January 30, 2025 • 37 mins
Do you know anything about Whiskey? No? Good, me neither! Talk to me about red wine, I got you! Whiskey- I have a lot to learn!
Ashley Frey brings her fascinating journey to our latest episode, sharing how she swapped casino marketing and legal services for the unique world of whiskey making at Frey Ranch Distillery. Together with her husband Colby, they've cultivated one of America's few true estate distilleries right in Fallon, Nevada. We explore how Ashley's role in branding and operations has been pivotal in transforming their family farm into a leading American whiskey producer, and how she juggles these responsibilities with life on the ranch.
Join us as we uncover the vibrant and ever-evolving landscape of craft distilleries across the United States. Discover the dynamic world of Frey Ranch, where creativity flows as freely as the whiskey. We look at how they blend barrels for Whole Foods and unravel the intricacies of U.S. liquor laws, illuminating the roles and passions that drive their distillery team.
Whether you're new to whiskey or a seasoned connoisseur, Ashley offers insights into the basics of bourbon and the art of whiskey branding. Hear about the thoughtful packaging choices that echo a rich 170-year farming legacy, as well as the strategic branding moves that set them apart. From the design of their distinctive whiskey bottle to their commitment to sustainability, every detail is a nod to tradition meeting modernity. We even suggest a travel itinerary that pairs a visit to Frey Ranch with the stunning vistas of Lake Tahoe, inviting you to experience the heritage and innovation of Frey Ranch firsthand.
Get a bottle for yourself through their website and use code Makingroomfreeship for free shipping off your first order *limited to one purchase per email address*
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, welcome back to Making Room.
So excited to be here with you.
This episode is a littledifferent than others that we've
had on the show.
I think you guys are going tobe really excited to hear about
it.
Learn more about it along withme, because I have a lot to
learn in this conversation.
But actually, you know, ashley,I'm going to start over,
starting over right now.
Hey guys, welcome back toMaking Room, so glad that you
(00:24):
are here.
This season on the show isalready so rich and so full of
so many incredible, diverseconversations, and this adds to
it.
It's going to be a really funone that I know a lot of us are
going to learn a lot from andpotentially add a new something
new to our list of travels forthe year ahead.
It's definitely going on me andColby's Well.
(00:46):
Today we're going to be talkingto Ashley from Frey Ranch, and
if you have not heard of Freybefore, here is a little bit
more about her and the ranch anda little glimpse of what we're
diving into in this conversationtoday.
While Ashley Frey may not havegrown up on a farm, today it's
where she feels the most at homeas the co-founder of Frey Ranch
(01:12):
Distillery in Fallon, nevada.
Ashley has played an integralpart in growing the family
business, one of the only fewtrue estate distilleries in the
US.
The phrase single-handedly putNevada on the map as a serious
producer of American whiskey,with their unique farm-to-glass
operation.
(01:32):
After spending several yearsworking in casino marketing and
legal services, that is sointeresting Ashley took a leap
of faith when she and Colbyfounded Fray Ranch Distillery on
his family's 2,000-acre farm.
You guys have a challenge aheadof you, because my husband's
name is Colby, so you're goingto have to be super honed in to
know which Colby we're talkingabout, with Ashley stepping in
(01:55):
to help wherever needed,including the bottling line.
She takes pride in the hardwork that made Frey Ranch
Distillery what it is today.
She has leveraged her PR andmarketing background to help
grow the company over the years.
I am so interested ineverything PR and marketing.
In her role as the co-founder,ashley, along with Colby, are
seasoned company spokespeople.
(02:17):
In addition to having a hand inday-to-day operations, ashley
is closely involved in thebranding process and oversaw the
redesign of their stunningbottle with a distinct metal
topper and custom label color.
In addition to getaways in thenearby Lake Tahoe, which I have
yet to go to.
(02:38):
Ashley is just as contentspending time on their farm with
Colby, their two children,alice and Charlie, and their
team of employees that theyconsider a second family.
There is so much more that weare going to be diving into
today.
She has such an interestingbackground.
This business is so differentthan other ones that we've had
on the show before, so we have alot to chat through.
But first I need to tell youguys about my dinner tonight,
(03:01):
because it was horrible and Ican't stop thinking about it.
I was so busy.
It's a very full week.
I was telling my Colby thatthis is the busiest month we've
had in business in probably twoyears, which is an incredible
thing.
I've prayed for it, waited forit.
It's here.
But you guys know with that,when you guys know with busy
(03:22):
seasons, there's alwayssomething that falls through the
cracks.
And tonight it was dinner and Ihad ground turkey in the fridge
and I was like, oh, let's justlike make a yummy meatloaf and
mashed potatoes.
And I went to open theseasoning cabinet and I was out
of salts and I was like, oh,let's just go with it.
Horrible idea.
It was disgusting.
And we ate it because we neededsomething to eat.
