Women take the lead in whiskey as more female drinkers and distillers change the industry

Maria Simulescu

SHOREHAM, Vt. (AP) — Meghan Ireland always loved chemistry, but as a college freshman studying chemical engineering, she didn’t know she could channel her passion for science into the art of making whiskey. It took stumbling across an article about a female chemical engineer who became a master whiskey distiller for something to click: Ireland’s fellow students could go into plastics and pharmaceuticals, she was going into whiskey. “It was kind of like a connection of, ‘hey, I can see someone