Louisvile, Ky--"Take a good sip let it linger on your palette a little bit and then think about the finish and finish should always leave you wanting more," Elizabeth McCall said.
- Kentucky is the birthplace of bourbon
- Bourbon is an 8.6 billion industry in Kentucky
- Bourbon is America's only native spirit
Elizabeth McCall may be small in stature.
"I just wake up and go to my job every day and don't see that what I’m doing is so significant or appealing," McCall said.
But she’s a big deal in bourbon.
McCall just happens to be one of the youngest female assistant master distillers in the US.
"As soon as I start speaking I know what I’m talking about," McCall said.
That’s a rare note in the world of whiskey.
"And I’m very capable and I know that so I lead with that," McCall said.
But she's more than earned her seat at the table.
McCall has been perfecting her palette for the last ten years at Brown Foreman for Woodford Reserve but bourbon was never part of the plan.
"I studied psychology in college and I got my undergrad in psych my master's in counseling psych," McCall said.
But she ended up with a bachelor’s in bourbon.
"Never miss out an opportunity if it's something you are interested in learning in your career path don’t feel like I don't have whatever skills so that I'm knocked out like I can't do it just ask the questions and see if you can get involved," McCall said.
And it’s probably fitting after all she followed in mother's footsteps who worked as the bottle line manager for Seagram's in the late 70's and 80's.
"She had a lot of challenges so I credit women like my mother with really and truly being the one the trailblazers," McCall said.
McCall might be modest.
"I consider myself to be kind of trail smoother because there are still a lot of bumps and things to work out and we still have a long way to go," McCall said.