Exploring Louisville’s Whiskey Row and the Trailblazing Women in Whiskey at the WOW Awards (S3 E15)

# AI Transcript: S3 E15 - Wow Awards - Please excuse any typos

Kerry Moynahan:
It is 5 o'clock somewhere and you've tuned in to Season 3, Episode 15 of BRC. For those of you who'd like to watch this episode, I highly recommend it. You can view Season 3 on our website, YouTube, Spotify, WhiskeyNetwork.net, and Zencastr. I'm Keri Moynihan, and in today's Tales from the Still, I attend the Bourbon Women's WOW Awards in Louisville, Kentucky, where I met up with Jeff the Creed founders Joyce and Autumn Nethery, whiskey writer Maggie Kimbrell, master distiller at Forbidden Bourbon, Marion Eves, and Milam & Green Distiller's CEO and master blender, Heather Green. But first, I visited many of Louisville's Whiskey Row establishments, as well as took a tour at the Kentucky Derby's racetrack, Churchill Downs, in today's Dram Diaries. So kick off your shoes, pour yourself a dram, and join me for this episode of Barrel Room Chronicles. Today's Dram Diaries is brought to you by Manscaped.com. No more juggling multiple tools or dealing with subpar results. Just efficient, effective grooming whenever he needs it. Get 20% off plus free shipping when you use code BARRELROOM at the checkout. Upon arrival in Kentucky, I visited Whiskey Row and the famous horse race track, Churchill Downs. The iconic Whiskey Row in downtown Louisville is a historic stretch along Main Street that once served as the epicenter of the city's bourbon industry. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the area housed numerous distilleries, whiskey warehouses, and offices, contributing to Kentucky's bourbon boom. After a period of decline, the district was revitalized and is now home to a collection of distilleries, museums, and attractions that celebrate bourbon culture and history. Today, Whiskey Row stands as a testament to Louisville's rich bourbon heritage. My first tour was at Churchill Downs, located in Louisville. This track is one of the most iconic horse racing venues in the world, best known for hosting the Kentucky Derby. This annual event, first held in 1875, is often referred to as the most exciting two minutes in sports, and is the first race in the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Attendees often wear elaborate hats and outfits, making the Derby as much a social event as a sporting one. Churchill Downs also features a museum dedicated to the history of the Derby and Thoroughbred Racing. During the tour, I learned that the Derby has run every single year for the last 150 years. even in 2020 during the pandemic lockdown. My next stop was the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, which is an immersive, artisanal distillery tour dedicated to the history of Evan Williams, who was Kentucky's first commercial distiller. Visitors can explore the whiskey-making process through interactive exhibits, taste different varieties of bourbon, and learn about the brand's legacy. The experience combines a small working distillery with a guided tour that showcases the importance of bourbon in Louisville's history. Among the many distilleries who have returned to Whiskey Row, I toured the Old Forrester Distillery, which is significant as the brand has been continuously sold by the same company for over 150 years, even during Prohibition. The distillery offers an engaging experience with its restored facility that allows visitors to see every step of the bourbon-making process, from fermentation to barrel-making to bottling. Old Forrester is also the only bourbon distillery that still carries out its entire production process on site. After taking all those tours, it was time for a tasting at Angel's Envy, which also offers a highly personalized tour of their distillery. Known for its signature bourbon finished in port wine barrels, Angel's Envy takes visitors on a journey through its small-batch bourbon-making process. The tours typically include tastings of their premium expressions, and a behind-the-scenes look at how they craft their unique and flavorful bourbons. I, however, only had time to do the whiskey and chocolate pairing, which I must say was delicious. I ended my night at the Bardstown Bourbon Company bar for a flight and a cocktail. Bardstown has expanded its presence onto Whiskey Row, bringing its innovative approach to bourbon making into Louisville's historic bourbon hub. Known for its modern, experimental techniques in crafting whiskey, Bardstown's Whiskey Row location offers tastings and retail, allowing visitors to explore its range of bourbons and get a glimpse of what makes Bardstown an exciting name in the bourbon industry. So if you are ever in Kentucky, I highly recommend all of these experiences. Up next, I head to the WOW Awards in this episode's Tales from the Still. Sizzle alert! This summer, let the only thing smoking at your barbecue be the grill, and not your man's grooming game. Get ready for the ultimate cookout season with Manscaped.com. 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Announcer:
The Bourbon Women Association and the Bourbon Women Education Foundation proudly present the 2024 Women of Whiskey Awards. Women are rocking the whiskey world, trailblazing excellence, and redefining the industry. Tonight, we celebrate these changemakers. Lois Mateus, Award Presentation. Susan Westrom, 22 years in the Kentucky General Assembly. Award finalists are Mike Keyes-Alley of the Year Award, Deborah Brenner, and Dr. Janice Fernhelmer. Spirits Diversity Program of the Year, Camp Runamauk and Step Up Foundation. Spirits Influencer, Podcaster of the Year, Carrie Moynihan and Stephanie Byrd. Spirits Writer of the Year, Maggie Kimbrell and Shelley Sackier. Brand Ambassador of the Year, Avion Unahas and Creola Dickerson. Master Blender of the Year, Ashley Barnes and Nancy Fraley. Bartender of the Year, Amy Ward and Megan Ford. Women-Owned Brand of the Year, Jeptha Creed Distillery and Whiskey Sisters Supply. Master Distiller and Production Manager of the Year, Joyce Nethery and Marlene K. Holmes. Legacy Achievement, Erica Fields and Margie A.S. Lehrman. Peggy Noe-Stevens Trailblazer recipient, Ms. Elmer Lucille Allen. Please welcome Peggy Noe-Stevens, founder and chair emeritus, Urban Women, and Susan Riegel, past president of Urban Women.

