At the Forefront of Queer Inclusive Bourbon: Old Forester
For generations Bourbon whiskey has ebbed and flowed in and out of popularity and prestige, but as a uniquely American product, it’s long been part of the national beverage alcohol conversation.
Over the past 20 years, however, Kentucky’s passion for the craft spirit has gained reverence from all over the world and with the institution of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in 1999, the state established an open invitation for the world to come to our front porch.
We invite them into our workplaces, we have them sit at our dining room tables, we even share a dram or two. If you’re lucky, when you’re not being schooled by the category’s most innovative minds, you may even meet an industry legend with a story to tell (veracity of which may vary).
All this to say, Bourbon’s modern renaissance has put Kentucky on an international stage and it’s happened alongside a massive progression of LGBTQ+ inclusivity and civil rights in this country. To be clear, this is not to minimize the fight continuing in state legislatures (including Kentucky’s) that aims to jeopardize the rights and safety of Queer people. It’s rather to say that with a wider lens, as Bourbon has made it’s resurgence out of the 90s and early 2000s, it has done so during a time that LGBTQ advocates have seen some fruits of their labor not only legislatively, but culturally.
The fact that the Bourbon industry of yore wasn’t the pinnacle of inclusivity should shock no one. But the modern Bourbon world has created opportunities for those making, barreling, bottling, marketing, selling, and consuming whiskey to live their authentic Queer selves and feel safe and affirmed doing so. One Bourbon brand that has existed practically since the beginning of commercial Bourbon can attest to the evolution of the industry. Old Forester, founding brand for the locally-based spirits company Brown-Forman, is both a Louisville institution and home to three influential Queer leaders in Kentucky Bourbon.
Caleb Trigo
One of the industry’s burning questions from the outside world is how do you get to work on whiskey. Bourbon fans want a curriculum and a road map to realizing their lifelong dream of working on their favorite Bourbon brand, but with such a multifaceted industry there are endless points of entry. However, when it comes to actually making the spirit, Caleb Trigo is a pretty good example of how to school your way into some pretty incredible opportunities. Trigo currently works as the senior engineer- ing manager for Brown-Forman Brands and was named the Assistant Master Distiller for Old Forester earlier this year.
After growing up in a small town in Western Kentucky, Trigo found his way to Louisville to attend the University of Louisville’s Speed School of Engineering. He landed at Brown- Forman’s Process Research and Development department as a school co-op requirement, later leading to a full-time role with the company after completing his degree. Trigo later completed a master’s degree in brewing and distilling from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. Not only has he held numerous positions in R&D, operations management, and engineering for Kentucky Bourbon brands, but he recently took a job opportunity in Panama City integrating newly acquired Diplomatico Rum into Brown-Forman’s portfolio. Products Trigo has touched have gone into stores and behind bars all over the globe at this point.
He says that being Queer and open in the workplace has never really created a barrier during his time at Brown-Forman. After facing challenges with acceptance from his family, Trigo says his “chosen family quickly grew both in [his] personal life and at work.
“Brown-Forman was such an amazing place to be coming-out in that I immediately got involved with the PRIDE group and met so many amazing people,” he explained.
PRIDE is an established employee resource group at the company in which Trigo has held leadership roles in addition to engaging with several diversity and inclusion initiatives company-wide.
Though Trigo has found confidence in being his authentic self while getting to make delicious spirits day in and out, we can’t assume this is the experience of all Queer people in the industry, and certainly hasn’t been historically. But Queer visibility in the Bourbon industry in particular is on the rise.
“The Bourbon industry is evolving in parallel with many other legacy industries — thus, change is inherent and imperative,” he says. “With that, as the Queer community grows so does its presence in our company and industry.”
“Brown-Forman (and the spirits industry in general) is open and welcoming to everyone, gay or straight,” he says. “We were one of the first companies in Kentucky to earn 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign cor- porate scorecard. Other businesses can learn from our company’s inclusive culture.”
Chris Poynter
While Trigo represents the side of the industry making the whiskey, others do the work of making sure people discover it. Chris Poynter is the public relations and partnership manager for both Old Forester and Woodford Reserve at Brown-Forman. Born in Bourbon County, he says Bourbon is in his blood.
Having grown up in rural Kentucky in the 1970s and 80s, he says that he never knowingly experienced discrimination outside of the oc- casional high school insult. And when he came
out? It was a surprise to no one.
“The only obstacles I’ve faced are those I’ve created for myself – I think most people can relate to that,” he says. Poynter has found his friends and family to always be a cornerstone of love, support, and personal growth in his life.
In a field like public relations, Poynter is partially tasked with communicating to the masses a brand’s story. After beginning his work on Woodford Reserve six years ago, and Old Forester three years ago, Poynter touts Brown-Forman’s affirming workplace culture.
“Brown-Forman (and the spirits industry in general) is open and welcoming to everyone, gay or straight,” he says. “We were one of the first companies in Kentucky to earn 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign cor- porate scorecard. Other businesses can learn from our company’s inclusive culture.”
At the age of 53, Poynter has seen, firsthand, the evolution of both bourbon culture and LGBTQ acceptance that Trigo alluded to.
“I hope that younger people can look at me, see my success and know that being gay is not an obstacle in life, but a positive”. Poynter adds,
“Being gay, after all, is only one part of who I am.”
Melissa Rift
A third and entirely different but integral side of the Bourbon industry is hospitality. Not everything you might market to consumers has an element of hospitality, but selling Kentucky Bourbon is selling hospitality.
Melissa Rift, master taster and brand ambassador for Old Forester found their way to bourbon through the Kentucky Bourbon Trail and hospitality. After beginning as a tour guide at a distillery, they ended up managing a private single barrel program where they would both sell whiskey and build relationships with a vast network of industry partners, clients and customers.
“As a point of origin, this served really well to give me a foundational bourbon education and learn how to teach people about bourbon,” Rift says about their career.
When a job for master taster of their favorite brand opened up, they jumped at the opportunity.
“Everyone’s first question is what does a master taster do.”
Rift describes their role with Old Forester as two-pronged. Half of the role is the “taster” part, which involves continued quality assurance and product innovation. The other half is acting as a conduit between the brand mar- keting team and the sales force and consumers. Rift, whose educational background is actually in family therapy and not distilled spirits, says they’ve “always enjoyed cross-functional positions that connect multiple teams within a company.” Their freedom to be their authentic self has certainly contributed to their success in this regard.
When it comes to being Queer in the industry, Rift feels they haven’t experienced any “overt obstacles’’ because of their identity.
“There are of course microaggressions, lack of visibility and a definite lack of consideration when it comes to being not only Queer but gender-fluid,” they said. Rift adds that they will often be interviewed about what it’s like to be a “woman in whiskey.”
“It’s still just a very binary space. I think we could do better with that.”
For Rift, working in the whiskey industry is all about community.
“There is so much community to be had. It really does reach beyond a full-time job,” Rift says. They not only find support from the bourbon community, but from their local Queer community as well.
An interesting theme in the history of Kentucky Bourbon is that of resilience. Through revolutions, rebellions, prohibitions, wars, natural disasters…Kentucky Bourbon has always found a way to persevere. So too has the Queer Community in this country and in this state.
There have always been Queer people in Kentucky, and there have always been Queer people working in bourbon. Representation matters, so it matters when people like Trigo, Poynter and Rift do the jobs they do and give visibility to that.
