Honoring Female Bootleggers: Saint Liberty Whiskey

Image: SHAREIF ZIYADAT

Saint Liberty Whiskey is honoring the woman of the past as we remember that August represents a pivotal moment for women when legislation gave women the right to vote. Saint Liberty Whiskey is now part-owned by two Black women Dia Simms and Erin Harris who are modern trailblazers highlighting the ingenuity of women bootleggers during the prohibition era. As former employees of Sean “Diddy” Combs they are both familiar with elevating wine and spirit brands and are currently founders of the spirit advisory board, Hands.

Hands and Saint Liberty are working together to pay homage to bootleggers like Bertie “Birdie” Brown who was a Montana homesteader known for her moonshine. Saint Liberty will be bottling “Bertie’s Bear Gulch Bourbon Whiskey” using the same Rocky Mountain water she used 100 years ago. Speaking on female entrepreneurship to Forbes, Harris stated “No matter what industry we're in, we approach it with entrepreneurial spirit. We treat the business like it's our business. Some of the women over the last 15 years who I've been inspired by are Jacquie Lee, who was at Diageo during the time of the deal with Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson and Sean Combs. She created a path for executives to evolve their marketing spirits to hone in on the possibility of a major deal like that.

Also, the McBride sisters, who are super assertive. They own vineyards and a wine portfolio in California. They didn't know anything about wine when they first started, but they ended up launching something of their own.”

As they discussed the journey of women transitioning to the forefront of a typically male-dominated industry Simms says “We're knee deep in the research now. It appears that there actually were more women bootleggers during this time period than men. One reason was because the law, at that time, would not search women, so they had more freedom during prohibition.

The women who are successful in the spirits industry often, frankly, aren’t at the same level from a compensation standpoint. They're largely unheard of, so many brands only celebrate the story of men. Part of what Hands is set up to do is to be part of that change.”