Kerry:
All right, we are at the Wow Awards here in Louisville. Louisville. Am I saying that right? Louisville. Louisville. Louisville. Yeah. You did not pronounce any of the syllables. Yeah. Yeah. I said Louisville and my niece, who's been here several times for the fair, she does horse stuff. She's like, Louisville. I'm like, sorry. Anyway, I'm here with Joyce and Autumn, who are the founding partners of? Jepeth Creek. Jepeth Creek. OK. Now, first of all, Well, first, we'll start with how did you get to where you were? Secondly, where did the name come from? Yeah, absolutely.

Autumn:
So, Jeff and Creed was really started. We're a family-owned and operated distillery. So, my mother and I, we're a mother-daughter team. She is our master distiller. I am our vice president of operations. The two of us run the company. We grow all of the grains that we use for our products and my dad is the one who runs the farm and grows the grain for us. So it's really truly like a family affair on all sides. And that's how it started. My dad was the one who came up with the idea for the distillery. My mother used to be an industrial distiller before she was a teacher and then a CFO and all these very serendipitous positions for running a distillery. And she thought it was kind of insane. It was kind of crazy, but it kept going on.

Kerry:
Why did you think that was the crazy idea? Why?

Joyce:
Oh, because we had so much going on, you know. We were running these businesses. We had lots of employees. We had lots of responsibilities. And I didn't see the vision at the time. I was like, what? But I came around, saw the vision through Moonshine University in Louisville. It's a real thing. And saw the vision, came out of that class, that Moonshine University class, with that vision of ground to glass. That with my husband's agricultural expertise, we could grow our own heirloom varietals of corn. With my engineering, we could distill it and make a beautiful bourbon product. So I came out of that class with that vision. Got on board with him and now the ladies are doing it.

Kerry:
Ten years later, here we are. Okay, so how come he's not part of the distillery? Is it because he's making the corn or what?

Autumn:
Because the farming and his other businesses are full-time jobs.

Kerry:
And how many other businesses does he have? Eleven? Oh my god. There's quite a few. I think it's eleven. That's making me feel stressed right there. Good Lord. I hope he has a lot of good people behind him so he doesn't have to do much. He does. I need one of those. Here's my 11 companies. You go. Call me Howard Hughes. Just go. It's definitely not like that. He's got a very good team behind him. All right. So did he kind of force you to go take that class and say, go see The Vision, or did you finally say, fine, I'll go see whatever?

