For a long time, whisky has been stereotyped as being a ‘man’s drink’. You only need to look at advertising from around the ’90s – rugged men, symbols of traditional masculinity – to see how reinforced the notion was that somehow appreciating whisky relates to gender. The irony is that, throughout history, women have been at the forefront of spirits and whisky production. Laphroaig’s Bessie Williamson, Nikka’s Rita Taketsuru, Cardhu’s Helen Cumming and Maker’s Mark’s Margaret ‘Margie’ Samuels, to name a few, paved the way for many of the whisky brands we know today, and without them the global whisky category wouldn’t be what it is now.
In today’s world, there are the likes of Georgie Bell, co-founder and chief executive of independent whisky bottler The Heart Cut, Louise McGuane, founder of JJ Corry Irish whiskey, Annabel Thomas, founder of Nc’nean Distillery, Desiree Reid, founder of Cardrona Distillery, and Allison Parc, founder of Brenne whisky, again, to name a few. Each has carved out their own niche within the global whisky world, paving the way for the future of the sector, and they just happen to be women.
Lay of the land
When it comes to building a modern whisky brand, ballerina-turned-whisky-founder Parc says: “I launched Brenne in 2012, and I think it was disruptive at the time in a very traditional category. Single malts in particular were really heralded in the early 2000s and 2010s as something very traditional, and I got to create something that was centred around terroir and storytelling, showing that elegance and strength can coexist, that luxury can feel warm. So, what I wanted to explore as a whisky consumer was single malt whisky made in non-traditional countries that were using ingredients local to their distilleries – back then, that wasn’t happening.”
Brenne whisky is created at a third-generation farm distillery in Cognac, France, which has been producing eau-de-vie since the 1920s. Parc self-distributed the first bottles of Brenne via Citi Bike in Manhattan, NY, before distribution expanded across the US and France, with Heaven Hill acquiring the brand in 2022.
On the decision to base the whisky in France, Parc notes: “In some countries, sustainability and terroir are going to matter more to a general consumer base than in other markets. France has, in the mind of the general consumer, an automatic assumption of potential for luxury and good quality and the knowledge base already lives in France. When you get outside of the major business centres and into the fields, and you work those tiny distilleries and wineries, that is where the knowledge has been passed down for generations.
“You have all of these wine regions, each with its own microclimates that make it a really interesting place to consider setting up shop, because now you can start to explore oak varieties from different parts of the country, you can work with different wineries, cognac and armagnac makers and see what you can do in whisky. I just think there’s a richness of culture, nature, artistry and knowledge that was very untapped for whisky when I started there,” Parc continues.
Also noting the importance of terroir in whiskymaking, when creating New Zealand-based Cardrona, Reid wanted to celebrate this and “what the lands and climate of different places around the world bring to a single malt”.
Cardrona was founded in 2015 and sits in the Cardrona Valley, in the Crown Range of New Zealand. In 2023, International Beverage acquired the brand, with Reid staying on as managing director for two years before moving to Scotland to become global sales director at the company.
“In establishing Cardrona, we started with a very traditional, small setup – our wash still is 2,000 litres and 1,300 for our spirit still. I could see a gap for what the land really does to the whisky. We’re sitting at 600m above sea level, which changes the way the alcohol acts inside the still. It has a lower boiling point than if it were at sea level, and this also changes the way the angels interact with the whisky as it’s maturing in the cask, with 0% humidity in the Cardrona valley. In wintertime we have -10°C through to a top summertime temperature of 40°C, so you can have very traditionally made whisky, but then the way that local environment impacts it is what I could see a gap for,” adds Reid.
Nc’nean, in the village of Drimnin on the Morvern peninsula, uses copper pot stills powered by 100% renewable energy. The whisky uses only organic Scottish barley, has long mashing and fermentation times, and plays with yeasts not always used in whisky distilling. “I was looking in at the whisky industry, which came across as very traditional at the time. No one was thinking about sustainability or about doing anything differently,” says Thomas. “I felt that while that tradition and heritage is amazing, there was a need and a space for someone to make a modern Scotch.
“My parents’ farm is on the west coast of Scotland – you can’t be there without thinking about whisky, there are distilleries all around us. There were already great gins thinking about sustainability and that hadn’t been done in Scotch. I’ve been doing it for 12 years and only had a product on the shelf for about five of those. In terms of the actual single malt, it’s going pretty well, the industry is not as buoyant as it was when we launched in 2020 but everyone’s feeling that. The fact that we’re in good growth in our big markets there is opportunity for a more modern version of Scotch.”
Building foundations
Based in Ireland, McGuane founded JJ Corry Irish whiskey in 2015 when the category was “starting to move again”, she says. “The craft whiskey scene in America had exploded and brown spirits were very much going in that direction, so it was a timely move for me to make.
