At Virunga Mountain Spirits, we’re often asked about the origin of our ‘Kari’ Vodka. While our distillery overlooks Mount Karisimbi, the name pays tribute to a true trailblazer: Dian Fossey, who founded the Karisoke Research Center here in 1967.

As our CEO Karen Sherman reflects: “On September 24, Fossey established the Karisoke Research Center – ‘Kari’ for the first four letters of Mt. Karisimbi, which overlooked her camp from the south, and the last four letters of Mt. Bisoke from the north. The center is where Fossey did most of her groundbreaking fieldwork with the mountain gorillas. As a woman-led and inspired spirits company, we thought naming the vodka after Nyiramachabelli, the brave woman who lived alone on the mountain, was a great way to honor her legacy, even if whiskey was her drink of choice (or so we were told).”