Autumn:
So my mother actually signed my father up for the class. Okay, and it was taking place in January He all of a sudden like the week before the class Couldn't go because he had to take a last-minute business trip to Detroit in the middle of a snowstorm And to this day, he will not admit it to me, but he kind of gives me a wink because I truly believe that he set up a reason.

Kerry:
There was nobody in Detroit?

Autumn:
I don't think there was any reason for him to go to Detroit and Michigan during a snowstorm in January. I think he faked it so that she would go to the class.

Kerry:
Because otherwise it'd be a waste of money or... So that she could get on board.

Autumn:
It was his way to try to get her convinced to see the vision, see the idea that was forming.

Kerry:
I would think he would try to get you to be in on that. I was 18 at the time. Oh, OK. So you're still a pup. You're still a young pup. All right, so Joyce, so you took this class. And were you like, did you come out of it actually excited and said, yeah, you know what? This will be fun?

Joyce:
I came out of it with a vision. And I could see where we could do our own varietal of bourbon with our own heirloom corns and be different and unique and distinct. And that the whole family would be involved in what we were doing. So I came out on board. and then we zoomed. After that class, within two years, we had a distillery built, operational, and we're going full steam ahead.

Kerry:
Okay, now is the distillery built on your farmland or did you get other property?

Joyce:
This is property that we bought specifically for the distillery, but it was literally a cornfield. when we started and there was no road, no access to it. You literally needed four-wheel drive to get to it. So we built this greenfield from scratch.

Kerry:
That's amazing. So now, how did you come up with the name of this whiskey?

Autumn:
The name actually comes from the home farm. So where I grew up, where my dad grew up, we've been in Shelby County, Kentucky for 300 years. And so our home farm sits at the foothills of these hills called Jephthah Nob. And back when Squire Boone and Daniel Boone were exploring the area, they named it after a biblical warrior in Judges 11. It was kind of like the grocery store of the day. There was a salt lick where all the animals would come in, so it was the hunting ground. Why they named it after Jeptha, I'm not sure, but that's what they chose. And so there was our family history, local state history, and it was just kind of the perfect name for our company. And then because we use all natural ingredients and we are very open and honest with our consumers about what's in their glass. We chose Creed as a promise to always be open and honest with our consumers.

Kerry:
I love that. So were you guys growing corn before this or was when you decided to do this distillery that you said okay let's start growing corn and then if so why did you choose the red corn that you have?

Joyce:
No, we were growing corn for a lot of agricultural uses. We had cattle, we have buffalo, we have pigs and chickens, you know, we have a lot of those agricultural pieces. So we were growing the corn to feed them. And the company name is actually Rutt and Strutt Distillery for the farm. So Rutt being for deer hunting season and Strutt for turkey hunting season. So that's important in our household. So watching the deer and the turkey is something that we did and do for fun and entertainment. And we would watch the deer and the turkey go through that yellow corn to get to our bloody butcher corn to eat. And they ate it, and ate it, and ate it. And the deer had a choice. And they chose to eat the bloody butcher corn. So we wanted to choose it too. And it just turns out beautiful.

Kerry:
That is fantastic. I tried both the foregrain and your bottle and bond back here. For those of you at home, we're standing in front of their bar. And I chose the foregrain to put into my Manhattan because I just... I couldn't do the Bottle and Bond. I mean, they're both delicious, but I felt one has more of an opening for a cocktail than the other, only because I like my whiskey strong, and Bottle and Bond was good. So it's four grain. And I don't usually like four grain. So what are the four grains, if you're allowed to say? Yeah, no.

Autumn:
Again, part of that creed, we're open and honest. So it's bloody butcher corn, malted rye, malted wheat, and malted barley.

Kerry:
So good. So good. OK, so what else do I need to ask you here? So you're in how many states right now?

