Ladies are illuminating the whiskey revolution.
Directed & Edited By: Tamara Boxx for LUXYMOM® | Photography: Tim Gibbons Photography | 1st Camera Assistant & Videography: Ursula Gibbons | Location: BURN by Rocky Patel | Makeup Artist: Carly Colliss with Duality Artisty | Hair Stylist: Ursula Gibbons | Model: Melissa Phillips
Bourbon. A sweet, smooth, and glowing spirit that is widely accepted as a masculine drink. When you close your eyes and imagine the perfect setting for drinking bourbon, you maybe see a dark room with rich leathers and beautifully dressed people sipping amber liquid out of crystal snifters talking business and pleasure. Indeed, bourbon immediately evokes a certain vision of the individual drinking the libation, but you never really think of women enjoying this beverage – until now.
Let’s start with the basic question – what is bourbon? Bourbon is commonly said to be whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon. Are you following? So, to be bourbon, the type of whiskey must be made of at least 51 percent corn and be aged in new/charred oak barrels. Bourbon can be produced in any state in the U.S., but 95% of bourbon is produced in the great state of Kentucky. That’s a lot of bourbon.
So, what has changed, and why are women starting to lead the whiskey renaissance? Did you know back in the 1990’s, only 15% of whiskey drinkers were women? Now, according to Fred Minnick, author of Whiskey Women, women represent 37% of the consumer base. That is quite the influx!
Again, we ask-why have women started embracing this spirit as a drink of choice?
Bourbon has always been associated with power and business, and it can be assumed that many major deals and compromises have been made over a glass of whiskey. Now that women have made huge advances in the business sector and joined the ranks in power, they are part of the conversation and handshake over a glass of the distinguished spirit.
What was once reserved as a drink for the “good ole boys club” has now been opened up to the business women of modern times, and there is nothing sexier than a beautiful lady in a fabulous suit drinking Woodford Double Oaked neat. A total boss move.
Being part of the business conversation is not the only draw for women – it is also the taboo of the drink. Being that 63% of women still lean to wine and other cocktails, being a woman who can drink a harder spirit and have knowledge about the drink is catnip to the opposite sex. So obviously, those who dare to go on the road less traveled tend to raise some eyebrows. Brands like Johnnie Walker recognized this shift in the whiskey drinker demographic and enlisted the wow power of actress Christina Hendricks to showcase the fact that whiskey is not just a man drink.
Finally, the taste is luring women to the table. Because corn is a main staple in this delicious libation, there is a sweet undertone to the drink. With distillers experimenting and creating new and complex flavors, Minnick says that, “Women are absolutely the future of whiskey.”
As it turns out, we women have had our hand in whiskey since the beginning. In the 2nd or 3rd century in Egypt, Maria Hebrea is credited for devising an early version of a still that could have been studied and lead the way for modern stills used today. In the 18th century, women were producing the whiskey, but it was for necessity. Whiskey was used by women back in that time for medicinal purposes for helping to cure aches, scratches, earaches and so on. It was the Tylenol of the 18th century.
So, if you think about it, we didn’t have to take a seat at the “good ole boys club” today – because we actually built the table they sit at to drink the alcohol we have always produced. Pretty neat, don’t you think?
So, move over boys, it is time for beauties and bourbon!