Father-Daughter Duo Leads Noël Family Distillery in Donaldsonville

Bordered by Crescent Park’s half-moon slice of greenspace and the Mississippi River levee is an old power station building in downtown Donaldsonville. Now painted church white, the vast structure is home to a small-batch distillery operated by Chip Noel who stays busy meticulously making a variety of unique rums and vodkas under his family’s brand Noël Spirits inside the same cavernous space where he used to pay his electric bill. 

For Noel, the 69-year-old former commercial pilot and prolific hobbyist, everything about rum making is methodical, measured and precise. Until it isn’t. Until intuition takes over.

“There are so many solids in the raw juice, I don’t get a perfectly accurate reading on my alcohol meter, but I just kinda know when it’s ready,” he says. “I’ve also done about 100 runs on this still, so that helps.”

Years of flying wealthy clients on charter flights to lush locales across the Caribbean inspired his love of quality cigars and well-made rum. A decade ago, he began experimenting and perfecting rum distilling at home, and after six years of development and planning, regulations and renovations and a variety of challenges, Noël Spirits rolled out its first beverages in spring of 2023. The brand now boasts a half-dozen bottled varieties as well as canned cocktails, a line of merchandise and regular events in the heart of Donaldsonville.

That Noel maintains a bonsai collection, cultivating the infamously delicate Japanese trees as a form of relaxation, says a lot about the care and ingenuity the master distiller now puts into his daily processes for Noël Spirits.

From dozens of trips back and forth from local farms, sourcing and hauling the local sugarcane and U.S.-grown corn, to fermentation and distilling, to bottling and labeling each finished product, Noël Spirits is not only the definition of craft-made, but family-owned and operated, too.

Noel’s sister-in-law Karen Kliebert labels each bottle by hand, and his only business partner is his daughter, Natalie Noel, a tall, confident former ULL basketballer who serves as CEO and oversees marketing, sales and social media for the growing brand now distributed across the state by Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits.

As Natalie texts with her sales reps prepping for a holiday event at Calandro’s Supermarket in Baton Rouge later that night, Noel checks in on a batch of his rum aging in tequila barrels — something they’ve never tried before.

“Hopefully it accentuates some profiles like banana and pineapple and caramel flavors,” says Natalie, who earned her MBA from LSU and co-owns other businesses in the wellness space. 

“The best part of the process is getting your people around the table, a bunch of friends, to taste it and give feedback and see what everyone likes. I was taste-testing some of our tequila last night, actually, you know, someone around here has to do the hard work.”

While Noel is aging his rum, it was important to Natalie to offer quality, clean and flavorful tequilas in Louisiana.

Noël is the only distillery in Louisiana with authentic reposado tequila, a proprietary blend using fresh agave from southern Mexico and the veteran tequila makers at 1438 Casa Maestri — its partner distillery in Jalisco, Mexico. After importing the tequila, Noel ages it in Louisiana oak barrels to finish it off. “Everything affects the flavor. Every tiny decision. Every amount of time,” he says.

Whether rum, vodka or tequila, Natalie’s goal for the growing brand is to land on cocktail menus of popular bars and restaurants where quality is key, and, in time, change the perception of rum as much more than a fruity vacation cocktail.

“I advocate often for the rum old-fashioned because it’s rustic, bold and has complex flavors” Natalie says. “Not every rum drink has to taste like a piña colada.”

As a team, their business is a lot of science, and a lot of relationships, too. Starting with their own.

“There’s so much talent in that man,” Natalie says of her father, who made his first home still out of a beer keg. “He can literally figure anything out. He has a passion for craftsmanship, attention to detail and resilience.”

And those characteristics are all visible right on the label: Noël Family Distillery. Chip Noel wouldn’t have it any other way.

Each bottle of rum is dated like a wine vintage, and hand-signed, just like a proud artist would mark his canvas.

“I thought if this is going to be successful, I’d like our name on it,” Noel says. “This is why I have bags under my eyes. I don’t sleep enough, because I care about this so much. When people see and taste the passion we put into each bottle, I know I want our name to be on it.”

Q&A

With all of the Caribbean influences in New Orleans and South Louisiana, why isn’t rum a bigger deal in the region? Unlike bourbon in Kentucky or tequila in Mexico, Louisiana rum hasn’t had a unified voice or champion to push it to the forefront. I think if we as distillers and the tourism agencies could come together to advertise this, I believe the perception would improve. We have to advertise the lifestyle and make it our own. We have to change the perception of rum so people think of it as a sipping spirit, and associate it with a premium image.

If you could share a glass of Noël tequila or rum and a long conversation with anyone, who would you choose? Of course, my dad’s mom and dad who passed away before we got the distillery open. They’d be so proud we followed our dream. But today, I’d choose Matt Saurage of Community Coffee, and enjoy a Tiger Rita or a neat pour of our agricole rum, and spark ideas for elevating Noël Spirits. He knows the business of retail, running a family business and everything in between.