Autumn:
We're in 10 states. We're in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, Texas, Florida, Georgia.

Kerry:
And you're coming to California when?

Autumn:
In a few years, it is on the list, but it is for another few years.

Kerry:
We are pretty easy here in California. We're working on it, we're getting there. And as I was telling your mom, you can get us in grocery stores, you can get us on a Sunday, you just walk in anywhere and you buy booze. So, the people of California would love to have you. Absolutely. We'll get there someday. We'll get there. Well, ladies, it was a pleasure getting to meet you today and to talk to you. And Joyce, good luck tonight on your award. Good luck to you, too. I hope you win. Thank you. Ditto. And I will see you guys at the ceremony. Absolutely. See you then. Thank you. Thanks. Hi. Hi. Are you a fellow nominee this evening?

Maggie:
I am. I've been nominated for Spirits Writer of the Year.

Kerry:
Fantastic. I've been nominated for Podcaster Influencer of the Year. Congratulations. Thank you. I hope we both win tonight. Right on.

Maggie:
Have you been to this event before? I used to be the president of this organization.

Kerry:
That's right. I forgot. So sorry. So how long were you president? One year.

Maggie:
Is it only a one year term? There's not really term limits. Yeah.

Kerry:
Well, that's good, because then you can get out after one. I know a lot of people have two-year term limits and then they're like, oh, I have another year to go.

Maggie:
No, it wasn't that kind of situation.

Kerry:
Okay, great. So tell me, how did you first get into whiskey and what got you into writing about whiskey?

Maggie:
So that's actually a really long story. I used to work part-time at... We have 40 minutes. Okay, perfect. I used to work part-time at the liquor store when my kids were little and I originally thought that it would be a good idea to learn about wine because I had worked in the restaurant business for so long and I thought, you know, when it's time to like go back to work for real, learning a little bit about wine might be a good thing and I really quickly learned that wine people were not my people. And I was also really into the farm-to-table movement at that time. And so I looked down the whiskey aisle one day while I was standing at the cash register and I was like, you know what? They make that stuff right down the road. I should probably learn a little bit about it. And that was back in the days when master distillers would come to liquor stores and sit there and do tastings and bottle signings and nobody knew who they were. Nobody cared. That's awesome. So, like, Chris Morris probably made me my first ever mint julep. I, you know, I had Jimmy Russell pouring me whiskey and explaining it to me. But really the kind of pivotal moment for me was when Jim Rutledge was in the store one week during Derby Week, and this was back when he still worked for Four Roses. He was in there doing a tasting and a bottle signing, and I don't know if you've ever heard of the Kentucky Derby. You're not from around here. I went to Churchill Downs today. Perfect, okay, so you know what I'm talking about. It's kind of a big deal, and it's kind of pandemonium everywhere you go, and anywhere in the Louisville area for sure, but especially, you know, all over Kentucky. And so every time I would try to go over and talk to Jim Rutledge, a whole horde of people would come in and I would have to go back to the cash register and ring people up. So he was packing up to leave and it was time for me to go on break and I was like, oh well, I guess I'll talk to Jim Rutledge next year. And so I went back into the break room and I was eating my sad little peanut butter sandwich by myself. in the concrete-walled break room. And the next thing I knew, Jim came through the door with bottles in one hand, cups in the other, and he was like, you didn't get to do my tasting. And he sat down with me, and he taught me a little bit about the history of Four Roses, why they have 10 different recipes, which recipes were in which bottles, and he taught me the proper bourbon tasting technique. That's amazing. And that was my aha moment. And I was like, oh my god, this is amazing. I have to tell the whole world about this. What year is this? Ish. I mean, it was 11 or 12 years ago. I mean, it's been quite some time. And so I quit my job and started writing about whiskey. So I've been writing about whiskey for 11 years. I'm a freelancer. I'm the content editor of American Whiskey Magazine. I'm a contributing editor for Whiskey Magazine. I am the chair of judges for the World Whiskey Awards in North America. You're kind of a big deal, I'm just going to say. Yeah, my husband jokes that he's going to get a t-shirt printed up that says, have you met my wife? She's kind of a big deal. I'll make it and send it to him. Yeah, yeah, I think it's a good idea. But yeah, so that was when I really got into bourbon. And you know, other than, you know, bourbon, when you're from Kentucky, bourbon, I like to say it's just kind of in the wallpaper, it's just kind of there. But that was really the first time that I realized like, oh, hey, this is actually something I should, you know, learn about and get to know and, and it has become my passion. So I've been writing about whiskey and judging whiskey professionally for about 11 years now.

