September 25, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, The Old Dominick Distillery story begins in 1859 with an Italian immigrant and a fruit cart in Memphis. Generations later, Alex Castle made history as the first female head distiller in Tennessee since Prohibition. Together, their legacy shaped Old Dominick into a landmark of Tennessee whiskey and a symbol of tradition and innovation in American distilling. Here's Alex with the story.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites,
and we especially love bringing you stories about family businesses,
and today we bring you one with a long history
(00:35):
that begins with a fruit cart in eighteen fifty nine.
Here is Alex Cassel, the master distiller at Old Dominic Distillery,
to tell us the history of this Memphis family business.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So one of the best things to me about working
for Aldonica de Canalian Company is the history of it.
That history dates back to eighteen sixty six, and it
is very tangible history. That whole family held on to
so many documents and ledger books and letters. I don't
(01:18):
know what they were thinking when they held on to
it all, but I know we're very happy that it's
there now. The family history isn't just some story that's
been passed down by word of mouth. It is a
history that is very, very real, and that we can
show to everyone just how authentic that story is. And
(01:43):
to be able to be a part of such an
authentic story and hopefully, you know, be a part of
its history eventually. It's just it's very rewarding. So our founder,
Dominico Canali, was an Italian immigrant and he came over
to the States in eighteen fifty nine, landed in New
(02:04):
Orleans and decided to take a river boat up to Memphis.
He already had family here, his uncle had a business already.
He decided to work for his uncle. That building is
literally about a hundred yards from the uh current distillery.
Worked for him for a couple of years and decided
to start his own company in eighteen sixty six, at
which time he found a deacon allying company started off
(02:28):
as a modest little fruit cart and he would just
go up and down what is now Front Street selling fruit.
Over the years that grew became a much bigger distribution company,
started distributing beer cause he had refrigerated trucks, and decided
in the midst of all of that to found All
Dominic Whiskey. He did not distill his own product, but
(02:50):
he did buy age product barrels from other states. So
we have records of barrels from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and
he would bring them down on the railroads and uh
Blendham here under the label of all Dominic. It was
actually one of the biggest whiskey brands in the Southern
region during that time. And of course prohibition hit and
(03:14):
so Old Dominic whiskey had to stop being produced. Fortunately,
the other parts of the company continued on, so the
fruit distribution, the beer distribution, all of that continued on
through prohibition. And sadly Dominico did not see the repeal
of prohibition. He actually died just a few days before
it was repealed. Decanaling company continued on, just without the whiskey.
(03:41):
Bring it up to I guess it was the late nineties.
They actually sold off the food distribution, but still maintained
the beer distribution that they had, and so they were
the Anheuser Bush distributor in Memphis. And then in two
thousand and ten, I believe it was, they actually sold
that off well, and so they kind of had lost
(04:02):
all of their Memphis foothold. They had other businesses, other investments,
just nothing actually in Memphis. And so in twenty thirteen
when they found a bottle of Dominic, TODDI basically they
found this bottle full still wax sealed and they decided
(04:24):
to crack it open. I believe one of them actually
tasted the liquid, but had that liquid analyzed. They sent
it to California to see if we could figure out
what actually was in that product, because with all of
the documents that the family held onto, they never held
onto the recipe for this product go figure and so
(04:46):
with the help of a lab out in California, they
learned the different components that were present in that bottle.
Couldn't figure out the exact ratios or anything like that,
so no specific recipe, but they were able to figure
out what was in it, and then from there we
essentially reverse engineered it. And so today's president, Chris Canally Junior,
(05:08):
wanted to see the company get back to Memphis. Wanted
more than just their headquarters to be here. He decided
this seems like a cool idea. Someone said, well, why
don't you sell the brand? He said, no, this is
how we get back to Memphis, and so he and
his cousin Alex Conally decided to open up what is
(05:30):
now all Dominic Distillery. That construction project officially started in
twenty fifteen, and that was the same year that they
decided to bring on a head distiller, and I was
lucky enough to get a message on LinkedIn. I had
nothing better to do. I said sure, I'll come down
(05:50):
for an interview and ended up deciding to move to
Memphis that same year. And so about a year of
construction and we were actually ready to produce the first
whiskey not just out of Old Dominic, but the first
whisky produced in Memphis. Ever, there were no distilleries here
(06:11):
even before prohibition. So December of twenty sixteen was kind
of a big year for Old Dominic and for Memphis.
