Marianne Eaves is the woman behind many American whiskeys, including her own brand, Forbidden.
Growing up, Tennessee-born Marianne Eaves was passionate about math and science, and her appetite for both eventually led her to pursue a degree in chemical engineering at the University of Louisville. During her sophomore year, she took an internship that would set the tone for the next decade-plus of her life: a research and development co-op at Brown-Forman. There, she found that the analytics and applications required of her math and science disciplines could be applied to whiskey making, in everything from discerning mashbills to fermentation and distillation, and she was hooked—she’s been making whiskey ever since, and quite a lot of it, under many different names.
While Eaves cut her teeth at Brown-Forman, studying under then-master distiller Chris Morris, she branched out on her own in 2015, taking on the title of master distiller at the then-newly opened Castle & Key. “I have had a few ‘A-ha!’ moments in my career as a distiller, and going from Brown-Forman to Castle & Key was one of them,” she reflects. “I discovered just how much more there was to Kentucky than the Brown-Forman family; I was drinking their very delicious Kool-Aid, but Kentucky whiskey’s history goes so much deeper.” She felt a similar awakening when she decided to move on from Castle & Key and start consulting, as she became tuned into a world of whiskey (and other spirits) that went far beyond the borders of Kentucky.
These days, Eaves stays booked and busy. She’s consulted on Sweetens Cove since 2019, blending a variety of bourbons, Tennessee whiskeys, and combinations of the two. She’s also made whiskey for internet gamer Dr. Disrespect under the Black Steel label, and has a hand in rum production at Pahokee, Florida-based Otherland Society. Down the road, she’s anticipating the debut of Big Sky Stillhouse in Big Sky, Montana, a project that sees her taking on the title of co-owner. “My business partner and I want to make single malt, rye, wheat whiskey, and bourbon there,” she says, adding that it’ll be an experiment in aging at elevation for her as well, given that the distillery and its warehouses sit above 7,000 feet. If the right investments fall into place, Eaves expects the distillery will open next spring.
Even as Eaves keeps her hands in many different jars, she acknowledges that the majority of her focus is Forbidden, her newest and most closely held brand. “I started working on this project back in 2016, and I believe it was the first contract client of Castle & Key,” she says. “I spent a couple years on research and development to determine the recipe and the exact production process, and by 2018 we were doing our first run.” The “we” Eaves speaks of is her longstanding business partner, as well as South Carolina businessmen Daniel Rickenmann (also the mayor of Columbia, South Carolina), Michael Fawcett, Murray Baroody, and Brad Valdes. When Eaves left Castle & Key in 2019, Forbidden came with her—it’s now produced at Bardstown Bourbon Co., which she calls the absolute right direction for it (“They’ve got a magical formula over there, and they really changed the game for non-distilling producers, with how they’re able to tailor their products,” she says).
Forbidden is made from a mashbill of 75% white corn, 12% white wheat, and 13% malted barley and fermented at low temperatures. The whiskey is now on its third batch, and Eaves has released a single barrel iteration as well, in addition to collaborating with various retail outlets on a variety of private barrel Forbidden bourbons. Thus far, Eaves has set aside around 8,000 barrels of the same recipe, though she only blends 50 barrels or less per batch. “We’ve got all of our eggs in one delicious basket, and this will be the backbone of the brand, no matter what offshoots come down the road,” she says.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Eaves has another project in the hopper: Eavesdrop, a dedicated, all-things Eaves space in downtown Louisville that will encompass an event space, bar, education center, and barrel storage site. She plans to offer blind tastings (which she has long championed through her Eaves Blind program), cocktails, food pairings, and whiskey blending experiences, in which customers can come in and blend their own bourbons for weddings or other major events. The space will also serve as a brand home for Forbidden, and other Eaves-made whiskeys. “Forbidden will be the only Kentucky brand that I’m selling by the bottle in the space, and then everything else I’m producing, all the blends, et cetera, will come from the other nine climate regions in the U.S.,” she says. “I feel passionately about the idea that we can talk about bourbon more regionally; there are nine unique climate regions in this country, and rather than go state-by-state, I’d like to talk about it by those regions.”
Feel tired yet? Eaves certainly isn’t—as far as she’s concerned, she’s just getting started.
