In a world of whiskeys that honor men in history, Big Nose Kate honors a frontier legend of the same name.
“We are excited to introduce a strong, independent female protagonist into a brand world long associated with male figureheads,” says Melissa Heim, co-founder and master blender of Big Nose Kate.
Heim says Big Nose Kate, the whiskey, not the legendary woman, was “created during the dark days of COVID-19 pandemic when the world was at a standstill.” “The time (I) spent in isolation allowed me to dive deep into who Katherine Horony was,” she says. “I traced her family’s immigration from Hungary to Germany to Iowa. I then traced Kate’s route through the Midwest to her final resting place in Prescott, Arizona.”
Heim contacted historical societies, scoured archives, read biographies and totally immersed herself into Kate’s world. “This whiskey is an ode to a real person, and to pull it off, it required thoughtful introspection,” Heim says. “The idea for the blend began to form once I understood what it wasn’t. It wasn’t bourbon.”
Bourbon, Heim says, didn’t match with Kate’s geography, temperament or distinction. “Kate’s liquid needed to tell its own story,” she says. “I settled on a unique blend of rye and malted barley, as Kate, after all, was a blend of many things.”
Big Nose Kate is comprised of three whiskies from different distilleries, and they vary in age, style, maturation type and location. “This honors Kate’s journey from Europe through the plains states,” Heim says, adding that the final mash bill is 53.7 percent rye, 46.3 percent malted barley.
The average age of the whiskey is young, just shy of four years, she says, but with specialty roasted grains, pot distillation and multiple cask types such as STR sherry casks, used bourbon barrels and charred American oak, there’s a rich complexity to the whiskey, which is reminiscent of vintage bottles, she says.
“The entire process took about nine months of trial and error, all in my small kitchen,” Heim says.
The name for the whiskey, Heim says, came from her business partners. “My task was to tell her story through whiskey as the medium,” Heim says. “Kate has long been a secondary character in the history of the Southwest. She was always overshadowed by the men she bumped elbows with.”
“This woman was an independent enterpriser who chose prostitution over marriage to protect her freedom of selfhood,” Heim says. “She survived the brutality of the era, quite successfully, and she lived to be 90. I was genuinely upset that I didn’t know anything about her, save for the Hollywood caricature as portrayed in the movie Tombstone.”
The real Kate, she says, spoke five languages and could hold her liquor. “She’s a treasure,” Heim says. “How could we not immortalize her when history so eagerly tried to delegitimize her?”
Caley Shoemaker, who is an equity partner in Big Nose Brands, co-leads the blending and bottling operations for Big Nose Kate. “She’s also a personal friend, and she and I came up our respective ranks during the nascent era of craft distilling,” Heim says. “She’s a valued advisor to the company.”
Big Nose Kate retails for $38.99, and it is distributed in New Mexico, Arizona, Oregon and through the brand’s e-commerce partner, Speakeasy.
“There aren’t many blends that omit corn,” Heim says. “Corn is a great stabilizer of flavor so to completely leave it out of the equation is a different drinking experience. I’m trying to refine the undefined ‘Western whiskey’ category with this so expect the unexpected with this bottle. Besides having an amazing woman on the label, the company is female founded and backed. We’re a part of the shift to equalize the old boys club.”