(03:44):
Um, but I'm regretting it onthe other side, and if I only
thought ahead and ordered Feastand Fettle, anticipating my busy
week, I wouldn't have had tohave the salt-free ugh, gross
meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
So if you have a busy seasonahead of you and you need help
with your meals, if you don'twant to sacrifice flavor, if you
(04:05):
want convenience no openingpackages, no weird meat textures
it is like a personal chef iscooking for your family, gets
delivered straight to your doorsand you can embrace your work,
everything that your kids aredoing, whatever your busy season
looks like, and eat well.
Let them just cook for you guys.
Learn from my mistakes.
Use code gather25, g-a-t-h-e-rand the number is 25, for 25%
(04:32):
off your first week and, ifyou're like me, add salt to your
grocery list as well.
Well, hi, I'm Katie, ahospitality educator and the
host of Making Room by Gatherpodcast.
I am set to see our communitiesget back to the table through
(04:58):
hospitality, but it wasn'talways this way.
My husband and I moved toThailand and through it I
experienced some loneliness, andwith it I was given a choice to
sit back and accept it or to dosomething about it, and for me,
that meant two things that Ineeded the healing to learn how
to accept an invitation and theconfidence to know how to extend
one.
Through this process, Ideveloped some of the richest
(05:20):
and deepest relationships of mylife.
Through Making Room by Gather,you will hear conversations from
myself and experts in the areasof food, design and
relationships.
You see there are countlessthings trying to keep us from
the table, but can I tell yousomething?
Take a seat, because you areready, you are capable, you are
(05:40):
a good host.
You are a good host.
Okay, I never record interviewsat night and I'm sipping on
water.
I'm like I should have wine orsomething I should have, or
whiskey.
Right, we're talking abouttoday Something more exciting,
(06:01):
but welcome, ashley, so excitedto have you.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Thank you so much for having me, and, um, it's not
quite night here.
I'm on the West coast, but itis almost to that happy hour and
I too should be sipping on somewhiskey as well.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
We should have arranged that.
Oh well, after a celebratory.
Um, okay, well, let's talkabout my little like
mispronunciation.
Okay, well, let's talk about mylittle mispronunciation.
This is so funny.
So, growing up, I spent moretime when I traveled outside of
the US than in it, and myhusband and I went to Arizona,
(06:35):
which was like five years ago,which was the furthest West I'd
ever been, and I was tellingsomeone I was writing that we
were going there and I spelt itArizona.
I a like Arizona and my husbandwas like oh no, we have a
problem.
So it's Nevada, nevada, is itreally Nevada?
(06:56):
Yes, yes, okay, so it that mustbe like an East coast pronounce
like pronunciation and itdoesn't bother me.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I I think Nevada sounds very pretty, I think it
sounds um elegant Nevada, butyou know, nevada is a rugged
state, so um Nevada means snowcap mountains, which we have
here, and um yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay.
Well, I've kind of made a jokeover the years that typos are
like part of the brand now,cause I'm just like the queen of
them, and mispronunciations areas well.
So, nevada, nevada, I'm goingto say it wrong.
I'm going to say it a differentway every time, and then one of
the times, I'll get it right.
Well, that is where youcurrently are and you consider
(07:41):
your favorite place to be, butyou didn't always live on a farm
, which is very interesting tome.
So talk to me about, I guess,your childhood and the road to
Fray Ranch.
What do you want people to knowabout it?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
So I grew up in Northern Nevada, about an hour
and a half from where Colby grewup.
My husband, colby and he grewup here on the Fray Ranch, and I
also grew up in a, in a prettysmall town, which I loved.
I love small town, rural Nevada.
Um, we both went to theuniversity of Nevada in Reno.
(08:12):
I'm actually um a year olderthan him in school, so about 14
months, which is like an ongoingjoke.
But a mutual friend introducedus and, um, we have been dating.
We started dating almost 20years ago.
We were talking about thisactually this morning cause
it'll it'll be our 15 yearwedding anniversary this August.
So, um, we met in college.
(08:34):
We were young and, uh, from theminute that I met Colby, I knew
you could just see his passion.
He wanted to take over hisfamily farm and it was truly in
his blood.
People say you know thatsomething runs through their
veins and it's it's theirpassion.
But with Colby, if you meet him, it truly is.
There's, there's no denying it.
And I knew, oh my gosh, I'mgoing to end up in another real
(08:58):
Nevada town, but on a farm thistime, which was not really my
dream.
I love big cities and I workedin, like you mentioned, casino
marketing and I even worked fora law firm at one time, and I
love to travel.
I did a lot of study abroad andstudied abroad in Spain, and
then I did another study abroadsession in London, and so moving
to a small town wasn't reallymy first choice, especially a
(09:22):
farm.
I knew nothing aboutagriculture but I loved Colby
and I just I loved his passionfor all things farming and
agriculture.
So I ended up moving out to thefamily farm in 2010.
