In 2018, the three founders of Milam & Greene, a distillery in Blanco, Texas, made their first trip to the San Antonio Cocktail Conference, one of the state¡¯s largest gatherings of bartenders, distillers and their legions of fans. They were excited to introduce their new whiskey, until they found their assigned table ¡ª stuck in a corner, far from the action.
The cold shoulder might have come because they were new to the scene, or because a portion of their whiskey was made outside Texas. But it didn¡¯t help that all three of them ¡ª Marsha Milam, entrepreneur; Heather Greene, CEO and master blender; and Marlene Holmes, master distiller ¡ª were women, trying to make it in an industry well known for its assertive, sometimes aggressive masculinity.
¡°There were literally complaints, like, ¡®Why are they in here?¡¯¡± Greene said.
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