Women Are Made of Whiskey & Ice and Everything Nice

By Marcy Nathan

WITCHES BREW

Ale — and later, beer — was made and sold almost entirely by women throughout the Middle Ages, probably because it was commonplace for the beverage to be made at home then. Widows with children and unmarried women brewed the beverage and sold it at marketplaces to earn money; married women made the beer their husbands sold at the market as well as in taverns. But as the Reformation gathered speed in the early to mid 1500s and charges of witchcraft became widespread, male brewers, eager to push the women out, began crying witch. Eventually it became too dangerous for the alewives, as women who sold beer were called, to sell their beer. When the witch hunt began, women accused of witchcraft weren’t just shunned in their communities, they were tried for sorcery, imprisoned and even executed. Some argue medieval alewives may

have even inspired our pop culture depiction of witches, and it seems likely; alewives transported their beer in large vats or cauldrons, and wore tall hats to stand out in the crowded marketplaces. Even the association between witches and broomsticks may go back to the 1500s. Brewers would stick a broom called an ”ale stake” in front of their homes to let neighbors know when they had beer to sell.

LEAVING HER MARK

Margie Samuels came up with the name for her husband Bill’s famed Kentucky whiskey brand, Maker’s Mark, and she also designed the square-shaped bottle and hand-lettered label. She even developed its iconic red-wax seal; it’s said she dipped the bottles in her home kitchen, using a fryer full of melted wax. Her ingenuity paid off, as she was the first woman directly connected to a distillery to be inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame.

WOMEN AND PROHIBITION

American women involved in the temperance movement, which preached moderation or abstinence, helped pass the 18th Amendment outlawing the manufacture, sale or trafficking of intoxicating liquors. Ironically, women made, sold and consumed more liquor during Prohibition than at any time before in history. Women like “Moonshine” Mary Wazeniak and Gertrude “Cleo” Lythgoe (known to many as the Bahama Queen) proved to be very adept bootleggers and rum runners, and faced little punishment when they were caught with the illicit liquor. Organized crime syndicates grew throughout Prohibition, and they took advantage of the fact that many states had laws specifically prohibiting male police officers from searching women, so these organizations often recruited women to smuggle their alcohol. Eventually, law enforcement wised up and hired women to become prohibition agents — women like Georgia Hopley, who signed on as the first female Internal Revenue Service agent in the Prohibition Unit in Washington, D.C. in 1922.

THE CELLAR MASTER ARROW

Pierrette Trichet is the only female maitre de chaise in the history of the renowned Cognac houses of France, which have been producing that well-loved brandy variety for centuries. Having grown up in Armagnac, Trichet had a lifelong familiarity with the vineyards and winemaking, so it’s not surprising that she was well-suited for the task. Although Trichet retired from her role as cellar master at Rémy Martin in 2014, she remains to this day one of the most influential women in Cognac.

HISTORY IN THE MAKING

Women have been involved with whiskey production and distribution — legal or otherwise — throughout time, but there have been few female distillers. Tennessee native Allisa Henley made history when she was named the first female master distiller of a

Tennessee whiskey at Cascade Hollow Distilling Co., where George Dickel Tennessee Whisky (”whisky” at Dickel is spelled in the Scottish way, without an ‘e’) has been produced for nearly 150 years. Henley moved to Sazerac of Tennessee, but another talented woman, Nicole Austin, quickly filled her shoes. Austin joined Cascade Hollow Distilling Co. in 2018. Whisky Advocate named her first major release, George Dickel Bottled in Bond, a 13-year-old bottling, its whiskey of the year in 2019, and it was named the top-rated American Whiskey of 2019 by Wine Enthusiast. George Dickel Bottled in Bond is now in its third iteration.

STORMING THE SAZERAC

Historically, Mardi Gras was the only day of the year that women were allowed inside the Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, until a 1949 publicity stunt ended the bar’s men-only policy.

On September 26 of that year, a large group of women stormed into the establishment, determined to enjoy a bit of equality and some excellent libations. While the revolution was actually the brainchild of the hotel’s then owner — who was basically drumming up some press for his business — the Sazerac Bar, and the nation, never looked back.

WOMEN WINEMAKERS

Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, known as the Grande Dame of Champagne, was the first woman to run a Champagne house. As a young parent, she took the reins of the family wine business at age 27 upon the death of her husband, François. A new generation of winemakers include Séverin Frerson, the first female cellar master in the 200-year history of Maison Perrier-Jouët, and Julie Cavil, the first female cellar master of Champagne house Krug, one of the top winemaking jobs in Champagne.