And after we got married, hetook over the farm from his
parents who worked the groundand built, you know, their
(09:45):
agricultural business and theirheritage for about 30 years here
and they moved on and let meand Colby take the reins and we
really wanted to be able to takethe crops that we were growing
on his farm, which were, at thetime, a lot of corn, wheat,
barley and rye, and do somethingwith those crops.
(10:05):
You know, as a farmer, when youtend to your soil and you tend
to your crop and you really careabout the quality of the grain,
you think when you send it offto the commodity market or it
goes somewhere and mixed in withother grains in a big silo.
It's very unfulfilling.
You want to know where does itgo, where does it end up, what
is it used for?
So we decided we're going tokeep all of our grains here
(10:29):
in-house and produce somethingthat we love, which was American
whiskey.
We've always followed thatcategory and with bourbons and
American whiskey we loved whereit was going and we put our
heads together and we thought,thought.
What better way for us toshowcase these grains than to
produce this like world-classwhiskey, a hundred percent from
(10:49):
ground to glass, right on ourfarm.
So that's ended up where, whereI am now, and it's been such a
joy to build this brand togetherwith him.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Wow, yeah, it's so interesting.
So my Colby and I started ourmarriage working together as
well, and currently in thisseason he works another job
outside of the house.
But we always say we're thehealthiest and the best when
we're working like hand in hand.
But that's not everybody, andso I love hearing that about you
guys too.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, he definitely handles more of like the finance
and the production and thefarming side and I handle more
of the marketing, the PR, thecommunication, the more
emotional side, which is, youknow, we kind of that happened
very naturally for us to likekind of stay in our own lane I
guess, if you will.
But yeah, we, we really doenjoy working together, living
(11:38):
together and building the brandtogether.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I love it.
I love hearing those stories.
I'm curious where I'm hearingtoys tumbling in the background.
Everyone okay.
Where in Spain were you withyour study abroad?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I did study abroad in San Sebastian, which is a
little town that I think isfairly close to the French
border, if my memory serves meright, but it was a beautiful
beach town and I was able tospend the summer there and
travel to Madrid and gosh, wedid running of the bulls and we
would do Paris for a weekend andjust a ton of fun stuff and the
(12:13):
culture and everything wasamazing.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, I was in Barcelona for a while and I love
.
Barcelona, um, dying to go back.
It actually that when I wasgoing on that trip, um, I went
because there was an emphasis onFrance and there was a terror
attack at the time.
It was a small one, and so wegot rerouted and I was like so
disappointed at first, but Idon't think I would have like
willingly gone, and so I'm gladI was kind of forced to go,
(12:38):
because I love it.
I'd go back a hundred times.
It was so nice.
So one of my favorite partsabout learning about you and the
way that you've been describedto me is that you are a chief
storyteller, and I'm superpassionate about telling
people's stories, obviously.
(12:58):
So I'm curious though what isthat?
What does that look like to you?
And I guess as a part of yourcareer?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Sure, yeah.
So me and Colby, when we set outto build the Frey Ranch
distillery and launch ourbourbon, what was really
important to us and what reallywas our driving force was to
authentically tell our story,and we wanted it to be our real
life.
A lot of times you can, you know, create a product, but then you
have a marketing companytelling your story how they want
(13:28):
to, and maybe they gravitatetowards one little piece of your
story and they just blow it up.
But for us, I I was really meand Colby were both really
passionate about being authenticand making sure that this was,
you know, our real life storyand what we do on a day-to-day
basis.
That is something that I don'twant anybody else to tell our
(13:50):
story.
So, from the social media toall of our email posts, to
everything, it's in my voice andit's our story and it's me
really sharing what we do on thefarm, how we do it, why we do
it, when we do it, and gettingjust little pieces and glimpse
of daily farm life for usstories matter so much and I
(14:10):
think that, like modern day,marketing and PR is finally
catching on.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Like the perfect polished, it doesn't sell as
much as a raw story.
People don't connect to it asmuch as a raw story.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
So I love that part of your heart and what you do.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Um well, um, okay.
So I have never personally beento a distillery or a ranch.
Honestly, I mean, we don't,really I don't.
I mean, would we have adistillery here on the East
coast?
Do you know of any?
Oh my gosh, yeah, there's tonsof distilleries all over.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, as American whiskey has grown, I think
there's craft distilleries thathave popped up in all 50 States.
You know you have your legacywhiskey producers that are going
to be in Kentucky and Tennessee, but as really the American
palette has grown and hasstrived to innovate and want to
(15:06):
try new things, craftdistilleries have popped up all
over, which is truly amazing andwe love to see producers really
, you know, shining and showingwhat they um, what they're
producing.
So, yeah, definitely, if you,if you search, you'll find one.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, if anyone's listening to this, feel free to
laugh at me.
I like I, I know nothing.
Like you, talk to me about redwine.
