n TASTE
RIDING THEIR RYE
How four women are turning the Legado Whiskey passion project
into an international brand
BY Jennifer Fergesen PHOTOS: Debbie Cunningham
From left: Hola Motuapuaka, Christy De-
celle, Charmaine Magale and Yvette Rincon
of Legado Whiskey, Sacramento’s first spir-
its company owned by women.
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comstocksmag.com | August 2019
P
lenty of couples pick up hobbies to
bond outside of work: birdwatch-
ing, say, or training for a marathon.
Sacramento residents Yvette Rincon and
Charmaine Magale — a city planner and
a chiropractor — decided in 2016 to learn
about whiskey production in their free
time.
The result ended up more front and
center than most side hustles: In Septem-
ber 2018, Rincon, Magale and co-owners
Christy Decelle and Hola Motuapuaka
launched Legado Whiskey, Sacramento’s
first spirits company owned by women.
Though Legado Whiskey is a dark
American rye, the company is as unaged
as moonshine. The owners have yet to
open a distillery, instead adding their
own twists to whiskey imported from a
distillery in Indiana. The owners have
nevertheless leveraged their story —
homegrown, women-owned — to reach
consumers around the Capital Region, a
key strategy in the crowded craft bever-
age market.
Legado Whiskey’s origin as a passion
project is central to the company’s brand
storytelling, starting with its name. Le-
gado is Spanish for “legacy,” which Rin-
con defines as an existential quest: “Leg-
acy is what you decide to leave behind,”
she says. “We want to inspire others to
create their own legacy, to do whatever
they feel passionate about.” Rincon and
Magale felt passionate about whiskey,
she says, so creating a whiskey-based
legacy felt like a natural next step.
The couple joined with Decelle, an
entrepreneurial friend who owns three
Beach Hut Deli locations, and the three