Even though she's still relatively young in the world of whiskey producers, Marianne Eaves has already accomplished a great deal — including becoming the first female master distiller since Prohibition. After successful stints working in production and blending at Brown-Forman, Castle & Key and Sweeten’s Cove, Eaves has struck out on her own as a consulting master distiller.
Her latest project is a product she has been thinking about and working on for quite a while. Forbidden Small Batch Bourbon Whiskey is a release from a group of investors who came together to launch a new whiskey product almost a decade ago. “I got involved early on,” Eaves recalls. “They were looking for a master distiller to make their product. They knew that they wanted to make something different. They reached out to me first personally.”
After the investors slid into her DMs, Eaves set up a contract distillation program through her then-employers at Castle & Key, distilling the first batch of what would become Forbidden in 2018 after a couple of years of designing the recipe and process. Eaves left that distillery amicably in 2019 to strike out on her own and moved future production of Forbidden to Bardstown Bourbon Co., along with all the barrels that had already been produced.
Eaves explains the transition: “The initial plan was that I was going to be their master distiller and that Castle & Key was going to be the home place of the brand, essentially. It actually ended up being a benefit when I left there, because Bardstown Bourbon is so open. Basically, whenever I'm there, they're like, ‘Yeah, this is your distillery, clearly. Bring whoever you want. You will host whenever you can do barrel picks here.’ They've been so accommodating and just a lovely partner. I think they're kind of unparalleled in the contract production game.”
The initial release of Forbidden has just reached Tennessee, the third state to gain access to the brand, although it has been available across the country through online seller Bourbon Outfitter. Released at 95.2 proof at a retail price of around $129 per bottle, this is clearly a premium bourbon, but what justifies that price level?
Many factors contribute to pricing decisions for a brand. Packaging is not a small part of the cost, and Forbidden is a striking bottle, created by a Grammy-winning designer. Shaped like an eight-sided star, the bottle certainly stands out on a liquor store shelf or behind the bar at a cocktail emporium.
“The bottle is a little jagged around the edges,” explained Eaves, “meant to evoke the feeling of forbidden. You’re just kind of going to observe the bottle for a second before you go right in to pick it up, because it is so angular. But then when you grab it, it's an eight-point star. It just feels so nice in your hand.”
Initially, the plan was for the star to have nine points for each letter of the brand’s name, but the manufacturer deemed that to lack structural integrity, so the eight sides now represent the number of years it took to bring Forbidden to fruition. The only downside is that the shape makes it pretty hard for Eaves to autograph the bottles, a popular task for master distillers. She discovered that for real when she volunteered to sign more than 900 bottles at one time!
Secondly, Forbidden fans are paying a premium for Eaves’ experience and creativity, plus the fact that the first batch was created from only 48 barrels, and batch No. 2 from just 13 barrels means that this is a rare and ephemeral product.
Eaves also points to the ingredients used to create Forbidden as a justifiable expense worth paying for. “It's a unique mix of unique grains," she says. “We like to say they're food-quality instead of feed-quality grains. Eighty-plus percent of the yellow corn that's grown is not grown for human consumption. It's for oils and syrups and animal feed and such, whereas the opposite is true of white corn. Eighty plus percent of the white corn that's grown is grown for human consumption. So we use white corn in our recipe.”
She continues: “We also use white wheat, which is also just grown for human consumption, which is why you don't see it grown here in Kentucky much. The mash bill is 75 percent white corn, 12 percent white wheat and 13 percent barley, so a high percentage of barley. A lot of whiskey distillers in the U.S. don't give enough credit to the flavor contribution of the barley and to the texture. So most distillers are just looking at it as a source of enzymes, and they try to maximize the enzymes, but minimize the percentage of the barley because it is an expensive grain. I actually love the flavor and texture that it contributes. so I included it in a pretty significant percentage.”
White wheat is softer and less dry than its red-hulled cousin, therefore Forbidden lacks the tannins that are characteristic of some “wheaters.” Blending a little of the Bardstown-produced product along with the initial Castle & Key stock added a little creaminess to the mouthfeel, according to Eaves (who should definitely know). She also appreciated the sweet vanilla and caramel notes that the BBC whiskey added to the party.
Process-wise, Eaves intentionally avoided some of the most efficient methods of distillation, preferring to offer a nod to historical precedents. “We like to talk about what we do in more culinary terms,” she shares. “It's a low and slow fermentation, like they say a lot in cooking. When you go low and slow, you develop richer flavors, and it was something that folks had done a long time ago. I actually read the research on it from the Seagram's plant that they had done back in 1910, and folks just stopped doing it when yeast started being mutated to the level where it could tolerate super high temperatures and more acidic environments. They were kind of pushing it to its limit. And how fast can we get this yeast to work and convert everything to get maximum yield? They kind of forgot a little bit about the flavor benefits of starting at a lower temperature and not stressing the yeast out so much. I think as a chemical engineer, it's hard for me sometimes to get out of that mindset of maximizing efficiency, but it truly is a trade-off. We'll sacrifice some of those things to create beautiful flavors!”
The last factor taken into consideration when pricing spirits is demand. After a segment on Today in which anchor Craig Melvin picked his own single barrel, Bourbon Outfitter sold 2,000 bottles the day of the airing. At a recent spirits trade show in Nashville, Eaves recalls a gentleman revisiting her tasting table to ask the cost of the whiskey. When she told him, he said, “Yeah, I knew it was going to be high because it tastes so good!”
Eaves is quite proud of her latest creation and the path she has taken to get there. “There are three ways the name applies, and it's through the ingredients, the process and the maker. So the maker refers to myself and how it was forbidden to be a woman in distilling. There was actually a law in the Kentucky alcohol regulations that said women couldn't be hired as anything but a waitress, a cashier or an usher, up until it was repealed in 1974. I think it kind of explains why it had taken so long for women to break into those roles, because they were literally legally forbidden to be there.”
Now that Marianne Eaves has finally broken through, there’s no stopping her. With more than 8,000 barrels currently aging in Bardstown warehouses, fans should expect plenty of good things coming in the future.
Forbidden Small Batch Bourbon Whiskey is now available in spirits stores around town, including Midtown Corkdorks, Frugal MacDoogal, West Meade Wine & Liquor, Red Spirits & Wine, Cool Springs Liquors, Total Wine and the Wine Shoppe at Green Hills.