And then flash forward a couple months May of twenty
seventeen and we were actually finished with alli of construction
and open to the public for our first tours at
the beginning of May. And since then we have added
(06:34):
multiple products. We now have two vodkas, we have our
Memphis Toddy, we have a gin that's about to come out,
and then we also have our Healing Station Bourbon and
even the Healing Station line we're about to release even
more products under it. So it's been a very, very
busy to two and a half years.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And again you're listening to Alex Cassel and she's the
head distilled at Old Dominic Distillery. What a thing to do,
and what a way to honor a family heritage, and
what a way to honor a city. And when we
come back, we'll hear more of this remarkable story from
head distiller Alexcassel. The story of Old Dominic Distillery a
(07:19):
local story. Oxford, where we broadcast is a mere hours
drive south from the great city of Memphis. The story
continues here on our American Story Folks, if you love
the great American stories we tell and love America like
we do, we're asking you to become a part of
the our American Stories family. If you agree that America
(07:40):
is a good and great country, please make a donation.
A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents
is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to
our American Stories dot com now and go to the
donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com. And we're back with
(08:10):
the story of Old Dominic Distillery in Memphis, Tennessee and
it's master distiller Alex Cassel. Alex was the first female
master distiller in the state of Tennessee. At the first
whiskey distillery in Memphis. Here's Alex to tell us her story.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So I am originally from Kentucky. I grew up in
a small town called Burlington. It's about twelve miles south
of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was definitely a type A So
when I got to high school, fell in love with
maths and sciences and I wanted to do something with them.
And I was talking to my mom trying to figure out,
you know, what could I do with my life, because
(08:50):
at fifteen, you need to know what you're going to
do with the rest of your life. And she had
been reading some articles and came across chemical engineering. Bad
sounds perfect, but I can't teach, So what do you
do with that? And uh, my mom, who doesn't drink,
said you can make beer and be a brew master,
(09:11):
or you can be a master stillinger and make bourbon.
So that's perfect. That's exactly what I'm wanna do. Truthfully,
I have no idea why it sounded interesting, cause I
was one of those people in high school who did
not drink. And like I said, my mom didn't drink.
We didn't have bourbon in the house up to that point.
My only experience with bourbon was my parents taking me
(09:33):
to Maker's Mark when I was about five or six
years old, and I hated it, absolutely hated it. I
remember my dad sticking his finger in the fur minner
and eating it, and I thought I was gonna throw up.
It just was so gross to me. I didn't like
the smell of that room. And then I can't remember
for it was at the start of the tour, at
the end of the tour, but they were handing out fudge.
(09:57):
I'm a kid, I absolutely want some fudge. No one
told me it was bourbon fudge that does not taste
like fudge. It was horrible. So that being my only
experience with bourbon. I really have no idea why I
ended up in this industry, but when I was fifteen
or sixteen, that just it sounded so perfect, and being
from Kentucky, you know, it was a part of my heritage,
(10:17):
even if we weren't involved in it, and so I
that's I went to the University of Kentucky to study
chemical engineering and was fortunate enough to get a co
op while I was in school with a small company
and not so small now, but small company in Lexington
called all Tech and at the time they did animal
(10:38):
nutrition supplements and had a brewery, and I thought that's
perfect cause I thought I wanted to do beer. While
while I was there, they sneakily added to pot stills
into the brewery and had no one to run them,
oh or clean them for that matter, And so my
boss sent me and one other person from the engineering
(10:59):
office to clean them because they'd come all the way
from Scotland, so they had a lot of dirt on
them from the travel. And uh, shortly after that is
when he asked me if I wanted to observe a distillation,
so not just polished the stills, but you can actually
help run 'em. And instead of observing, I actually got
to run the distillation that day. My boss forgot that
(11:23):
he had to take his kids to the dentist that day,
and so I show up and he says that, and
I think, oh, man, I don't have to go to
the office. This is gonna be boring. And instead, in
about five minutes, ran me through the entire process and said,
if you have to just shut it down, I'll be
(11:43):
back later and then left. And so I ran the
stills that day, did not have to shut 'em down thankfully,
And I guess because I managed to do that that
first day, I was cheap labor. They didn't have to
hire anyone else, so they just let me do it
from that point on, so I I filled over the
first a hundred barrels. I believe it was a pierce
(12:05):
Lins reserve, And from that day on that was all
I wanted to do. I just wanted to make whiskey,
and so I sat off on that path and had
been fortunate enough to know people in the industry and
get my foot in the door and have stayed in
it ever since. So after college, I have I did
one year making laundry detergent because the industry, while it
(12:29):
was growing, everyone was still so new. Nobody was making money,
which meant they couldn't hire anybody, so no one was
hiring at the time. But fortunately one of the guys
I used to work with at all Tech remembered that
I wanted to be in the industry and so connected
me with his friend who was a recruiter and was
hiring for Wild Turkey, and so I managed to get
(12:52):
on as a distillery production supervisor at Wild Turkey. About
a year after I graduated college, and worked there for
four years. UH started off as the number two supervisor.