I'll talk to you all day, butwhen it comes to like anything
else, I just haven't branchedout much.
And Colby and I, my, my Colbyand I were talking.
Our families are kind of likewine and beer families and we've
never just like been around it.
(15:41):
I don't know, I haven'texplored it and I'm I'm such a
foodie, I love hospitality andso I'm glad we're talking about
it because I want to branch outmore.
But my East Coast listeners areprobably like what are you
talking about?
There's distilleries everywhere, but I've just never been.
But give us a picture of what aday on like Frey Ranch
distillery looks like.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, it's a great question and, to be honest, no,
two days are really the same.
So, like today, for example, Ihad the buyer from whole foods
come.
They came to the ranch and wedid a seven barrel blend.
So we pulled out 16 differentbarrels that are in our single
barrel program and we blendedthem together and we landed on a
(16:25):
seven barrel blend that's goingto be going to 12 different
States in their whole foodspirit program and that was a
lot of fun to be able to tastethrough.
And he had this like and thisis really cool Cause he's like I
really want it to have thiscrisp apple like green apple
tart taste and then kind of fadeinto this really nice, rich,
rich, viscous, like you know,front of the palette and then
(16:49):
baking spices on the finish andI'm like, okay, we're going to
get there and and we blendedtogether and we had a lot of fun
.
And of course you don't alwaysget like what your brain is like
wanting, you know, but we wedid find some of those crisp
green apple barrels and somereally nice, rich, like caramel
that we blended together.
It was a lot of fun.
So that was today, um, buttypically I'm I'm in the office
(17:12):
five days a week and then ourtasting room is open on
Saturdays, which I love to beable to visit with our customers
and you know experience howthey're experiencing Frey Ranch
Colby is.
Typically he loves to be out ona tractor, so that's kind of
where he does all of histhinking.
He doesn't get to spend a lotof time out on tractors anymore
(17:33):
and he's forced to be in theoffice, like doing you know the
finances and running differentfinancial models.
But that's what he reallyenjoys is anytime that you're
planting or harvesting or doingsome ground prep, he'll be out
there and he'll be gone for 12hours, you know, out on his
tractor, bouncing around.
But but for me, for me, I'mprimarily in the office and
(17:54):
working on our social media orour e-commerce campaigns that we
do, where we can ship differentproducts to people and just
having fun.
Tomorrow I'm going to Coloradofor our Colorado launch, which I
travel a lot.
So that's what I really loveabout my job is no, two days are
the same.
Like every day.
I'm doing different things andI'm getting my hands into a lot
(18:16):
of different stuff, which isonly capable because I have an
amazing team that helps me, youknow, pick up the pieces and put
things together.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
That is so fun.
I feel like that's a dream.
That's everyone's dream right.
When people say they don't wantto work a nine to five, it's
not most people, it's not thatthey don't want to work, it's
just they want.
They want to be interested inwhat they're doing.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, challenge, and I'm always doing my best when
I'm ideating and you know,sitting down with different
members of the team and saying,hey, what about this?
Or how have you thought of this?
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Or you know, um, that looks beautiful, let's expand
on that, or that's a great ideathat's those are my favorite
days is when we have thesebreakthrough moments where we
create something really cool andfun.
That's so fun.
A few guests ago his brand wasdiscovered through Whole Foods
and I've learned Whole Foods isreally like an incubator for
(19:08):
business and I don't know if youknow this, but in the state of
Connecticut they can't have Idon't know if it's all liquor
but like sold at grocery stores,so our whole foods don't have
alcohol and so that's.
That was interesting to hear.
But that side of the industryis so interesting to me and I
always say like in another lifeI'd love to be a buyer for
someone I love sourcing.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Right.
So after this is just a funfact.
But a lot of people don'trealize that after prohibition
the federal government left theliquor laws up to each
individual state.
So every state in the UnitedStates has a different set of
liquor laws.
So for us, as we'redistributing to multiple states,
there's a lot of compliance andthere's a lot of understanding
(19:51):
of like.
Can that you know?
Can we go into Whole Foods in alot of understanding of like?
Can you know, can we go intoWhole Foods in Connecticut and
it's like no cause they don't.
You know, their grocery storesdon't sell liquor.
You know, in Texas, for example, all the bars and restaurants
don't buy directly from thedistributor.
They have to buy from a retailstore, which is like totally
against the law in Nevada.
So it's interesting how everystate is completely different.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So we lived in Thailand for a while my
listeners know that and they hada liquor law in the country
that they can't sell any kind ofalcohol during school hours, or
no, no, no, it's when you'redriving the kids to school and
when you're picking them up.
Isn't that interesting?
That's interesting, yeah.
So it's like eight to 10 in themorning and then like four to
(20:34):
six, like when the kids aregetting dropped off and picked
up.
It's like, oh, what is thatgoing to?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
do.
And then we're in Nevada and Ialways tell people Nevada is a
24 hour state, Like we don'thave last call.