Kerry:
And since we are down here in Kentucky, I know bourbon is the big thing, but are you into rye at all, or Irish, or Scottish, or Japanese, or Indian, anything like that? Yes.

Maggie:
Yay. Yay! I love all of those. I mean, obviously bourbon, and specifically Kentucky bourbon is number one for me, and it always will be. I'm a ninth generation Louvillian, and so my family's been in Kentucky for a very, very long time.

Kerry:
Nine generations, so you've been here since before we were Americans? Yes. Are you part of the Daughters of the American Revolution?

Maggie:
My friend Joan, who you met earlier, is in the DAR and she keeps trying to get me to join. You should, I'm in it too. Actually, I learned, she found out last year that Evan Williams married into my family. What?

Kerry:
I just went to the Evan Williams thing right after the... That's what I did today. I went to Churchill Downs and Evan Williams experience.

Maggie:
So my patriot, as they call them, Jenkin Phillips, Evan Williams married his daughter.

Kerry:
Okay, so you just need to do it. Back to the interview. So when you quit your job, did you major in writing before or were you just always a good writer but you just never actually put yourself out there?

Maggie:
So I double majored in English and philosophy when I was in college and I wanted to be a writer but I had a college professor who was like, don't be a writer, you'll never make any money. And she was right. Like, I don't make very much money doing this, but it's like, I like to tell people it's kind of like a personality flaw or like a compulsion. I can't not be a writer because that's just who I am.

Kerry:
Well, you know what? I mean, but it's, I mean, it's still steady, whether it's a lot of money or not. I mean, you still have lots of stuff to write and it keeps you busy.

Maggie:
I have plenty of stuff to write. The problem is that I don't have enough people to pay me to write the things that I want to write. Sounds like podcasting. Yeah.

Kerry:
Yeah, very much. All right, well, I want to thank you very much for taking some time out and good luck tonight. And we're here at the WOW Awards, as I said before, and good luck tonight. And thank you so much for stopping by.

Maggie:
Thanks for speaking with me. Congratulations on your nomination.

Marianne Eaves:
My name is Marianne Eaves and I am the Master Distiller of Forbidden Bourbon.

Kerry:
Did you hear that? So exciting. Okay, so I'm not gonna lie, I've read up on you. Read an article about you being like the first woman, something or other, distiller, badass. So tell me about how that came to be.

Marianne Eaves:
I started in the industry as a intern working for Brown Foreman. and I had no idea that I wanted to do whiskey. I really just started there. My mom was like, you know, Brown Farm is a great company. It'll look good on a resume, even if you don't stick with it. Because I thought I wanted to renewable energy, biodiesel, with a chemical engineering degree.

Kerry:
I mean, that's good. Yeah. It doesn't sound as fun or tasty, but... Right.

Marianne Eaves:
I mean, why would you make fuel wind corn when you can make bourbon? So I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the science mostly, the technical processes, like every major unit operation that you learn in a chemical engineering curriculum you use in a distillery setting. So luckily they liked me also. They ended up offering me a job before I graduated. And that was when, you know, I really found my place. So I started working on the sensory panels and they accelerated me to the master, the expert tasting panels. And then I got offered the opportunity to start training as master taster under Chris Morris of Woodford Reserve. I'm like so jealous. Keep going. Yeah, and then from there I achieved the title of Master Taster in 2014. The next year I got offered a kind of a life-altering chance to revive a bourbon icon, the historic Old Taylor Distillery. And so I jumped on it and everybody thought it was crazy, but I did it anyway. And so that's how I achieved the title of Kentucky's first female master distiller. That's fantastic. And are you still doing that right now? I am distilling. I'm blending. I own my own brand, Forbidden, with several other partners that are based out of South Carolina. I'm also opening, working on funding a distillery out in Montana. Montana, okay. Big Sky, Montana. I'm also, myself, just me, so far, just around the corner, on 5th and Market Street here in Louisville, going to be opening a bourbon experience tasting room. Oh, fun!

