Foxes Bow Irish Whiskey Launches “40% Missing”
To mark International Women’s Day (March 8), Foxes Bow Irish Whiskey is presenting a specially designed bottle that looks wrong at first glance: 40% of its whiskey is missing. Not spilled. Not evaporated. Missing by design.
The bottle forms part of a campaign titled “40% Missing”, created to highlight what founder Alice Carroll describes as a power gap within whiskey. Industry estimates consistently show women now account for roughly one-third to two-fifths of whiskey drinkers in major markets. Yet Foxes Bow argues that women continue to have far less say in how whiskey is presented, marketed, and culturally defined. The missing 40% of liquid represents that imbalance.
Alice said,
“We reduced the whiskey in the bottle by 40% on purpose, It’s 40% less – because women still don’t get the same say in whiskey. We’re clearly here as drinkers. What’s missing is equal power.”
According to Foxes Bow, the gap is not about participation. It is about perception and power. This gap is evident in who is positioned as the expert at tastings, whose voice is amplified at events, whose palate is treated as the benchmark, and who ultimately holds decision-making authority inside brands. It is also reflected in the naming of some of the world’s most widely recognised whiskey brands – Jack (Daniel’s), Jim (Beam), Johnnie (Walker), John (Jameson) – a reminder of how historically male-dominated the category has been.
The brand says the visual is designed to make that disparity tangible -something statistics alone often fail to do.
“Forty percent is a significant share of any consumer base, when that share isn’t reflected in influence or visibility, that’s not just a cultural issue. It’s a growth issue.”
Women are estimated to make up around 40% of whiskey drinkers in the United States and approximately 35% in the United Kingdom. At the same time, women founders and advocates across the sector continue to point to underrepresentation in ownership, senior leadership, and visible authority roles. Foxes Bow believes that imbalance shapes how whiskey is perceived and who feels entitled to speak about it.
Why Foxes Bow is speaking out
The campaign is rooted in Carroll’s own decade working in the whiskey industry across education, brand ambassadorship, and entrepreneurship.
Carroll said,
“In 2014, I was a trained whiskey brand ambassador – serious about the craft and deeply prepared. I could talk about production, maturation, blending, and history in detail. And still, at tastings, the most common question wasn’t about flavour. It was, ‘Do you actually drink whiskey?’”
Over time, Carroll says she recognised those moments were not isolated incidents but part of a broader pattern.
“Women are welcomed as customers, but we’re still too often treated like guests rather than people with equal authority. That difference may seem small in a single interaction, but across a category, it shapes who feels credible and who doesn’t.”
Carroll founded Foxes Bow with the aim of building what she calls “A New Way to Whiskey” – one that reflects the diversity of modern drinkers and moves beyond outdated assumptions about who whiskey is for.
“When more people have a real say, the category becomes more interesting,More creativity. More innovation. More points of view. That’s good for whiskey, and it’s good for business.”
International Women’s Day activity in Ireland
Foxes Bow will feature the “40% Missing” bottle as part of its International Women’s Day activity in Ireland, including at the ‘Women in Irish Whiskey IWD event’ on 6th March at the Midleton Distillery, Cork. In support of the campaign, the bottle will be on display between 2nd – 8th March at The Dead Rabbit in New York and Austin, The Irish Whiskey Museum and The Celtic Whiskey Shop in Dublin, and The Limerick Whiskey Experience in Limerick.
About Foxes Bow Irish Whiskey
Foxes Bow Irish whiskey brand is rewriting the rules of the category, defined by innovation, disruptive design, and a mission to champion free thinkers and push Irish creativity forward.
The whiskey is aged in bourbon barrels and finished in Oloroso and rye casks – a novel mix in Irish whiskey. It opens with fruity sherry notes, moves into bold spice, and resolves with a lingering vanilla sweetness. It has established a reputation among whiskey drinkers seeking character without outdated tropes
