Interview: Jackie Zykan, Hidden Barn Whiskey
Jackie Zykan left her position as Old Forester’s master taster to launch a new project, Hidden Barn Whiskey. We gave her a call to discuss why she’s made the move, how she has grown professionally and what drives her to succeed.
Whisky wasn’t always on the cards for Jackie Zykan. “I explored lots of other avenues like medicine, even interior design and then of course had a career in the bar industry,” Jackie explains of the journey that saw her land herself the ‘dream job in whisky’ at Brown-Forman’s Old Forester in 2015. Seven years later – and with the title of master taster to her name – and Jackie is leaving the world of big-name bourbon behind to have a stake in Hidden Barn Whiskey, a startup bourbon brand, alongside friend Nate Winegar of the 5280 Whiskey Society and Royce Neeley, president of the Neeley Family Distillery. “I’ve made a shift from being an employee to an owner and that is terrifying – but exciting too.”
The transition wasn’t an immediate or obvious one. When Nate first told Jackie about his exciting new project, her involvement began as a friend offering advice based on her experiences at Brown-Forman. But as time progressed it became clear that Jackie could bring a lot to the growing project and at a time where she was beginning to explore other avenues. “It isn’t what I thought it would be – a big fancy company with a big budget – but it felt right.” She agreed to become part owner, put in some ‘sweat equity’, negotiated a consultancy rate and is now preparing for her role in charge of blending Hidden Barn’s whisky.
But while blending will be her key role in the business, she is quickly discovering that her time at Brown-Forman has equipped her with other skills that will come in extremely handy for a new business. “Initially my role was blending-focused because the product is a batched product and my palate and sensory training comes into play… but they’re also leveraging my experience and [knowledge of] best practices in marketing so I’m now doing the social media… packaging decisions, discussing what enclosures we should be using and what the press kit should contain. These are all weird tiny crumbs I didn’t ever recognise being worth putting on a resume, but I am realising that it’s all the white noise of my last role that I just absorbed.”
Jackie Zykan will use her hallmark approach to blending to shape Hidden Barn’s whiskeys
Making a move
News of Jackie’s move away from Old Forester has been met with a swathe of coverage. Indeed, the fact that the brand’s most prominent (female) face is leaving for pastures new will no doubt be a blow for Brown-Forman, but Jackie speaks of her tenure at the company with a fondness while also honestly alluding to the fact that it was the right time for a new project – despite the 66% pay cut.
“I just started this habit of doing things that felt right rather than just relying on logic,” she explains of her change in mindset that led her to this point. “Releasing that pressure and expectation and starting to say yes to things that interest me is a huge key to the success I’ve had. I got to a point in my career with Brown-Forman where I just realised that it didn’t feel right anymore, it felt like something was missing. I tried to remedy it, build structure around it but all that led me to was being frustrated.”
That frustration in part came from other people’s interpretations of what her role as master taster at Brown-Forman really entailed and a struggle to establish herself as an expert. In the beginning, her role was bartender advocacy focused – a side of the business nobody else had a handle on – but as she grew and developed, “it was really hard to shake that and be taken seriously as someone who is an expert in whisky. From a big brand perspective the role of bartenders and managers is quite one tone and so it was nothing but a constant struggle trying to prove myself as an industry expert… there is always this disconnect and a sense of imposter syndrome that you carry at all times.” With her new role at Hidden Barn however, Jackie can secure her standing in the whiskey production space while also consulting on other projects for other brands in blending, cocktail strategy and sensory education.
The Hidden Barn whiskey team (left to right) Matt Dankner, Jackie Zykan, Nate Winegar and Royce Neeley
People matter
When it comes to mentors throughout her career, Jackie is keen to point out two people who have important to her growth in the industry. One is Jim Rutledge whom she worked with when he was master distiller at Four Roses: “I came to realise this guy is no bullshit, he just likes doing things the right way. It was so refreshing to have access to a person like that who gave me the empowerment to not just abide by what things are supposed to look like.” She also credits Wendy Treinen, previously PR manager at Brown-Forman, and Jackie’s “constant guidance and mama bear, she really helped me get these opportunities.”
She is also reflective of being a very visible woman in the industry. “In the whisky industry (and also in the world at large) they don’t want you to show up as you, they want you to show up as how a woman should look. It is still a huge issue and a different set of pressures for a woman vs a man in a public facing role.” She details being in a booth to represent a brand to consumers and being put next to women being leveraged for their appearance: “How can a brand say they’re in support of female empowerment and justify that?”
She has also had to learn to modify her natural proclivity for honesty. “I have had to learn over the years how to nuance being very honest so that it’s not confronting and as a woman you have to be even more careful,” she explains. “Still, as a woman, the way you deliver your message can automatically come across as confronting as they aren’t expecting it.”
When it comes to the future of the industry, Jackie’s desire for gender to become a non-topic in whisky is matched with the hope that through Hidden Barn, new world whisky moves way from the notions of exclusivity, pretention and egocentricity and becomes more about the enjoyment of drinking and sharing it. “Our whole platform is about making sure that while the important stuff is taken care of, we’re also asking what we can do to encourage a culture around whisky that is more community-driven, more vulnerable and more experiential.” With the launch on Hidden Barn’s first bottling, a small batch Kentucky Straight Bourbon, imminent, we’ll soon be able to taste Jackie’s new direction.