“We’ve been on the market for about eight years and have been pretty strong and consistent. Last year we were in growth again, year on year, so we’re continuing to push forward. Our positioning is super-premium or ultra-premium, we’ve carved out a really good niche for ourselves. We’re very protected because of our margins, we have excellent gross margins so it can give us a little bit of a leeway when it comes to things like tariffs and raw material increases,” McGuane continues.
In terms of continuing to grow the brand, McGuane notes that, while some markets face challenges: “There are opportunities in places like Nigeria, South Africa, which’ve really gotten a taste for Irish whiskey and it’s a lot easier to do business there. I think that by next year Nigeria will be our best-performing market over and above America. We’re also seeing significant interest in South Africa – those are really ripe markets for us and we’ve been pursuing them for a good few years. So while things settle down in rest of world markets and America, we’re really going to make sure we’re building strong foundations in other markets. But we go where Pernod Ricard goes – if Jameson wants to build a category on our behalf we’ll go in the back end and that’s the best way for a small Irish whiskey company to compete.”
While longer-established brands look to market expansion to secure a strong future, for newer businesses it’s crucial to establish a solid foundation. “Our big thing for 2026 is hyper focus and laying down really great foundations,” says Bell. “We’re building a business to last and it’s better to build sustainably and organically than push ourselves too widely without the means to support it authentically.”
Bell founded The Heart Cut in 2023 with husband Fabrizio Leoni to collaborate with whisky distilleries across the world in releasing one-off single cask and small batch bottlings. Since then, The Heart Cut has released 22 different bottlings in collaboration with 18 distilleries across 11 countries, “showcasing the full breadth of style, flavour and geography of whisky today”, adds Bell.
“Whisky is made across all four corners and there are passionate individuals who are zigging where Scotch zagged and making whisky that's of the quality of Scotch and other great whisky nations with a true sense of place. I've also seen the whisky drinker change significantly. The occasions in which we drink whisky have changed too.
“We’re almost two-and-a-half years old, obviously launching at a time when we keep hearing of distillery closures. We all know it’s a bit of a tough time for booze at the moment,” Bell continues. However from a growth perspective, she says: “The Heart Cut is doing really well. Of course it’s difficult. We’re a startup whisky business that doesn’t have a focus on Scotch and is trying to buck trends within the independent bottling landscape at a time when the industry is tough. It's very much like a shouting competition for space behind bars. But I feel we're growing sustainably and, more importantly, authentically.”
Turbulent times
While being the founder of a whisky business comes with its positives, the industry is facing its own set of challenges – rising costs, oversupply and changing consumption habits. But what does this look like for the future of global whisky?
“I think in any case of business when you have a boom, you can’t keep that expansion sustained forever, so there is an inevitable tipping point,” says Parc. “It’s healthy, it forces everyone to stop and think about what they’re making and why. I think it will force people to make hard decisions. I think times like this, where there’s a global shrinkage of consumption, make sales opportunities more interesting. You have to really pay attention to what the right audience is for your brand and support those relationships,” she adds.
In terms of using the industry’s current turbulence as an advantage, Reid agrees, noting: “Everybody knows the category of whisky at the moment is down, but at International Beverage we see that as an opportunity because this is the time where whisky lovers come back to extraordinary spirits that are more than just soulless brands. It’s not to diminish the hard times that other players are having in the industry, but we see this as a time when people come back to great tasting whiskies.”
Thomas adds: “I think everyone can see we are producing too much whisky and there’s going to have to be a rebalancing of that somehow. From a Scotch point of view, the benefit of world whisky is consumers being educated about the broad range of how whisky can be made, how it can taste and not encountering some of those barriers that Scotch put up. So they’re getting to approach whisky and enjoy it in a way that doesn’t have the baggage of Scotch and that’s a good thing for whisky as a whole.”
As global whisky evolves, McGuane notes that, for a long time, many businesses’ goals were to “scale at all costs and ultimately get a strategic partner and sell out”, adding: “That model is dead now, and it’s going to be dead for a good few years. I think what you’re going to see is a lot of whisky companies with much tighter ships, much more condensed portfolios and focus, and a lot of weary whisky founders by the end of it. Whoever comes out the back end is going to be a lot tighter and focused.”
With this rebalancing and consolidation in the wake of an oversupply, Bell adds, “I really hope in the next five years we see more authentic stories coming through with whisky from everybody. What’s really great is we’ve made a name for ourselves by working with distilleries that are not only household names but rising stars, and we’re seeing more start to do that from an independent bottling perspective, which is really wonderful.”
However, Bell notes an imbalance when it comes to back bars: “I really want people to think: ‘Who founded these brands? Where is my money actually going?’ Bear in mind that startups can't play within the big company game as well, and if you consistently go with that, you’ve got to think about where your money's going, who you're supporting and how you're supporting the next generation as well. I think that's really important.”
As the global whisky industry navigates challenging climates in all parts of the business, it’s apparent that those brands built on clear identity and authentic stories will keep pushing the sector forward, leading the way for future founders to enter a more diverse space.
