Melissa McCarthy And Ben Falcone Team Up With A Historically Inspired Whiskey

Actress Melissa McCarthy and her husband and fellow actor Ben Falcone have partnered with whiskey Big Nose Kate®.

The comedic duo have not just invested in this upstart whiskey in New Mexico, but they are raising glasses and building brand awareness. “We didn’t just like BNK, we loved it,” says McCarthy. “We think her story is one of the greatest never told and are proud to make space for it. We don’t take partnering lightly, and we don’t do it often, but Kate’s different.”

The whiskey is named after Maria Izabella Magdolna Horony, who later became known as Catherine Elder and Big Nose Kate. Big Nose Kate – the woman – was born to aristocratic parents in Hungary, but after becoming an orphan and immigrating to the United States, she became a frontierswoman who was known for running in circles with Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp.

She “stole horses, ran gambling rackets, presided over watering holes of all kinds, kicked ass and took names,” says the western whiskey’s website. According to the Prescott Western Heritage Foundation, in Prescott, AZ, where Kate is buried, Big Nose Kate traveled in the same circles – and sometimes dated – both Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.

Mel Heim, co-founder and master blender of Big Nose Kate whiskey, scoured archives, researched historical societies and dug out stories of this Western icon whose own story was often overshadowed by the outlaw men in her life.

“My dad is the world’s biggest fan of classic western movies,” McCarthy says. “So, perhaps I’m genetically inclined to like Big Nose Kate or maybe I just can’t resist a woman who refuses to be underestimated.”

The whiskey like the woman herself is complex and is comprised of three whiskies from different distilleries, varying in age, style, maturation type and location. The whiskey’s final mash bill is nearly 54 percent rye and just over 46 percent malted barley. It is a first-of-its-kind blend of straight rye whiskey and American single malt.

“We loved the story, then tried the whiskey itself and loved it, too,” McCarthy says. “Then we met Mel, the master distiller , and the other founders, and they were all folks that we’d like to have a cocktail with. It was a match made n heaven; a heaven full of delicious whiskey.”

In addition to the investment from McCarthy and Falcone, Big Nose Kate ® has secured funding from Springdale Ventures and Goat Rodeo Capital, two of the United States” premier early stage funds with deep spirits expertise. “Kate is a disrupter,” Heim says. “Our immediate goal is to continue expanding availability and distribution across the U.S. so that she becomes a household name and a back bar mainstay with the best of them.”

Falcone likes to enjoy BNK as a “Kate and Ginger” cocktail when he’s making dinner, but McCarthy likes to experiment with it in cocktails. She also enjoys drinking “Kate on ice with a splash of water as I make recipes off Pinterest that seem impossible to Ben.”

“It’s a delicious whiskey to share with friends and family, and it doesn’t cost an arm and a leg,” McCarthy says. “Seems like it’s too good to keep secret, and like every great western, we hope to ride off into the sunset together.”