No boys' club: Whiskey’s new leading ladies reshaping industry

Meghan Ireland always loved chemistry, but as a college freshman, she didn't know she could channel science into the art of making whiskey. It took stumbling across an article about a female chemical engineer who became a master distiller for something to click. While fellow students went into plastics, Ireland chose whiskey.

"I can see someone who looks like me doing this job," said Ireland, now the chief blender for Vermont-based WhistlePig. She is among a growing number of women leading a traditionally male-dominated industry. Increasingly, women are launching brands and innovating as more women consume the spirit.

Ireland is among a growing number of women who have become leaders in a traditionally male-dominated industry that has not always welcomed outsiders. Increasingly, women are launching their own brands and finding new ways to innovate in distilling and blending at a time when more women are drinking whiskey.

Becky Paskin, founder of OurWhiskey Foundation, recalls being asked if she even liked the drink while judging a tasting event. "It is a drink that comes with certain expectations around gender," Paskin said. Part of her work involves creating stock images of women consuming whiskey that don't depict them as sex objects or public service warnings.

Historians note that women have always been central to whiskey. The first distilling instrument was created by Maria Hebraea, an alchemist from the 2nd century. Distilling was once seen as women’s work, tied to home brewing and medicine. In the 1800s, Catherine Carpenter recorded the first known recipe for sour mash, now the most common style of American whiskey. During Prohibition, some estimate there were more female bootleggers than men, as women were less likely to be searched by police.

Susan Reigler, a bourbon expert, documented how women boosted the industry’s recovery in the 1990s. Three women co-founded the Kentucky Bourbon Trail—a novel idea that transformed distillery tourism. This included Peggy Noe Stevens, the world’s first female Master Bourbon Taster, alongside Donna Nally and Doris Calhoun. "There have always been women in bourbon," Reigler said. "But a lot of them have been behind the scenes."

Today, they are front and centre. Ireland’s first innovation, the Boss Hog VII, won awards for her decision to finish it in Spanish oak and Brazilian teakwood barrels. She believes more women in the field establishes whiskey as "a drink for everyone."

Judy Hollis Jones, president and CEO of Buzzard’s Roost, spent years as a food industry executive before co-founding her brand in 2019. The transition mirrored her experience in boardrooms where she was often the only woman. She notes that the number of women attending tastings and tours has steadily increased.

"I’ve had people say to me, 'Oh, well, you don’t wear jeans, boots and a cowboy hat,'" Hollis Jones said. "And I said: 'No, I don't. And every bourbon drinker female does not. We are a very wide range of people that love bourbon.'" As women move from the margins to leadership roles, they are not just making whiskey—they are redefining the culture surrounding it.

Associated Press