Maker’s Mark & Ashley Longshore Celebrate ‘Spirited Women’ With Custom Labels

How can a bourbon bottle celebrate the women who inspire us? Maker's Mark and artist Ashley Longshore answer with a vibrant limited-edition label benefiting charity.
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Maker's Mark & Ashley Longshore Celebrate 'Spirited Women' With Custom Labels
Credit: Maker’s Mark

Maker’s Mark has announced a collaboration with artist Ashley Longshore on a limited-edition, personalizable label ahead of Women’s History Month in March. For the third year, the initiative will benefit the non-profit Vital Voices, with the Kentucky bourbon brand donating up to $50,000 to the organization.

From 10 February through the end of March, consumers can visit the brand’s personalization website to order a complimentary label featuring Longshore’s design.

For every personalized label ordered, Maker’s Mark will donate $1 to support the mission of Vital Voices, which focuses on uplifting female leaders globally.

The design was created by Ashley Longshore, a Southern-born, self-taught painter and entrepreneur known for her vibrant pop art.

“When I make art, I go big, I go joyful and I go full color,” said Ashley Longshore. “Collaborating with Maker’s Mark to celebrate spirited women like the brand’s co-founder Margie Samuels felt like pouring that same energy onto the bottle’s label.”

Longshore added: “This design celebrates women who burst into the world with color and courage — fearless women who think big and command attention wherever they go.”

The label’s artwork is inspired by the brand’s home at Star Hill Farm in Loretto, Kentucky, featuring bee-pollinating blooms found on the property. The design also incorporates nods to diamonds, pearls, and gems.

Rob Samuels, managing director for Maker’s Mark and an eighth-generation whiskey maker, commented on the partnership.

“From the very beginning, my grandmother Margie Samuels set a perfectly unreasonable standard that endures today—every bottle still hand-dipped in red wax, every barrel rotated by hand, and every decision guided by the brand’s higher purpose,” said Samuels.

He continued: “Ashley Longshore shares that same pioneering and uncompromising spirit. We’re thrilled to bring her art to life on a Maker’s Mark bottle while supporting the meaningful causes championed by Vital Voices.”

Margie Samuels, wife of founder Bill Samuels, Sr., is credited with creating the brand’s signature identity. She developed the bottle’s shape, the label, the name, and the iconic hand-dipped red wax seal.

Samuels was one of the first women to be inducted into the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame and was instrumental in establishing the distillery’s visitor experience, which helped lay the groundwork for the modern Bourbon Trail.

The personalized labels are designed for the brand’s 750mL bottles, which must be purchased separately.

Beth Squires

Beth Squires is the Deputy Editor of The Whiskey Wash with over half a decade of industry experience. She possesses comprehensive knowledge of the global whisky landscape, spanning everything from heritage and production to complex market analysis. A graduate of the OurWhisky Foundation’s Atonia Programme, which champions women in whisky, Beth is a dedicated advocate for diversity and sustainability, focused on highlighting the innovation and storytelling that define the modern whisky industry.

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