Kerry:
That's great. How soon will that be open? Probably about a year from now. Okay, I'll have to come back. I'll have to come back and do a tour and the whole thing. Yeah. So, how has this experience been for you? Is it like, just crazy and like, is it kind of like the Hollywood experience for you kind of thing?

Marianne Eaves:
You mean my career? Yeah, I don't know. I couldn't correlate it to Hollywood because I have no context of what that's like.

Kerry:
Just like being starstruck kind of thing, like, oh my gosh, this is what I'm doing now, and oh my gosh, this is happening, and you know, that kind of thing.

Marianne Eaves:
It's interesting because every step that I've taken, it's been nobody ever thought that it could be done kind of thing like at first female and the line to be in a master taster and then master distiller Brown Foreman and then I left there and it was like she's insane this distillery will never open and then I did and then I moved away from there and they're like okay she's actually crazy like what is she doing now oh wait she made this really cool bourbon I created my own blind bourbon tasting program which has never been done it's like every step that I take people are like wow Marianne is weird but she makes good stuff so maybe it's okay.

Kerry:
So when you left Brown Forman, how long were you in between Brown Forman and your next venture and then how long were you at that venture where you're like hey look what I did?

Marianne Eaves:
Well, I moved from Brown Forman directly to Castle in Key, but there was some dead air there because Castle in Key didn't have a name at that point. They weren't sure when they wanted to announce. They were like, well, we got to put you and the name in the same press release because otherwise we are going to waste the attention. It had been like three months or something. I was like, I can't not tell people what I'm doing. because it was very obvious that I was doing something, but just not with round foreman anymore. So we put that out there. And then the press was, I think, surprising to all of us that people were so interested in this story of being Kentucky's first wheelbass distiller. And that sustained, I mean, still until today, that people are just like, wow, what an achievement. And yes, but it was a long time coming, so. Should have happened sooner. I'm really grateful to be the one carrying the torch and being visible so that more women are confident and see a path to do it too.

Kerry:
I love that. And then are you up for an award this evening?

Marianne Eaves:
I am not up for an award this evening. And this is actually my first time just coming as an attendee. I have no obligations. I'm just here to party.

Kerry:
I love that. I love that. So what is your five-year plan with all that's going on?

Marianne Eaves:
I want to say world domination, maybe. You know, a distillery in downtown Louisville, a distillery out in Big Sky, who knows what comes next.

Kerry:
And are these distilleries going to be under the same name or different names?

Marianne Eaves:
Different names. I'm kind of building my own collection of great partners and kind of innovative ways to approach the market.

Kerry:
That's awesome. And then are you from Louisville originally or somewhere else?

Marianne Eaves:
I was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. We moved to Louisville when I was really little so I claim Kentucky. I've been here most of my life. I live in Lexington currently.

Kerry:
Yeah, none of you guys have accents. I was expecting a lot more accents here and I'm like really not.

Marianne Eaves:
The Louisville accent, they call it the news anchor accent because it's no accent.

Kerry:
You sound like California to me. All right, well, thank you so much for taking time out. It was great to meet you in person and good luck with all your ventures. Thank you. Thank you. Here we are with the none other than Heather Green, an idol that I've been watching for years and years now. I have her book. I have a bottle of signed whiskey from an event that I went to where she so graciously signed it for me. And Heather, I've been trying to get you on the show for a gazillion years, but you were just so busy. No, it's good because now I've cornered you. So, Heather, for those who have been sleeping in a shoe and don't have any idea who you are, where you came from, give us a quick background of your whiskey journey and how you became who you are at Mylam & Green.