Then about a month that supervisor got shifted to a
different department, so I very quickly became the number one supervisor.
And so for four years I was overseeing alive production
(13:13):
at Wild Turkey, responsible for third shift and first shift,
so the hours for that were spectacular. I woke up
at two am every day, so definitely cut my teeth
in a really good way up there. And then it
was randomly the beginning of twenty fifteen that I got
that message on LinkedIn asking me if I knew anyone
(13:35):
who would be interested in UH start up distillery in Memphis.
And I took about two days to think about it
and sent my resume in and my first trip to
Memphis was for the interview, and I fell in love
with the place. I fell in love with the city immediately, UH,
but also fell in love with the company I. Everyone
I met during that weekend was absolutely fantastic. And then
(13:58):
they actually brought me into the distillery, which at the
time was a completely empty building. The stairs were absolutely terrifying,
but I went up them in heels and UH, but
seeing the space and seeing how much work was to
be done. I could see the challenge that it was,
(14:19):
and at the time I didn't know I wanted that
kind of challenge, but seeing it, having it put right
in front of me, I realized that that's exactly what
I needed. And so it just the whole concept of
really doing start to finish with this company and with
this brand was so thrilling. Creating a new brand and
product is incredibly stressful, but it was exhilarating. So just
(14:42):
the distillery itself, cause we do consider the physical space
a product for us, you know, I actually got to
sit in on interior design meetings, so I got to
help pick tile for the bathrooms and light fixtures, and
it was amazing at how much I enjoyed that. And
then with the products themselves, of course, had to develop
the liquid, which was super fun. You know, my nerdy
(15:04):
side came out. But I also got to have input
on the bottles themselves, you know, the shapes, the labels,
how they looked, everything. I got input on all of it.
Whereas you know where I came from, I had no
say in any of that. I would never have say
in any of that. And so to be able to
(15:26):
put my stamp on every aspect of the product in
the brand. It was incredibly rewarding. So yeah, I'm fortunate
to have owners who really do trust their employees, put
faith in their employees. If they hired you to do something,
they're gonna do everything they can to to make sure
they let you do that job. And uh like, on
(15:48):
a personal level, it's great. Actually do get along with 'em.
You know, we're friends. We've gone on trips together, and
over the years, I think I've proven myself to them
to where they've let me take more and more control
and kind of oversee the day to day operations of
the distillery. Don't let anyone tell you can't do it.
(16:12):
Women engineers aren't really a thing, or weren't a thing
when I entered college, and female distillers weren't a thing
at the time either, So there were a lot of
people who were saying that in you know, maybe maybe
go somewhere else, maybe do something else, And I ignored
all of 'em and just pushed through. And now you
(16:32):
see female distillers everywhere. You see women opening their own distilleries.
It is fantastic. I mean, it's it. Seeing women in
the industry goes right along with just how much the
industry has grown and changed in recent years. You know,
it used to be super labor intensive, and you know,
rolling around a five hundred pound barrel not the easiest thing.
(16:53):
Most women probably don't really want to do that. But
so many things are now automated that that la or
aspect really isn't there. Yes, the working conditions can be
very interesting. You know, you're standing at one hundred and
fifty degree temperatures on a regular basis. Women can put
up with that just as well as men can. But
women actually have better taste, better sense of taste, and
(17:13):
better sense of smell. So, if anything, we're actually more
qualified to be doing this. And so it's I love
going to conferences every year, and there are more and
more women each year, and it is it's fantastic to
not be the only one at the table anymore. So
to see everyone embracing this change in the industry. It's
(17:35):
it's the best time to be a part of it.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And great job by Robbie on that piece, finding it
and producing the piece. And a special thanks to Alex
Castle that was her voice. The City of Memphis Old
Dominic Distillery their story. Alex Castle's story here on our
American story,
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites,
and we especially love bringing you stories about family businesses,
and today we bring you one with a long history
(00:35):
that begins with a fruit cart in eighteen fifty nine.
