While the alcohol industry has been historically male-led, that imbalance is thankfully changing. Over the last few years, an increase in woman-helmed spirits brands have helped close the field’s gender gap. Even in the past year alone, many more have joined the trade. In support of the strong female figures adding a new edge to a thriving industry, we’ve compiled our favorite new woman-owned spirits to get and gift ahead of the new year.
Ode to Babel Gin
Distilled in Greenport, New York, Ode to Babel (750ml/44% ABV) is the chic new gin from sisters Marva and Myriam Babel, co-owners of the namesake, six-year-old Brooklyn bar. Keen to create a lighter-style gin, the duo chose to distill their spirit with myriad botanicals, focusing on plants found in the Caribbean like tamarind, makrut lime, ylang ylang and jasmine, alongside the requisite juniper. The resulting spirit channels elegant, floral notes of tropical citrus thanks to the makrut lime, and serves as the perfect companion to tonic.
Big Nose Kate
This Western-tuned whiskey (750ml/45% ABV) that’s distilled in Texas, Virginia, and Indiana, then blended in New Mexico, is named after Mary Katherine Horony Cummings, also known as Big Nose Kate, the feared and revered wife of Doc Holliday, one of the most famous gunslingers of the Old West. Experienced distiller Mel Heim (Rogue Ales, Eastside Distilling) captures Kate’s spicy spirit in a liquor that blends rye and malt for an earthy dram with notes of cherry and grain, along with an appropriately big nose of coffee and leather.
Current Cassis
Adorable packaging aside, Current Cassis founder Rachael Petach really nailed it with her ode to a contemporary blackcurrant liqueur (375ml/16% ABV). Produced with local blackcurrants from New York’s Catskills region, Petach developed a fresh and vibrant liqueur that’s a far cry from France’s traditional cloying cassis liqueurs. Instead of white sugar, Petach subtly sweetens hers with just enough wild honey to counter the fruit’s natural acidity, and she adds depth to the drink with spices like green cardamom and lemon verbena.
Kasama Rum
Hailing from a somewhat famed beverage lineage, as the daughter to Chopin and Belvedere Vodka founder Tad Dorda, Alexandra Dorda is joining the family business with her soft-launched Filipino rum, Kasama (750ml/40% ABV). Distilled from sugarcane in the Philippines and aged seven years, this richly-flavored spirit offers hints of butterscotch followed by layers of tropical fruit.
21 Seeds
Keen to offer a cleaner spirit that speaks to today’s wellness-minded imbibers, sisters Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel, along with their friend Sarika Singh, rolled out 21 Seeds, their blanco Tequila label that highlights fruit infusions. Produced in Jalisco, Mexico at a woman-run distillery, this burnt orange hued liquor (750ml/35% ABV) calls for Veracruz-grown grapefruit and hibiscus, which they macerate with the tequila before straining it out and bottling.
Freeland Dry Gin
During 2020’s first COVID shutdown, Jill Kuehler—founder of Portland, Oregon’s Freeland Spirits—began R&D for this navy-strength, high-proof gin (750ml/57% ABV). A strong spirit with delicate flavors, the outcome is London Dry in style, imbued with botanicals like juniper, lemon verbena, and clove.
Elsewhere Blood Orange Aperitivo
Some of America’s most creative, compelling, and beautifully-packaged spirits are coming out of a tiny distillery on New York’s Long Island. Leslie Merinoff is Matchbook Distilling Company’s driving force, and it’s here that she’s made a business of custom distillations from ingredients like palo santo and koji. But beyond bespoke orders, she bottles seasonal specials, like her new Elsewhere Blood Orange Aperitivo (750ml/30% ABV). Think of this as an upgraded Aperol, made with seasonal blood oranges, spices like pink peppercorns and cardamom, and fortified with a neutral spirit she distills from organic Finger Lakes, New York corn.
Harridan Vodka
With its hand-blown recycled glass bottles and vintage-inspired label, Harridan Vodka (750ml/44% ABV)—founded by business strategist Bridgette Taylor—would fit seamlessly on any ancient apothecary shelf. But, in fact, this is a new entrant into the luxury vodka market as of 2020. Triple distilled in Upstate New York from locally-grown organic corn, expect a silky spirit that goes down so smooth.
Crooked Water Boulevardier
Whiskey sommelier Heather Manley introduced Crooked Water Spirits in Madison, Wisconsin back in 2013, and since then she’s launched a number of thoughtfully-crafted liquors, from vodka to apple brandy. Try this bottled Boulevardier cocktail (750ml/31% ABV) that blends her three year-aged bourbon with sweet vermouth, bitter orange liqueur and a bit of cherry bark bitters for a libation that’s ready to go.
NY Maple Bourbon
Beekeeper Claire M. Marin debuted Catskill Provisions Distillery in 2019 in the company’s namesake New York region. Her maple-laced bourbon (750ml/40% ABV) is made from a majority of local corn plus rye and malted barley, aged for four years, then finished in maple syrup-coated barrels for several days before bottling. It’s the perfect base for an epic Manhattan.
OAX Original Tepeztate
Tepeztate is one of the rarest wild agaves, and the plants grow for twenty-five or more years before they can be harvested for mezcal production. So, it’s only fitting that co-founder Laura Giraudo decided to house the succulent’s distillation in a stunning modernist vessel that honors the juice within. With earthy notes of clay and smoke, this Oaxacan mezcal is for sipping neat, though a taco sidecar is always welcome.
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