Heather Greene:
Sure, I like that. Sleeping in a shoe, is that what you said? It's new, I just made it up. Yeah, it's a good one. So I started, I know, for brevity, because it's a podcast, let's just say I started 17 years ago at the Scotchmalt Whiskey Society in Edinburgh, traveled through being an ambassador for the Scotch whisky industry, wrote a book, started the Flatiron, or helped open the whisky school at the Flatiron Room in Fine Rear in Manhattan, The book became a bestseller. It still does really well. I have a copy. Consultant, and then now whiskey, putting all that knowledge into my own brand with a great team, Marsha Milam and Marlene Holmes, who's up for Master Distiller of the Year.

Kerry:
Oh fantastic. I am up for podcaster influencer of the year. I am so I mean I'm glad because it forced me to come out here and spend money that I didn't have anyway but it's okay because I've been trying to get out here for a long time and I was like you know what this is this is a good opportunity I'm gonna get to see a lot of people including yourself so When you started My Lemon Green, did you think it would take off as it did, or are you right on track of where you thought you'd be, or tell me about that.

Heather Greene:
Oh my gosh, you know, I think there's a little bit of naivete when you go from being a writer and, you know, a whiskey expert into actually starting a company. And we started right before the pandemic, so everything has been a massive surprise. The journey has taken so many roundabouts through the COVID, the pandemic, the supply chain issues, and all these kinds of things. So I would say I am happy where we are. We really are a team with a lot of grit and a lot of heart, and we have great whiskey. You do have great whiskey.

Kerry:
I can contest to that. So what is your five-year plan currently with the company?

Heather Greene:
So, five-year plan would be to grow into more states, hopefully in the United States, and then international. So, we're really excited at some point to look at some world domination.

Kerry:
I love world domination. Are you in any other countries right now or just states?

Heather Greene:
We do, we do have a lot of requests but right now we're kind of tipping our toes into some of the countries. We are in Germany, Singapore, Canada. We're kind of just sort of figuring that out.

Kerry:
Okay, sounds good. And then right now how many expressions do you have on the mass market and how many do you have distillery only?

Heather Greene:
Well, oh gosh, at any one time. So our core range, we have three products in our core range and then we have, we divide it into two different things. Our core range and then we have three what we call our blenders reserve. Those are higher end allocated special collectors items. So we really divide that and that's what we get out into the world. At our distillery, we have our distillery edition and then we always have a holiday edition and a Father's Day and some like special notable holidays. We try to keep that going and then we also have very special quarterly online drops.

Kerry:
That's fantastic. Well, I'm so glad I got to catch up with you in person. I'm going to let you get back to the schmoozing and stuff before we have to go in for the award ceremony, but thank you so much for taking the time out. Thank you so much.

Joyce:
Congratulations to the winner of the wow  Spirits  of  the Year Awards

Marianne Eaves:
Congratulations to the Wow Spirits Influencer

Kerry:
I'm so excited. Thank you guys so much. Hello. I think she's interviewing us. No, she's podcasting. She's podcasting now. Now. Oh my gosh. Thank you ladies. It's been so nice to finally actually meet you in person. Absolutely. Congratulations.

Heather Greene:
It's got my name on it.

Announcer:
And the winners are Mike Keyes, Ally of the Year, Dr. Janice Fernheimer, Spirits Diversity Program, Camp Runamock, Spirits Writer, Maggie Kimbrell, Spirits Influencer, Podcaster, Carrie Moynihan, Bartender, Amy Ward, Woman Owned Brand, Whiskey Sisters Supply, Brand Ambassador, Creola Dickerson, Master Blender, Nancy Fraley, Master Distiller, Production Manager, Marlene K. Holmes, Legacy Achievement Award, Erica Fields, Peggy Noe-Stevens Trailblazer Award, Ms. Elmer Lucille Allen. Congratulations to all the winners of the 2024 WOW Awards.