With a stroller packed with baby bottles and liquor samples, Dr. Sonat Birnecker walked up and down Chicago’s streets, knocking on the doors of restaurants and bars to introduce her fledgling distillery, KOVAL. As her infant son napped, with her husband, she forged an entire business into existence, the first distillery in Chicago since the mid-1800s, now with over 50 employees and distribution and accolades around the world—yet still, a family affair in every sense of the word.
Family is stitched into every part of Dr. Sonat and Robert Birnecker’s company, from its very name to the hands that helped the bottle, design, and support in the early days. “KOVAL has been completely influenced by my family,” Dr. Sonat says. “KOVAL is a name that honors the family heritage of both Robert and me. My great-grandfather, Emmanuel, earned KOVAL as his nickname when, at the age of 17, he emigrated from Vienna to Chicago in the early 1900s to start a business. KOVAL can also be translated to Schmied in German, and Robert learned how to distill from his grandfather, whose last name is Schmied”.
Family was also an integral support system to the beginning operations of KOVAL. “My father would help us box up the bottles,” Dr. Sonat explains. “Robert’s grandfather also jumped to monitor our first mash and distillation. My mom helped with some of the illustration on our liqueur bottles and babysitting our two boys so we could go to events and tradeshows”. Even Dando Projects, who partnered with KOVAL for design and branding, is run by her sister (who has won DIELINE’s prestigious award for best Whiskey packaging in the world!). KOVAL isn’t just unique in the spirits they produce, but how the company itself is a living tribute to family heritage and collaboration.
KOVAL’s name isn’t just a reference to familial ancestry but is also a reference to the way Dr. Sonat goes about running her business. “KOVAL is a common Eastern European last name,” Dr. Sonat says. “But, in Yiddish, it can mean someone who forges ahead or does something new. The name KOVAL honors both of our relatives as well as our desire to forge ahead, while creating something unique in the city we love”. And this name isn’t just for show—Dr. Sonat has lived up to this name with the ambitious journey she carved for herself creating KOVAL.
When the Birnecker’s founded KOVAL in 2008, they became the first distillery in Chicago since the mid-1800s. “Robert comes from three generations of distillers, but there were a lot of challenges related to the infancy of the craft spirits industry at the time”. One large challenge was the Illinois Liquor Control Act of 1934. Under this law, craft distillers were barred from being able to both distribute and have on-site bars, leaving them unable to engage in direct-to-consumer shipping. And, for KOVAL, this greatly impacted their launch. “Being completely independent, we didn’t have a huge budget for advertising, like the big guys,” Dr. Sonat explains. “So, having the ability to offer tours, tastings and retail on-site was incredibly important”.
So, what does Dr. Sonat do?
She marched straight to Springfield, IL to get Senate Bill 1618 proposed, which would remove those restrictions. “From the very beginning, Alderman Gene Schulter was extremely helpful” Dr. Sonat recalls. “He was not only an advocate, but he was also involved in setting up countless meetings for us, including ones with Sen. Heather Steans and Rep. Greg Harris”. And with the support of countless advocates, they were able to move the needle in Springfield. Dr. Sonat says, “We were able to make a difference to better serve the craft distilling community. It was a victory for small business. Now, there are double digit distilleries in Illinois, all able to grow in art because of the changes we made to the liquor code”.
KOVAL’s community and legislative leadership doesn’t just end there. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Sonat pivoted KOVAL’s production to produce hand sanitizer for medical organizations and nonprofits. Dr. Sonat and Dr. Robert had learned about distilleries in Europe who started making hand sanitizers to help their communities, and they got inspired. This also created the need to have changes to federal regulations “as distilleries that make alcohol for consumption are not able to make it for anything else” Dr. Sonat says. “So, we worked with our Alderman, the Mayor’s Office, as well as with our Congressman Mike Quigley and finally the FDA allowed us to produce hand sanitizer”.
She acknowledges that this success wasn’t just hers alone— “All of Chicago seemed to join in to help.” From breweries and wineries donating beer for distillation, and bottle companies donating their bottles and label companies donating labels, they were able to “donate hand sanitizer to just about every ward in the city as well as many hospitals, front line workers, jails, courthouses, police departments, fire departments, ambulance companies, nursing homes, and more”.
Forging a path in the liquor industry has meant more than just navigating outdated liquor codes and distribution challenges. For Dr. Sonat Birnecker, it also meant breaking through the barriers of a male-dominated field. While being one of the few women at the helm of a distillery, Dr. Sonat Birnecker reframes the liquor industry as not male-dominated, but “an industry dominated by very competitive brands, all vying for the same shelf space and consumers. The challenges come from there being one playing field, with all brands wanting to be on the same shelves and back bars”. She reminds us that the liquor industry has always involved women, “The first still was invented by a woman in Ancient Egypt, Maria the Jewess,” she says. “From there, women were brewing up tinctures and other spirits and brews throughout time”. Yet, as with many industries, Dr. Sonat has faced her fair share of misogynist microaggressions, recalling a time where a reporter who visited the distillery asked if she was “the shop girl”.
Through these adversities, Dr. Sonat leans on the example of strong women in her family, none more influential than her great-grandmother, who “starved herself to get her parents to allow her to come to this country—alone at the age of 14. She put three children through college and grad school, sewing day and night”.
After years of changing laws, navigating industry biases, and proving herself in a competitive industry, Dr. Sonat has distilled her experiences into advice for the next generation of women leaders:
“We have never lived in a time with more opportunities for women. If there are no role models, be one. If there are obstacles, create new pathways. If there are injustices, fight them. There are places where women are not allowed an education, not allowed to work, not allowed to complain against injustice out of fear for their lives. We are blessed and privileged to live in a society where we can make our dreams come true, and I am profoundly thankful for all the women and men who came before to make this possible. We have so much to be thankful for and I will always drink to that!”
Visit KOVAL and Learn More About Their Story:
Website: https://www.koval-distillery.com/
Location: 4241 North Ravenswood Ave, Chicago, IL 60613
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/koval-distillery/
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/kovaldistillery
