Two Santa Monica residents have ventured into the spirits scene with the launch of their debut drink, a blend combining a straight high rye bourbon and American single malt. Called Lodestar American Whiskey, it’s the result of a collaboration between two cousins, Anna Axster and Wendelin von Schroder.
Both women are self-proclaimed whiskey aficionados and originally hail from an entertainment marketing background. As such, they’ve traveled extensively and have sampled all manner of similar spirits from countries all over the world.
“We came at this very much from a we-are-the-audience angle based on our love affair with whiskey over a long period of time” Axster said, adding, “We honed in on what we liked and what we didn’t like and that’s when the idea started forming that we wanted to make our own and start a new brand.”
She says that they visited a considerable number of distilleries to learn about the kinds of processes involved and to ultimately source their distilling partners. “During that process, the flavor profile that we were aiming for became clear to us and that what we had in mind would best be achieved through blending,” Axster said.
The accompanying blurb describes the booze as “approachable, uncomplicated and deliciously versatile” with “notes of caramel, hints of citrus, warm baking spice and smooth malted finish.” And while all that can be debated and discussed until it’s time to call last orders, there’s no denying, it is rather palatable.
“Over the course of many years, we really developed a taste for whiskey,” laughs von Schroder. “One of the big things that we wanted our whiskey to achieve was versatility, so even people who are less familiar, even intimidated, with the whiskey category would enjoy it.
“What we ended up with was the high rye bourbon. That brings in the familiar kind of caramel notes that you’d expect from a bourbon. Then the high rye brings in the baking spices, which adds a really interesting flavor profile, that also gives you a little bit of that bite that you would expect from a whiskey. And then the American single malt brings in those kinds of toasty malted notes, but also makes the body of the whiskey incredibly smooth and it gives it a really nice long finish,” von Schroder said.
According to Axster, they chose the name Lodestar because of its dual definition in the dictionary: It is both “a star that’s used to guide the course of a ship, especially the Pole Star” and “a person or thing that serves as an inspiration or guide.”
As such, the choice of a compass as a logo seemed entirely appropriate. The number 1837 at the center of the logo is a reference to French philosopher and utopian socialist Charles Fourier, the man who first coined the term “feminism” in 1837.
“Feminism, community and equity are definitely principles that we navigate by, so we thought it’d be fun to include this. And we’re a fully female owned and operated company, so we preferred to do that, rather than have our year of origin on it, which of course would be 2023,” von Schroder laughs.
The operation is run from in Santa Monica, but the whiskey is produced by a small company in Indiana. “We have a wonderful co-packer called Cardinal Spirits, they’re a small mom and pop shop in Indiana and they blend, proof down and bottle for us and ship it here,” von Schroder said, adding that they’re looking to introduce it to more hotels and bars across Southern California and hope to make an appearance at the annual industry event Tales of the Cocktail next year.
Currently, Lodestar American Whiskey is available to drink at Cassia (1314 7th Street), Lunetta (2420 Pico Blvd) and the Surfrider Hotel in Malibu. It is also available to buy from the website lodestarwhiskey.com priced at $44.99.
scott.snowden@smdp.com