The Little-Known History of Women in the Alcohol Industry

The idea of the alcohol industry’s key players might call to mind bearded, charmingly rugged gentlemen sipping small batch bourbon and craft beer in leather Chelsea boots. This is the poster boy for the image of the modern male distiller or brewer, but what if we told you that the tradition of distilling, brewing and fermenting is one traditionally and historically held by women?

If you think about the work that goes into these crafts, it starts to make sense: long hours spent grinding mash bills and tending stills isn’t far off from the work of our female ancestors who ground grain for bread, kept the household hearth and processed herbs for culinary and medicinal uses. Indeed, in many cultures, the role of brewing beer was reserved specifically for women; it was considered a sacred task to be performed by a matriarch.^[1]

The demise of the notion of the female brewer came during the witch trials of Europe and colonial America through the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th centuries. Women who used nature’s gifts to produce wine, beer and spirits were then seen as wicked practitioners of dark magic using their cauldrons to brew malicious potions instead of delicious toddies. If that widespread hysteria wasn’t enough to snuff out the movement, the Industrial Revolution was the death knell of women brewers as male-dominated factory production wiped many cottage industries off the map.

So, who were these women? How did they make the drinks we like to sip on the couch or crack open on the beach today? More importantly, are women making a come-back to the industry today?

Dive in and discover the little-known history of women in wine, spirits and beer and try cocktail recipes based on the stories of our favorite fantastical ladies through the ages.

The idea of the alcohol industry’s key players might call to mind bearded, charmingly rugged gentlemen sipping small batch bourbon and craft beer in leather Chelsea boots. This is the poster boy for the image of the modern male distiller or brewer, but what if we told you that the tradition of distilling, brewing and fermenting is one traditionally and historically held by women?

If you think about the work that goes into these crafts, it starts to make sense: long hours spent grinding mash bills and tending stills isn’t far off from the work of our female ancestors who ground grain for bread, kept the household hearth and processed herbs for culinary and medicinal uses. Indeed, in many cultures, the role of brewing beer was reserved specifically for women; it was considered a sacred task to be performed by a matriarch.^[1]

The demise of the notion of the female brewer came during the witch trials of Europe and colonial America through the 15^th, 16^th and 17^th centuries. Women who used nature’s gifts to produce wine, beer and spirits were then seen as wicked practitioners of dark magic using their cauldrons to brew malicious potions instead of delicious toddies. If that widespread hysteria wasn’t enough to snuff out the movement, the Industrial Revolution was the death knell of women brewers as male-dominated factory production wiped many cottage industries off the map.

So, who were these women? How did they make the drinks we like to sip on the couch or crack open on the beach today? More importantly, are women making a come-back to the industry today?

Dive in and discover the little-known history of women in wine, spirits and beer and try cocktail recipes based on the stories of our favorite fantastical ladies through the ages.

If you wanted to know who was in charge in ancient Mesopotamia at any given period in time, you’d have to consult the Sumerian King List, a cuneiform tablet chronicling the region’s rulers through the ages.

But despite its name, one queen does appear in this list of kings, and her name was Kubaba.

Records indicate that she ruled peacefully and prosperously for 100 years around the 25^th century BCE, but she had humble beginnings: she was a tavern keeper, pouring beer and wine for her statesmen, which was an incredibly important, sacred job in ancient Sumerian culture.^[2]

It is believed that the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains in present-day Armenia and the Zagros Mountains in present-day Iran are among the first places where wine was produced between 6,000-7,000 years ago. The ancient civilization of Sumer was also founded around this time, which is considered the first major civilization in human history and the first wine-trading culture. Kubaba made her legacy on the stuff; first as a barkeep and next as the ruler of an empire using wine as the basis for trade and Mesopotamia’s economic development.

Hildegard von Bingen was a prolific and accomplished woman: a Christian mystic and Benedictine abbess proficient in philosophy, musical composition, art, herbology, literature, cosmology, medicine, biology and natural history. Hildegard was born to an upper-class German family in the Middle Ages and sent to live at a convent at the age of seven. Convents were havens for intellectual women of the time who scorned marriage, sought the comfort of female company or endeavored to dedicate themselves to their studies. Hildegard fell into all these categories, but she especially relished the opportunity to give herself completely to her academic interests, writing hundreds of letters, pieces of music, plays and other such works during her lifetime.^[3]

Among her many talents is perhaps a curious one for a holy woman: beer brewing. Hildegard was the first person to publicly recommend hops as a healing, bittering and preserving agent, some 500 years before mainstream society caught on.

“As a result of its own bitterness,” Hildegard wrote in the Physica, her classic text on health and healing, circa 1150, “[hops] stops putrification when put in [beer] and it may be added so that it lasts so much longer.”^[4]

Hildegard was never officially canonized, but we think she deserves it for her contributions to the world of beer at the very least. So, next time you raise a glass of your favorite hoppy beer, just know that you have a medieval nun to thank for it!

You may have popped a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne, but unless you know a little bit of French, you might not know that “veuve” translates to “widow,” and yes, an incredibly entrepreneurial, business-savvy widow was indeed behind this famously yellow Champagne label.

Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin was married to Francois Clicquot, the son of her father’s business partner, in 1798 as part of an arranged marriage.^[5] Although his family ran a successful textile business, Francois was more interested in developing the family’s small wine business which they ran on the side. His father was disapproving, but Francois and his new wife started learning the trade together anyway. Just six years after their marriage and with a struggling wine business to tend to, Francois fell ill and died. Determined to continue her late husband’s dream, Babre-Nicole asked her father-in-law if she could run the business, something that was rather unheard of in Napoleonic France. Surprisingly, he agreed.

