fugitte is director of Hospitality and Guest Experience at Michter’s. Both women play important roles as to what consumers experience on distillery tours. April has since moved on and is consulting for a Kentucky distillery but hopes to enter the world of whiskey writing.

This brings us to the last category of women in the industry, sort of, and that is writers about the industry. Writers don’t actually work for the industry as no distillery is paying them for their writing. However, they play an important part in the industry. When I started in the industry in the early 1990s, there were no women whiskey writers, or whiskey writers at all in 1991. Mardee Regan was the only writer and then because her husband at the time, Gary Regan was a cocktail writer who was writing a Bourbon book and she partnered with him to write the book. Occasionally Susan Riegler wrote an article for the local paper and that was the extent of the whiskey writing in the early 1990s. Then Bourbon began to grow and interest in Bourbon and other whiskeys grew to include people writing about it. Susan Riegler has since written several books on Bourbon and Bourbon tourism. Janet Patton still writes many articles for the Lexington, Kentucky newspaper on the whiskey industry. Maggie Kimberl has made a career out of writing about the whiskey industry, editing whiskey magazines and judging whiskey competitions and worked with me to create this blog and keep it going. Sarah Havens is another talented woman writing about Bourbon.

Women have come a long way since I wrote that blog several years ago, but there is still room to grow. It is my hope that this growth of women in the industry continues to grow and prosper.