We sell liquor everywhere andanywhere and we've got slot
machines in our grocery store.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So you know that's wild.
How far are you guys from Vegas?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I know nothing about the layout, so just to kind of
give you a picture and thelisteners where we are.
We are just East of the SierraNevada mountains.
So if you think where LakeTahoe is or where the bend is in
Nevada, we're just East of thatand actually all of our water
comes from both sides of LakeTahoe.
We call it the Sierra snow meltthat melts down through a
(21:17):
series of rivers and streams andflows down to our Valley and to
fray ranch.
But, um, just as like a metric,we're actually a hundred miles
closer to San Francisco than weare to Las Vegas.
So Las Vegas is way South andthen San Francisco would just be
West to us.
So, um, yeah, so we're, we'repretty far from Las Vegas and
(21:39):
really we're nothing like LasVegas.
We're not glitz and glam or notlike city lights, we're very
rural.
But that's what makes Nevadareally wonderful is we've got
that diversity and we've got somuch you know different um.
Wonderful is we've got thatdiversity and we've got so much
you know different, um differentlives that you know you can
live here in Nevada between therules and the big city, I'm sure
that's helpful for you withyour background.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I know that's what, like my Colby and I would need.
We would need access to both.
Right, yeah, that's a goodbalance, it is so.
I admitted I'm new to whiskey.
I'm new to all of it, so feelfree to correct my like the way
I'm talking about anything, butI want to dive into it a little
bit more Because, like, forexample, I know how much like a
(22:24):
typical wine pour is, I know howto buy wine, I know what to
serve it with, like all of that.
When it comes to whiskey, noclue.
So I don't know that there'smany like me, but for those
listening that are, um, what dolike maybe new people that are
new to whiskey need to know Like, what would you say, are the?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
So, um, I would start , like for a brand new whiskey
drinker, I would start with abourbon.
Um, bourbon is going to be alittle bit sweeter than like
maybe your rye whiskey, forexample.
Rye whiskey is a little bitspicier, but bourbon has the
corn in it.
Our bourbon is a four grain, sowe have corn, wheat, barley and
rye, and the corn and the wheatreally give give us some
(23:04):
wonderful sweet flavor profiles.
Think like creme brulee,caramel, maple syrup, and you
don't have to drink it straight.
I always tell people start it ina cocktail.
We've got some great cocktailson our website, but one of my
favorite is our take on theclassic cocktail gold rush.
We call it the farmer'slemonade because it calls for
honey syrup.
So just that really nice honey.
(23:24):
You put some warm water in itand create a syrup and then
lemon juice balances out twoounces of bourbon and it's so
approachable.
I've got all my friends hookedon it, who are typically wine
drinkers and they would nevertouch whiskey.
But because whiskey and bourbonholds up so well in a cocktail
it I can't even drink a vodkacocktail anymore because there's
(23:47):
just not, there's nothing there.
So for me, I love to drink thefarmer's lemonade.
Like we, like we all.
So, yeah, you'll have to try it.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, that sounds great.
I'm like a big lemon.
Anything with lemon lime, likecitrus.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I love balance.
You've got like the sweetnessand the acid and it's balances
out Perfect.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
This is actually funny.
It's like a fun fact about me.
My favorite like drinking glassof choice is a wine tumbler.
This is just water, but I'm Iuse a wine tumbler all the time
because they're pretty, theymake me happy.
Um, but I know like whiskey andbourbon are served in different
types of glasses, and so what'sthe glassware?
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Sure, um.
So if you are, you know,drinking it straight, we like
what we call a Glen Karen.
Um, this is what we do all ofour tasting in.
They kind of go, um, like atulip at the top, and that way
you can really stick your nosein it.
You can get some great, youknow, flavors coming out of it.
But you can also use a rockglass, um, which is just, you
(24:45):
know, your, your standard, kindof like what you've got there,
but just a nice little rockglass that you can put an ice
cube in if you want, or you canjust drink Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
I don't even have any , yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Out of your, out of your wine glass.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I used to sell these on our website.
They're kind of like diamond.
I don't know if you could seeit.
They make me so happy, they'reso pretty.
But no, we.
So we lived abroad for a while,kind of like, sold almost
everything before we moved backand I'm like slowly recovering
everything we need forhospitality.
So I need to get some.
Um, where, where do you guysget them?
(25:23):
Do you do like a crate andbarrel or do you?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
So we order our Glencairns directly from the
company Glencairn and they'reout of the UK.
We order them by the paletteand they're branded and they're,
they're so great.
We use them in our tasting roombecause you, you know, when
you're tasting things, I I don'tlike to taste out of plastic, I
want to taste out of glass.
I really want to get theflavors and, you know, enjoy it.
So that's, we order themstraight from Glencairn.
(25:48):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, very fun.
You said England, they're in.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
England.
They're out of the UK.
We order them, like I said, bythe palette.
