Peggy Noe Stevens was anointed in bourbon culture during her Louisville upbringing, attending Derby parties and watching her mom mix highballs. But she was baptized entirely in the spirit when she became a master bourbon taster and, in 2011, founded Bourbon Women Association to help female friends and colleagues feel more at home in the brown-water world.
At the organization’s annual SIPosium (August 13–16) in Louisville, the country’s only consumer-oriented whiskey conference for women, Bourbon Women will mark fifteen years with its biggest party yet.
“When we announced this year’s hotel room block, the response was so big and so fast, it shut down the reservation system,” Stevens says. “It’s because we’re serving great education, but there’s plenty of fun, too.” Attendees will soak up know-how during behind-the-scenes excursions to more than a dozen distilleries and venues including Whiskey Thief Distilling and the family-owned Vendome Copper & Brass (a still-making company).
They’ll expand their palates with tastings and savor, for example, how salty country ham enhances whiskey in food-pairing workshops. Mix-and-mingle events don’t take themselves too seriously: A pajama party with a DJ spinning dance tunes will set the stage for attendees to swap stories while sipping the event’s anniversary blend, crafted by nine master distillers and blenders including Alex Castle and Lisa Roper Wicker.
“SIP built this close-knit community and these lasting friendships,” Stevens says. “They’re the magic that I never anticipated and what I’m most proud of.”
Jennifer Stewart Kornegay is an award-winning freelance writer and editor based in Montgomery, Alabama. Her articles cover a variety of topics, including food and food culture, makers and travel, but the throughline is an emphasis on telling the stories of the interesting people behind them all.