Chicago's Bourbon-Loving Women Unite
By Chicagoist_Guest in Food on Nov 2, 2015 3:44PM
Photo via Shutterstock.
By Heather Lalley
Gina Caruso, an urban planner and artist, remembers the loneliness she felt when she’d take a seat at a bar and order a shot of Maker’s Mark. As the sole bourbon-drinking woman among her circle of friends, she longed to connect with peers who shared her love of the complex spirit.
Caruso—deputy commissioner of Chicago’s Small Business Center—is now the Chicago ambassador for the Louisville, KY-based Bourbon Women Association, a national group with some 700 members around the country that just launched a Chicago chapter with a well-attended kick-off event at John Barleycorn in River North.
This Wednesday, the group holds its second event: a Cigar & Bourbon Pairing 101 session at Updown Cigar, 1550 N. Wells St., from 6 to 9 p.m. Next month, they’re hosting a Holiday Sip & Shop Event from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at Plum Market, 1233 N. Wells St.
“Over the last 100 years or so, bourbon was marketed to men,” Caruso says. “The industry is looking for an opportunity to engage women. It doesn’t have to be a pink drink to attract women.”
Quite the opposite. Bourbon Women Chicago partnered with Four Roses to select a small-batch, single-barrel offering that could be bottled under the group’s name.
“We had nine barrels to taste,” Caruso says. “We were looking for something that was a real classic base. When you smell it, you feel like you’re in a barrelhouse, with vanilla and caramel and tobacco. You feel like you can hear Frank Sinatra singing 'Chicago' in the background. It’s big and bold.”
Currently, about 30 percent of bourbon drinkers are women, and the number of women who drink bourbon grew about 50 percent in recent years, according to a recent USA Today article.
Violet Hour manager Eden Laurin was tending bar at the Bourbon Women launch party, serving the Golden Fix welcome cocktail and selling her signature cocktail syrups that can be mixed with bourbon or other spirits. Attendees scooped up the bottles of Batch No. 2 (made with ginger, Pastoral honey, bitter orange and tea essence), made exclusively for Bourbon Women Chicago.
So, what about women who might still be intimidated by the notion of bourbon drinking? Alison Mouratis, brand ambassador for Few Spirits who was pouring samples and the launch event, says, “Everyone has some bottom-shelf experience. But the whole category of whiskey has changed so much. Taste it and you’ll be surprised.”
For more information on Bourbon Women Chicago, check out their Facebook page.
Heather Lalley is a Chicago-based journalist and author of "The Chicago Homegrown Cookbook." She never met a fried potato she didn't adore. Find her on Twitter @flourgrrrl.