After nearly 15 years distilling whiskey, Kentucky’s first female master distiller since Prohibition, Marianne Eaves, thinks she has created a bourbon that speaks to her legacy within the industry.
In May, Eaves launched Forbidden, a small batch bourbon she has been working on for seven years. Released with help from Bardstown Bourbon Co., it’s a unique take on Kentucky-style bourbon using white corn, white wheat and a high percentage of barley in its recipe.
But most importantly to Eaves, Forbidden tells the story of her impact as a woman in the whiskey world.
“I decided to take the bull by the horns and carry the torch and start this movement. And I am really proud of that,” she said. “This is a huge part of my journey coming full circle.”
That circle began when Eaves graduated from the University of Louisville in 2009 with a degree in chemical engineering. She was unsure what to do with her education, but, drawn to the chemical experiments that went into creating spirits, Eaves decided to take an internship at Brown-Forman. She would go on to work her way up at the company’s various brands from Old Forester to Jack Daniels – not bad for someone who readily admits she “had no taste for bourbon before I started to work for Brown-Forman.”
That taste evolved. Eaves realized over the years at Brown-Forman that not only did she have an aptitude for the science behind distillation, but a gifted palate for tasting spirits. Eaves became a Master Taster for Woodford Reserve and trained under Master Distiller Chris Morris at Brown-Forman.
Six years in, however, she felt a need to strike out on her own. Eaves took a leap of faith and took the title of Master Distiller for a new craft whiskey project called Castle & Key Distillery which was rebuilding and revitalizing the Old Taylor Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky.
It was at Castle & Key that Eaves began to make waves in the craft whiskey category and realized she was building her own legacy in the industry, she said.
Taking the title of Master Distiller brought with it extra cachet because in Kentucky women were legally forbidden to work as master distillers in the bourbon industry until 1974, Eaves said.
“When you take the title of ‘Master Distiller,’ sure, it’s part marketing and part production, but in my mind, the Master Distiller is the one solely responsible for the quality of the product,” Eaves said. “At the end of the day, everything that winds up in the bottle – because it has my name on it – I must be involved in all of those decisions and the creation of the production.”
The title would follow Eaves even when she left Castle & Key in 2019. It has become integrated into her identity in subsequent years, which she has spent as an itinerant blender, distiller and tastemaker within the craft distilling industry.
From Master Distiller To Industry Tastemaker
Eaves’ career trajectory has turned her into a prestigious commodity, employed by various distilleries and influencers looking to make premium, limited-run side projects. She has found herself in a unique place: a freelancing blender-for-hire.
Last year, she produced a limited dark rum called Dark Hare in partnership with Florida-based premium spirits brand Otherland Society. In the same year, she helped source and blend a limited batch of bourbon called Black Steel for gaming influencer Guy Beahm (known as Dr. DisRespect). The bourbon was so successful that it sold out within days and a second batch created by Eaves sold out within a day this past May.
When she initially began her consulting business, Eaves thought it would be primarily with established brands, but she has found her skill set is better suited to product development and helping craft distilleries looking to take the next step in their evolution.
Clients come to her and Eaves tries to be discerning that projects do not overlap, and that how she participates and is “very clear” about the stories being told, she said. Right now, she is working on about half a dozen different projects.
Eaves considers herself fortunate to align with other distillers that are producing high-quality spirits and are interested in putting innovative products into the market. She tries to choose clients that aren’t just looking to blend cheap whiskey in hopes of selling the company to a large spirits house as quickly as possible.
“That’s not what I do,” she said.
One of her partnerships has been with the new ownership group of Sweetens Cove, a famed golf club in Tennessee. In 2019, the group, which includes former professional athletes Andy Roddick and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, told Eaves that they had 100 barrels of 13-year-old bourbon that they wanted her to blend into a limited high-end run of whiskey. Eaves made five blends and four single-barrel bottlings of Sweetens’ first release.
Since then, Eaves has been employed as the full-time Master Blender at Sweetens Cove Spirits Company, making a Kennessee bourbon (a blend of Tennessee and Kentucky style whiskeys) that won Double Gold at the 2022 International Spirits Competition in New York.
Creating Her Own Brand
Eaves took to the road in years following her position at Castle & Key. During her travels, she tasted a lot, finding that there were some innovative bourbons being crafted outside of Kentucky. The more she tasted the more she began to form an idea to develop her personal brand by showcasing small craft distillers to wider audiences: a subscription-based tasting kit called Eaves Blind. The kit first shipped to subscribers in 2021, providing two blind tastings of a blended bourbon four times each year. At the end of the subscription, the bourbons were revealed and, surprisingly, none originated from Kentucky.
The success of the project spun off the “Blacked Out” series, which was a limited edition run of 750ml versions of the blends that were part of Eaves Blind. Distillery 291 in Colorado released a special edition “E” Eaves blend and Ohio-based Watershed Distillery released Eaves Cask Strength, honoring the blends that were included in the Blind. Eaves received a profit share of the limited edition “Blacked Out” bottles sold from Indiana-based Journeyman Distillery, Kings County in Brooklyn and St. Augustine in Florida.
These projects have all led her to promoting Forbidden, the first product that she has controlled from “grain-to-glass.” Eaves has had creative control on every part of Forbidden’s creation from sourcing grain to distilling to the aging and bottling, as well as being an equity partner in the project.
Currently, Eaves is working on three more batches of the wheated bourbon – referring to the use of wheat in place of rye – focusing on single barrel and small batch offerings made using a non-traditional low-temperature fermentation.
She cautions that the low-temp product is not “wimpy” but has a high proof that provides “backbone” to support a mature taste profile. Each 750ml bottle retails for $129.99. Bardstown is her preferred distilling partner and uses her methods and recipe to make Forbidden while a group of four South Carolina-based investment partners – many connected to spirits distribution and the hospitality industry – have helped fund the project.
Trust in who she works with and respect for each others’ reputations has been key to her success, Eaves said.
“There have definitely been folks approach me that I thought were misaligned with my brand,” she said. “I don’t make cheap stuff, so I want to partner with people that are trying to achieve that same level of premium quality that I always strive for.”