FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — Bourbon is more than a business in Kentucky. It's heritage, identity, and tradition. For generations, the people crafting it were almost always men. Marianne Eaves is changing that — making history as the commonwealth's first female master distiller.
When Eaves first entered the bourbon industry as an intern at Brown-Forman, the idea of a female master distiller in Kentucky was almost unheard of.
"They had been for a long time calling it the Fraternity of Master Distillers, and then I walk through and they have to start renaming things and making it more inclusive," Eaves said.
Years later, she earned one of bourbon's most prestigious titles, becoming the first female master distiller in Kentucky.
"There were a lot of folks who didn't accept it. They didn't want to accept it. A woman, and a young woman, had never been seen in that role. And it was hard for the industry to catch up of that just being the new way of things," Eaves said.
With a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Louisville, Eaves brings a scientific approach to an industry rooted in tradition.
"I fell in love with the science first. I wasn't much of a drinker before I started working for Brown-Forman but I found that I developed my taste really quickly," Eaves said.
That approach eventually led her to create her own small-batch wheated bourbon brand, "Forbidden" — made with white corn, white wheat, and a high percentage of malted barley.
Eaves is also working to change who bourbon speaks to, attracting a new generation of drinkers to a spirit once seen as old-fashioned.
"When I first started in the industry back in 2009 that's definitely my mindset. I was like bourbon is kinda for the old people. But as I was working at Brown-Forman and the products we were coming out with, they're seeing double-digit growth. It's actually kind of a bit of a return to people liking that kind of retro feeling," Eaves said.
She hopes her success encourages more women to see a place for themselves in the industry.
"Things happen slowly. Bourbon ages slowly, minds change a little bit more slowly than we would like, but every new interaction that they have with a young, capable female master distiller might make them pause," Eaves said.
Her vision for the future of bourbon is one built on inclusion.
"What I hope to leave as my legacy is building a table — a larger table — I don't know if there's anything I can do about what's been established, the industry as it is today. But what I hope to leave behind me is an industry that is more welcoming, that accepts different voices and different makers," Eaves said.
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