Here is Alex Cassel, the master distiller at Old Dominic Distillery,
to tell us the history of this Memphis family business.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So one of the best things to me about working
for Aldonica de Canalian Company is the history of it.
That history dates back to eighteen sixty six, and it
is very tangible history. That whole family held on to
so many documents and ledger books and letters. I don't
(01:18):
know what they were thinking when they held on to
it all, but I know we're very happy that it's
there now. The family history isn't just some story that's
been passed down by word of mouth. It is a
history that is very, very real, and that we can
show to everyone just how authentic that story is. And
(01:43):
to be able to be a part of such an
authentic story and hopefully, you know, be a part of
its history eventually. It's just it's very rewarding. So our founder,
Dominico Canali, was an Italian immigrant and he came over
to the States in eighteen fifty nine, landed in New
(02:04):
Orleans and decided to take a river boat up to Memphis.
He already had family here, his uncle had a business already.
He decided to work for his uncle. That building is
literally about a hundred yards from the uh current distillery.
Worked for him for a couple of years and decided
to start his own company in eighteen sixty six, at
which time he found a deacon allying company started off
(02:28):
as a modest little fruit cart and he would just
go up and down what is now Front Street selling fruit.
Over the years that grew became a much bigger distribution company,
started distributing beer cause he had refrigerated trucks, and decided
in the midst of all of that to found All
Dominic Whiskey. He did not distill his own product, but
(02:50):
he did buy age product barrels from other states. So
we have records of barrels from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and
he would bring them down on the railroads and uh
Blendham here under the label of all Dominic. It was
actually one of the biggest whiskey brands in the Southern
region during that time. And of course prohibition hit and
(03:14):
so Old Dominic whiskey had to stop being produced. Fortunately,
the other parts of the company continued on, so the
fruit distribution, the beer distribution, all of that continued on
through prohibition. And sadly Dominico did not see the repeal
of prohibition. He actually died just a few days before
it was repealed. Decanaling company continued on, just without the whiskey.
(03:41):
Bring it up to I guess it was the late nineties.
They actually sold off the food distribution, but still maintained
the beer distribution that they had, and so they were
the Anheuser Bush distributor in Memphis. And then in two
thousand and ten, I believe it was, they actually sold
that off well, and so they kind of had lost
(04:02):
all of their Memphis foothold. They had other businesses, other investments,
just nothing actually in Memphis. And so in twenty thirteen
when they found a bottle of Dominic, TODDI basically they
found this bottle full still wax sealed and they decided
(04:24):
to crack it open. I believe one of them actually
tasted the liquid, but had that liquid analyzed. They sent
it to California to see if we could figure out
what actually was in that product, because with all of
the documents that the family held onto, they never held
onto the recipe for this product go figure and so
(04:46):
with the help of a lab out in California, they
learned the different components that were present in that bottle.
Couldn't figure out the exact ratios or anything like that,
so no specific recipe, but they were able to figure
out what was in it, and then from there we
essentially reverse engineered it. And so today's president, Chris Canally Junior,
(05:08):
wanted to see the company get back to Memphis. Wanted
more than just their headquarters to be here. He decided
this seems like a cool idea. Someone said, well, why
don't you sell the brand? He said, no, this is
how we get back to Memphis, and so he and
his cousin Alex Conally decided to open up what is
(05:30):
now all Dominic Distillery. That construction project officially started in
twenty fifteen, and that was the same year that they
decided to bring on a head distiller, and I was
lucky enough to get a message on LinkedIn. I had
nothing better to do. I said sure, I'll come down
(05:50):
for an interview and ended up deciding to move to
Memphis that same year. And so about a year of
construction and we were actually ready to produce the first
whiskey not just out of Old Dominic, but the first
whisky produced in Memphis. Ever, there were no distilleries here
(06:11):
even before prohibition. So December of twenty sixteen was kind
of a big year for Old Dominic and for Memphis.