There's like 3000 glasses onthere, but they're one of our
top sellers in the tasting room.
People love them.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Wow, that's like top of my travel list.
Yeah, is the UK?
I haven't been yet.
I've been to a lot of otherplaces in Europe, but maybe I'll
go get them for you next timeyou need to order, I'll just
personally go for you, okay.
So yeah, I remember when I firstwent to your website.
So for my listeners, usuallywhat happens is when guests are
new to me, a PR company willsend me like hey, this guest is
(26:31):
really interesting, they'd begreat for your show.
Why don't you check them out?
So I vet everyone just reallyquickly, just to make sure that
they align with what you guyswant to hear as listeners and
that are interesting to me.
But the first thing that Inoticed when I went to your
website was that your brand wasincredible.
I've spent the last's not justlike it's not a snap, it's a lot
(27:00):
of decisions, hours of strategy, trial and error, and so I for
sure like to celebrate it whencompanies do branding well.
I heard a quote once that goodbranding is good business, and I
think good branding is likebehind.
Good branding are like seriousbusiness owners that's maybe a
better way of saying it.
(27:20):
You're committed.
It almost.
Good branding almost brings anidea to life, like in a, in a
new way.
So I then learned that youutilize your PR and business
background so, like youpersonally led the charge on
these changes.
So I guess, with all of thisconsidered, why is it so
important to you?
I guess let me backtrack.
(27:43):
I think what this showed me wasthat you're wanting to bring a
fresh spin on whiskey right Likeyou're trying to give whiskey a
new face, a new name andculture right now.
So why is that important to?
Speaker 2 (27:55):
you, yeah, no, it's such a great question.
So when we started the brand,we could have really focused on
Colby's family legacy, or wecould focus on, you know, our
malting or sustainability, oryou know, there's so many
different things that we couldfocus on.
And we really thought, you know, it's really about this new
(28:17):
generation that is, you know,raising this whiskey of the land
, and we really wanted thatstory to shine with our
packaging.
So we didn't want to use sepiatones, we didn't want to use a
stock bottle.
We wanted, like, for people tobe able to pick up our bottle
and say, oh, like, without evenreading anything, like this
feels different and it looksdifferent.
(28:38):
And so our label is a, it's abright yellow and it really pops
on the shelf.
And at the time we're like,yeah, nobody else is doing this
like vibrant yellow and it's notlike fluorescent yellow, it's
the same color as the corn thatgrows right in our field.
And all those little subtletouches were what was really
important to me and I called itlike our liquid story.
(29:00):
So how do people hear about usand how do they, you know, get
that feeling?
And that's what's really neatabout brand building is that
you're evoking a feeling and Iwanted people to be able to.
You know, know that.
You know we're in our.
We were in our late thirtieswhen we started the brand and we
were just a new generation hereon the farm that we're creating
this really lifelong lastingproduct from the crops that we
(29:23):
grow.
So we've got some subtle nodsto his family heritage.
You know the shape of a labelis a belt buckle and it wraps
all the way around.
I actually have a bottle here.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah, show me Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And that represents a belt and a belt buckle that was
passed down from Colby'sgrandfather to his dad.
Because we can't forget aboutthe family history.
I mean, that's why we're here,but we just wanted to have some
subtle nods to, you know, hisfamily's legacy and if you ever
see my Colby, he's always gotthat belt and belt buckle on and
it's a great reminder of hisfamily and what they've done for
(29:56):
us here on the farm.
To you know, get it to where itwas for us to take over.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
This is a good like reminder or like encouragement
to listeners to you, like whenyou're experiencing a brand and
you like love their visualpresence, ask questions about it
, cause usually those decisionsare so purposeful.
I'm so glad you shared thatwith me, cause I didn't know
that that was the belts, butit's.
I don't know it's it, it'smeaningful, it makes it really
come.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It really does.
And a lot of times you knowthere's reason behind things and
so, like, why did you pick thecolor yellow?
Well, it represents the cornthat grows right in our field.
And if you flip the bottle overand boss along the room of the
glasses says be good to the landand the land will be good to
you.
And that was a design elementthat I worked with our glass
producer down in Mexico City andactually went down there to the
(30:44):
glass plant because they werereally worried they weren't
going to be able to get thatdesign element and it was so
important to me that I was likewell, me and Colbert, we're
going to come down, we're goingto fly to Mexico City and we're
going to be there with you guys.
When you ran our glass for thevery first time and it was that
important to us and, you know,being able to make decisions
while we were there to make sureit was perfect, wow.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Wow.
Well, I appreciate all of thatand celebrate a job well done on
the other side.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
I mean it from the time that we um and I'm not a
creative, just to be reallyclear we use several creative
agencies to help bring this tolife.
So wonderful agencies that youknow worked with us for over a
year from like the beginning tothe very end, just making sure
they captured all of our ideasand our thoughts and our beliefs
(31:35):
ideas and our thoughts and ourbeliefs.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
It's so.
