Kentucky's first female bourbon master distiller since Prohibition, Marianne Eaves, is a huge name in American whiskey.
With a background in chemical engineering, Marianne found her way into the bourbon industry via an internship at Brown-Forman, the company behind whiskey brands such as Jack Daniel's, Woodford Reserve and Old Forrester.
She ultimately became master taster at the company and was on track to succeed Chris Morris as Woodford's master distiller.
But 28-year-old Marianne fast-tracked her progress to the title of bourbon master distiller when she accepted a unique offer in 2015 to work on the resurrection of the Old Taylor Distillery – an incredibly ambitious project.
The historic distillery, which is now known as Castle & Key, had fallen into disrepair since it was shuttered in 1972.
Marianne has since moved on from Castle & Key and is now consulting on a host of interesting distilling projects right across the US.
It was a pleasure to have Marianne join us from Texas for this interview.