Tennessee women bring creativity into the wine, spirit industry

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Wine and spirits are often at the center of celebrations. Many of the people behind the brands you love are women.

Lexie Philips is the assistant distiller and brand ambassador at Jack Daniel’s Distillery.

“People think as a master distiller and assistant distiller that we’re sitting around sipping whiskey all day and that is very far from the truth,” Philips said.

Phillips has been a brand ambassador since 2020. She said she often travels the country sharing the history of Jack Daniels.

She comes from four generations of family who have worked at the world-famous whiskey brand and she’s one of the few women to have her title.

“You’re in the trenches, turning grain into a 140 proof, covered in grain dust,” Phillips said. “I was only the 6th woman ever to be a distiller at Jack Daniels and had an opportunity to work with the first woman ever that was a distiller here.”

Best friends Kristi Alderson and Ogechi Anyatonwu are two of the four women who makeup Twisted Sistuhs, a minority-, veteran-, and women-owned wine brand.

“Our wine is combined with a bourbon barrel aged product,” Alderson said. “You can have the wine and you can have the spirit.”

The wine brand is a fusion of the women’s friendship that started in 2005.

“We would get our hair done by Kristi, sitting in the shop drinking and our friend Shayla said we should start a business together,” Anyatonwu said.

“There is no better feeling than walking into a liquor store and seeing proof of their hard work.

“It feels so good to say, ‘hey, I’m going to buy my wine today,” she said.

Alderson and Anyatonwu aspire to own their own vineyard one day.

For more information and to help support their goal click here.

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