I know what that experience islike when you find the right
person and you're all work likethe synergy is that the word?
Like when you're all workingtogether, it's the best feeling.
It is yeah, you know when it'sright, so that's fine.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Say that one more time.
You know when it's right.
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, for sure.
Well, we talked about a lot ofdifferent things.
What maybe didn't we talk aboutthat?
You want people to know aboutthe experience.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, I think when you pick up a bottle of free
ranch, you're reallyexperiencing, um, you know, 170
years of farming tradition, meand Colby, and it's our real
life story.
And I think that there's somany brands out there that, um,
you know, they they fabricatestories or they gravitate
towards one or two things, butwe really want to share
something that we cherish, whichis, you know, growing our crops
(32:26):
here on the farm and be able toshare it with people.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Wow, wow.
Well, I'm excited to plan atrip.
I should know this how closeare you to like Arizona?
Are you close at all?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah, we're not super close, but if you um, if you
make a trip to San Francisco,it's not too far.
Or Lake Tahoe, if you are intoskiing or boating or even just
going to the beach, we've gotLake Tahoe it's about an hour
and a half from us, which is ourfavorite place to go and take
the kids bike riding and hikingand um wonderful trip.
I always tell people do aweekend trip to Lake Tahoe and
(32:59):
come out to the ranch.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
That sounds great.
Hey, you sold me.
Well, you are offering a codeto listeners.
Yeah, want to get their handson a bottle, and it is one word
making room free, ship, and theycan enter that right on your
website, Correct?
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yep.
So if you go toshopfrayranchcom, we ship to
over 30 States.
Um, make sure you sign up forour email list.
It's called the dirt Um, andyou'll hear from me directly.
Um, on all of our new releases,all of our whiskey drops, any
promotions?
Um, right now we've got, youknow, colby's favorite trucker
hat that we're selling onlineand our ground to glass bundle,
(33:42):
the complete collection which isour bourbon, our rye and our
farm strength whiskey, and thenyou get free shipping with the
code.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Wow, Love that.
Always grateful for codes thatwe get to share with you guys
and the companies that offerthem.
So we will include that in theshow notes and wherever you are
listening as well.
But we end each of ourconversations with the same
three questions and I'd loveyour answers as well.
The first is something you haveeaten recently and loved.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Tough question.
But we did a Rancho on the Roaddinner at Giada in Las Vegas
and she incorporated some of ourgrains.
So she made corn polenta fromsome of the corn on the farm and
it was amazing.
So Giada's in Las Vegas was 10out of 10.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
No way I love her so much.
I don't personally know her.
She's on my list of people.
I want to get on the show.
What an incrediblecollaboration, congratulations.
Yeah, that's incredible.
Okay, something you have foundto be beautiful lately.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Oh my gosh.
So I'm getting ready to go hometo my two beautiful children
and just watching them grow up.
My daughter is 11 and she'sjust.
She's my mini me and I lovewatching her grow every day.
And then my little boy is nineand he is a mini of coolie who
loves everything farming andtractors.
And my kids have just reallyembraced the family business.
They don't fully understandalcohol or whiskey, but they
know Frey Ranch and they knowwhen we're in the grocery store
(35:10):
they can spot it.
So watching them grow up hasbeen such a joy.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
What a cool legacy.
My voice is like failing, butit's good timing.
We're not allowed to question Agathering you attended that
made you feel a strong sense ofbelonging and, if you could
pinpoint it, what it was aboutit that made you feel that way a
annual Christmas gathering withmy friends from college.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
This will be, gosh, this year's 20 years since I
graduated college and we've donea Christmas get together every
year since, which is I can'tbelieve it's been 20 years.
And it really is amazing whenyou have such a core group of
friends that you don't talk allyear, but you get together and
you, just, you know that theseare your people, you know, and
(35:59):
you pick up right where you,where you left off, and so you
don't want to go home at the endof the night, but you know you
have to and you won't see eachother for a year.
But, um, you, you know youbelong, so I'm, I'm going to say
my, my college friends, Wow,that's really sweet and very
rare right that college friendsstay in touch, that long and all
of our husbands are friends nowand, yeah, it is very rare, we
(36:22):
have friends that fly in fromDenver and California to come to
our annual Christmas trip orChristmas party.
So, wow, I love that you havethat.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah, that's a good kick for Colby and I too.
We had great friends in college.
We just I don't know life'shard, People move away and yeah,
and you have to be intentionalabout pursuing that and
maintaining it, it's a priority,right?
Yeah Well, where do you want tosend people to follow along for
more?
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Yeah, you can follow us on social media.
We're on Facebook and InstagramFrey Ranch Distillery, and you
can also follow us and join ouremail list at freyranchcom.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Oh, this was so fun.
Thanks for sharing andeducating this total newbie and
hopefully, others listening.