And then flash forward a couple months May of twenty
seventeen and we were actually finished with alli of construction
and open to the public for our first tours at
the beginning of May. And since then we have added
(06:34):
multiple products. We now have two vodkas, we have our
Memphis Toddy, we have a gin that's about to come out,
and then we also have our Healing Station Bourbon and
even the Healing Station line we're about to release even
more products under it. So it's been a very, very
busy to two and a half years.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And again you're listening to Alex Cassel and she's the
head distilled at Old Dominic Distillery. What a thing to do,
and what a way to honor a family heritage, and
what a way to honor a city. And when we
come back, we'll hear more of this remarkable story from
head distiller Alexcassel. The story of Old Dominic Distillery a
(07:19):
local story. Oxford, where we broadcast is a mere hours
drive south from the great city of Memphis. The story
continues here on our American Story Folks, if you love
the great American stories we tell and love America like
we do, we're asking you to become a part of
the our American Stories family. If you agree that America
(07:40):
is a good and great country, please make a donation.
A monthly gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents
is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to
our American Stories dot com now and go to the
donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming.
That's our American Stories dot Com. And we're back with
(08:10):
the story of Old Dominic Distillery in Memphis, Tennessee and
it's master distiller Alex Cassel. Alex was the first female
master distiller in the state of Tennessee. At the first
whiskey distillery in Memphis. Here's Alex to tell us her story.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
So I am originally from Kentucky. I grew up in
a small town called Burlington. It's about twelve miles south
of Cincinnati, Ohio. It was definitely a type A So
when I got to high school, fell in love with
maths and sciences and I wanted to do something with them.
And I was talking to my mom trying to figure out,
you know, what could I do with my life, because
(08:50):
at fifteen, you need to know what you're going to
do with the rest of your life. And she had
been reading some articles and came across chemical engineering. Bad
sounds perfect, but I can't teach, So what do you
do with that? And uh, my mom, who doesn't drink,
said you can make beer and be a brew master,
(09:11):
or you can be a master stillinger and make bourbon.
So that's perfect. That's exactly what I'm wanna do. Truthfully,
I have no idea why it sounded interesting, cause I
was one of those people in high school who did
not drink. And like I said, my mom didn't drink.
We didn't have bourbon in the house up to that point.
My only experience with bourbon was my parents taking me
(09:33):
to Maker's Mark when I was about five or six
years old, and I hated it, absolutely hated it. I
remember my dad sticking his finger in the fur minner
and eating it, and I thought I was gonna throw up.
It just was so gross to me. I didn't like
the smell of that room. And then I can't remember
for it was at the start of the tour, at
the end of the tour, but they were handing out fudge.
(09:57):
I'm a kid, I absolutely want some fudge. No one
told me it was bourbon fudge that does not taste
like fudge. It was horrible. So that being my only
experience with bourbon. I really have no idea why I
ended up in this industry, but when I was fifteen
or sixteen, that just it sounded so perfect, and being
from Kentucky, you know, it was a part of my heritage,
(10:17):
even if we weren't involved in it, and so I
that's I went to the University of Kentucky to study
chemical engineering and was fortunate enough to get a co
op while I was in school with a small company
and not so small now, but small company in Lexington
called all Tech and at the time they did animal
(10:38):
nutrition supplements and had a brewery, and I thought that's
perfect cause I thought I wanted to do beer. While
while I was there, they sneakily added to pot stills
into the brewery and had no one to run them,
oh or clean them for that matter, And so my
boss sent me and one other person from the engineering
(10:59):
office to clean them because they'd come all the way
from Scotland, so they had a lot of dirt on
them from the travel. And uh, shortly after that is
when he asked me if I wanted to observe a distillation,
so not just polished the stills, but you can actually
help run 'em. And instead of observing, I actually got
to run the distillation that day. My boss forgot that
(11:23):
he had to take his kids to the dentist that day,
and so I show up and he says that, and
I think, oh, man, I don't have to go to
the office. This is gonna be boring. And instead, in
about five minutes, ran me through the entire process and said,
if you have to just shut it down, I'll be
(11:43):
back later and then left. And so I ran the
stills that day, did not have to shut 'em down thankfully,
And I guess because I managed to do that that
first day, I was cheap labor. They didn't have to
hire anyone else, so they just let me do it
from that point on, so I I filled over the
first a hundred barrels. I believe it was a pierce
(12:05):
Lins reserve, And from that day on that was all
I wanted to do. I just wanted to make whiskey,
and so I sat off on that path and had
been fortunate enough to know people in the industry and
get my foot in the door and have stayed in
it ever since. So after college, I have I did
one year making laundry detergent because the industry, while it
(12:29):
was growing, everyone was still so new. Nobody was making money,
which meant they couldn't hire anybody, so no one was
hiring at the time. But fortunately one of the guys
I used to work with at all Tech remembered that
I wanted to be in the industry and so connected
me with his friend who was a recruiter and was
hiring for Wild Turkey, and so I managed to get
(12:52):
on as a distillery production supervisor at Wild Turkey. About
a year after I graduated college, and worked there for
four years. UH started off as the number two supervisor.