As the Napoleonic Wars were coming to a close, Madame Clicquot saw an opportunity to expand into the Russian market. She took a risk, smuggling her wine to Amsterdam, then into Russian once peace was declared, beating her competitors by weeks. Tsar Alexander I proclaimed that it was the only wine he would drink, solidifying her product as an international success.

Champagne of this time was muddy and cloudy because of natural sediment and yeast during the second fermentation. With her newfound success and an eye for innovation, she knew she could define this brand as luxurious if she could make it clear. We can thank Madame Clicquot for developing the Remuage or riddling process, which removed the yeast and sediment from the wine, a technique that is still fundamental in Champagne making.

Summer sippers and brunch go-ers can also thank Madame Clicquot for blending the first rosé Champagne, a drink that is still increasing in popularity today.

While some of us are out here struggling just to get through the holidays with our mothers-in-law, MIL and DIL duo Helen and Elizabeth Cumming established a whisky empire together.

It all started when Helen and her husband John bought a small farm in Mannoch Hill in Scotland in 1811, which they named Cardow (later Cardhu). Like many folks at the time, they set up an illicit distilling operation out of their new home. While John worked the farm, Helen worked with the whisky, becoming the first woman recorded to work the stills. The English were exerting control over the Scots at this time by enforcing strict (and often confusing) whisky taxes, so the couple had to do what they could to keep their business on the low. Helen devised a cunning ruse: whenever local officials came to town, she would welcome the gentlemen in offering tea and nibbles.^[6] As they stuffed their faces, she would slip out the back door and raise a red flag to warn her fellow distilling neighbors that the tax men were afoot.

Thanks to Helen’s smarts, Cardhu continued to experience great success for its single malt whisky. Helen’s daughter-in-law Elizabeth continued developing the family business well into her old age. Realizing that the operation was getting too big for the family to handle, she eventually sold the distillery to John Walker & Sons (of Johnnie Walker fame), securing the family fortune and the legacy of Cardhu.^[7]

Now here is a real character in history: Aunt Mahala Mullins. She was a prolific Prohibition-era moonshineress in the Tennessee mountains and a Melungeon woman, a name given to families of mixed Black, white and indigenous descent who settled in Central Appalachia at the time. Melungeon people faced gross discrimination and, as a result, most kept to themselves and subsisted off the land.

Mahala herself lived in a cabin on top of a mountain and, due to the fact that she was anywhere between 300-500 pounds (no one knows for certain, which is a common theme in many aspects surrounding her life’s story, including her name spelling), the local authorities never managed to bring her down the mountain to answer for her crimes in court. This is the unconventional way that she was able to skirt the authorities. Lawmen said she was “catchable, but not fetchable.”^[8]

Making moonshine is how she made a living in a dirt-poor region of Appalachia, but she came to be something of a folk hero for her zany personality and bold-faced defiance of the authorities. Folks said her whiskey was some of the best around, often flavored with apples from local orchards or whatever else she could get her hands on.^[9]

The true details of Mahala’s life may be shrouded by Paul Bunyon-esque tall tales, but her enterprising use of her talents in foraging and distilling to make a living were admirable.

In the summer of 1934, Bessie Williamson went on holiday to Islay and learned of a temporary vacancy for a shorthand typist position at the Laphroaig distillery. Owner Ian Hunter took a shine to Bessie and she worked her way up in the company quickly, eventually becoming the only woman to own and run a Scotch distillery in the 20^th century.^[11]

How did she rise the ranks and become a pioneer of women in whisky? After managing most of the company’s business affairs, she became Hunter’s right hand. While whisky production ceased during WWII, she warded off military demands of melting down the stills and managed the distillery becoming an ammunitions hub, keeping the distillery in business during a crisis. When Hunter died in 1954, he left Laphroig to Williamson. She was a pioneer for Islay whiskies and single malts and will forever be remembered for steering the distillery through difficult times and continuing to curate the whisky’s good reputation.

Best Served: Go the traditional route by serving your Scotch with a side of spring water (tap water may alter the taste), adding small drops slowly to taste. If you prefer your Scotch chilled, serve it with a large ice cube. The large ice will melt slower to avoid diluting the spirit.

Now that we’ve mosied our way through the history of women in alcohol all the way up to the present, it’s time to spotlight the ladies leading the way in the industry today. One of those trailblazing women is Lorena Vásquez, Master Blender for Ron Zacapa Rum.

Born in Nicaragua, Lorena moved to Guatemala in her twenties. Her educational background in chemistry and her natural gift for tasting and smelling with a razor-sharp degree of accuracy earned her a job in quality control at a brewery. Beer just wasn’t her passion, however, so she moved on to Ron Zacapa. Thanks to her talent and tenacity, she rose quickly to the role of master blender, one of only a few female professionals to hold this title in the world.^[12]

When Lorena began working in spirits, she was the only woman in her workplace. Now, things have changed for the better. Vásquez and Zacapa’s dedication to supporting other Central American women is evident in the petate band, hand-woven from palm leaves, that adorns each bottle. These bands are handmade by a community of over 700 indigenous Guatemalan women in the distillery’s area who were displaced by conflict or face other economic hardships. This way, each bottle contains authentic pieces of Guatemalan culture from the inside out and the artisans are able to continue practicing their craft and supporting their communities.

Vásquez truly exemplifies what it means to rise by lifting others.