By Kevin Gibson

For Lisa Sawyer Derman, the combination of a Kentucky upbringing and a law degree led to the development of a whiskey brand.

Out of law school, she interned with a legal firm that was heavily involved in the spirits world. Derman soon knew she loved the industry, and she pursued a long career serving as legal counsel for many top companies and brands, including Absolut, Stoli and others.

But her love of bourbon was already deep thanks to her Kentucky upbringing.

“My aunt Georgie would give us a little bourbon and honey if we had a cold,” Derman recalled recently. “It always felt like bourbon was just a part of life.”

Ironically, her hometown of Albany, near the Tennessee line, was nestled in a dry county. But it was Kentucky, and if there wasn’t bourbon immediately available, there at least was moonshine.

Derman’s career and love of bourbon led her to, at her husband’s urging, launch her own whiskey brand in June: Five Springs Infused Bourbon.

But she had been considering making this career move for quite a while. In fact, she said she was already thinking about a brand launch as far back as the mid-2010s, around the time Bulleit Frontier Whiskey launched in the old Stitzel-Weller Distillery grounds in Louisville.

Infusion

So, why infused whiskey and not traditional bourbon? When asked, Derman says it was simply a matter of market opportunity and an observation.

She chose to sell infused whiskey “primarily because of trends I was seeing,” she said. “I’ve always been a bourbon drinker. My husband is a bourbon drinker. We had Woodford Reserve at our wedding before people were drinking bourbon.”

Specifically, Derman had noticed her kids were starting to order cocktails when they would go out – Old Fashioneds, Paper Planes, etc.

“They had graduated from a Fireball shot,” she said. “They wanted to drink bourbon but were a little intimidated by it. It started with us infusing flavors at home to make really good cocktails. We thought, ‘Wow, there’s not really anything like this on the market.’”

This experimentation led to the three current infused whiskeys in the Five Springs lineup: Honey Sage, Vanilla Maple, and Blood Orange.

But Derman wants to make it clear that her Five Springs products are made for bourbon lovers and the bourbon curious alike.

“We’re not a liqueur with a splash of whiskey,” she said. “We are bourbon forward. I felt like it was important to be true to bourbon. We were concerned about launching in Kentucky. … we appreciate that it’s not for everyone.”

Five Springs uses a high rye mashbill, and the sourced bourbon comes out of the barrel at about 120 proof, she said. It is proofed using Kentucky water and then infused with natural flavors. She said the bourbon, which is sourced from an unnamed distillery, is typically aged between 16 months and 4 years.

Derman said the whiskeys are prime for an elevated cocktail, or neat or over ice as an after-dinner drink. (In fact, she was sipping a Five Springs Honey Sage during our video interview.)

Read more: Five Springs Adds Three New Whiskeys to Lineup

Looking Ahead

Asked what lies next, Derman said it’s about raising awareness for the brand.

“We want to make sure we are getting it right,” she said. “We want to make sure we are reaching people in the right way.”

She hopes to achieve national distribution, and she also is working on other flavors.

Currently distributed by Kentucky Eagle in both Kentucky and New Jersey, where Derman currently resides, she said the products now have roughly 25 accounts. To help raise awareness for the brand, Derman looks to get into sponsoring music events.

And Five Springs won’t be genre-specific.

“I think what’s really important for us is we like all types of music,” Derman said. “It’s more about the spirit of it. It’s about people coming together, listening to music and drinking good bourbon.”