Then about a month that supervisor got shifted to a
different department, so I very quickly became the number one supervisor.
And so for four years I was overseeing alive production
(13:13):
at Wild Turkey, responsible for third shift and first shift,
so the hours for that were spectacular. I woke up
at two am every day, so definitely cut my teeth
in a really good way up there. And then it
was randomly the beginning of twenty fifteen that I got
that message on LinkedIn asking me if I knew anyone
(13:35):
who would be interested in UH start up distillery in Memphis.
And I took about two days to think about it
and sent my resume in and my first trip to
Memphis was for the interview, and I fell in love
with the place. I fell in love with the city immediately, UH,
but also fell in love with the company I. Everyone
I met during that weekend was absolutely fantastic. And then
(13:58):
they actually brought me into the distillery, which at the
time was a completely empty building. The stairs were absolutely terrifying,
but I went up them in heels and UH, but
seeing the space and seeing how much work was to
be done. I could see the challenge that it was,
(14:19):
and at the time I didn't know I wanted that
kind of challenge, but seeing it, having it put right
in front of me, I realized that that's exactly what
I needed. And so it just the whole concept of
really doing start to finish with this company and with
this brand was so thrilling. Creating a new brand and
product is incredibly stressful, but it was exhilarating. So just
(14:42):
the distillery itself, cause we do consider the physical space
a product for us, you know, I actually got to
sit in on interior design meetings, so I got to
help pick tile for the bathrooms and light fixtures, and
it was amazing at how much I enjoyed that. And
then with the products themselves, of course, had to develop
the liquid, which was super fun. You know, my nerdy
(15:04):
side came out. But I also got to have input
on the bottles themselves, you know, the shapes, the labels,
how they looked, everything. I got input on all of it.
Whereas you know where I came from, I had no
say in any of that. I would never have say
in any of that. And so to be able to
(15:26):
put my stamp on every aspect of the product in
the brand. It was incredibly rewarding. So yeah, I'm fortunate
to have owners who really do trust their employees, put
faith in their employees. If they hired you to do something,
they're gonna do everything they can to to make sure
they let you do that job. And uh like, on
(15:48):
a personal level, it's great. Actually do get along with 'em.
You know, we're friends. We've gone on trips together, and
over the years, I think I've proven myself to them
to where they've let me take more and more control
and kind of oversee the day to day operations of
the distillery. Don't let anyone tell you can't do it.
(16:12):
Women engineers aren't really a thing, or weren't a thing
when I entered college, and female distillers weren't a thing
at the time either, So there were a lot of
people who were saying that in you know, maybe maybe
go somewhere else, maybe do something else, And I ignored
all of 'em and just pushed through. And now you
(16:32):
see female distillers everywhere. You see women opening their own distilleries.
It is fantastic. I mean, it's it. Seeing women in
the industry goes right along with just how much the
industry has grown and changed in recent years. You know,
it used to be super labor intensive, and you know,
rolling around a five hundred pound barrel not the easiest thing.
(16:53):
Most women probably don't really want to do that. But
so many things are now automated that that la or
aspect really isn't there. Yes, the working conditions can be
very interesting. You know, you're standing at one hundred and
fifty degree temperatures on a regular basis. Women can put
up with that just as well as men can. But
women actually have better taste, better sense of taste, and
(17:13):
better sense of smell. So, if anything, we're actually more
qualified to be doing this. And so it's I love
going to conferences every year, and there are more and
more women each year, and it is it's fantastic to
not be the only one at the table anymore. So
to see everyone embracing this change in the industry. It's
(17:35):
it's the best time to be a part of it.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
And great job by Robbie on that piece, finding it
and producing the piece. And a special thanks to Alex
Castle that was her voice. The City of Memphis Old
Dominic Distillery their story. Alex Castle's story here on our
American story,
Host
Lee Habeeb
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