We're excited to share thebrand with you and if you guys
buy some and drink it, pleasetag both of us.
We'd love to see it and we willsee you next week.
Cheers, cheers.
(37:21):
I love that.
Hey guys, welcome back to Making Room.
So excited to be here with you.
This episode is a littledifferent than others that we've
had on the show.
I think you guys are going tobe really excited to hear about
it.
Learn more about it along withme, because I have a lot to
learn in this conversation.
But actually, you know, ashley,I'm going to start over,
starting over right now.
Hey guys, welcome back toMaking Room, so glad that you
(00:24):
are here.
This season on the show isalready so rich and so full of
so many incredible, diverseconversations, and this adds to
it.
It's going to be a really funone that I know a lot of us are
going to learn a lot from andpotentially add a new something
new to our list of travels forthe year ahead.
It's definitely going on me andColby's Well.
(00:46):
Today we're going to be talkingto Ashley from Frey Ranch, and
if you have not heard of Freybefore, here is a little bit
more about her and the ranch anda little glimpse of what we're
diving into in this conversationtoday.
While Ashley Frey may not havegrown up on a farm, today it's
where she feels the most at homeas the co-founder of Frey Ranch
(01:12):
Distillery in Fallon, nevada.
Ashley has played an integralpart in growing the family
business, one of the only fewtrue estate distilleries in the
US.
The phrase single-handedly putNevada on the map as a serious
producer of American whiskey,with their unique farm-to-glass
operation.
(01:32):
After spending several yearsworking in casino marketing and
legal services, that is sointeresting Ashley took a leap
of faith when she and Colbyfounded Fray Ranch Distillery on
his family's 2,000-acre farm.
You guys have a challenge aheadof you, because my husband's
name is Colby, so you're goingto have to be super honed in to
know which Colby we're talkingabout, with Ashley stepping in
(01:55):
to help wherever needed,including the bottling line.
She takes pride in the hardwork that made Frey Ranch
Distillery what it is today.
She has leveraged her PR andmarketing background to help
grow the company over the years.
I am so interested ineverything PR and marketing.
In her role as the co-founder,ashley, along with Colby, are
seasoned company spokespeople.
(02:17):
In addition to having a hand inday-to-day operations, ashley
is closely involved in thebranding process and oversaw the
redesign of their stunningbottle with a distinct metal
topper and custom label color.
In addition to getaways in thenearby Lake Tahoe, which I have
yet to go to.
(02:38):
Ashley is just as contentspending time on their farm with
Colby, their two children,alice and Charlie, and their
team of employees that theyconsider a second family.
There is so much more that weare going to be diving into
today.
She has such an interestingbackground.
This business is so differentthan other ones that we've had
on the show before, so we have alot to chat through.
But first I need to tell youguys about my dinner tonight,
(03:01):
because it was horrible and Ican't stop thinking about it.
I was so busy.
It's a very full week.
I was telling my Colby thatthis is the busiest month we've
had in business in probably twoyears, which is an incredible
thing.
I've prayed for it, waited forit.
It's here.
But you guys know with that,when you guys know with busy
(03:22):
seasons, there's alwayssomething that falls through the
cracks.
And tonight it was dinner and Ihad ground turkey in the fridge
and I was like, oh, let's justlike make a yummy meatloaf and
mashed potatoes.
And I went to open theseasoning cabinet and I was out
of salts and I was like, oh,let's just go with it.
Horrible idea.
It was disgusting.
And we ate it because we neededsomething to eat.
(03:44):
Um, but I'm regretting it onthe other side, and if I only
thought ahead and ordered Feastand Fettle, anticipating my busy
week, I wouldn't have had tohave the salt-free ugh, gross
meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
So if you have a busy seasonahead of you and you need help
with your meals, if you don'twant to sacrifice flavor, if you
(04:05):
want convenience no openingpackages, no weird meat textures
it is like a personal chef iscooking for your family, gets
delivered straight to your doorsand you can embrace your work,
everything that your kids aredoing, whatever your busy season
looks like, and eat well.
Let them just cook for you guys.
Learn from my mistakes.
Use code gather25, g-a-t-h-e-rand the number is 25, for 25%
(04:32):
off your first week and, ifyou're like me, add salt to your
grocery list as well.
Well, hi, I'm Katie, ahospitality educator and the
host of Making Room by Gatherpodcast.
I am set to see our communitiesget back to the table through
(04:58):
hospitality, but it wasn'talways this way.
My husband and I moved toThailand and through it I
experienced some loneliness, andwith it I was given a choice to
sit back and accept it or to dosomething about it, and for me,
that meant two things that Ineeded the healing to learn how
to accept an invitation and theconfidence to know how to extend
one.
Through this process, Ideveloped some of the richest
(05:20):
and deepest relationships of mylife.
Through Making Room by Gather,you will hear conversations from
myself and experts in the areasof food, design and
relationships.
You see there are countlessthings trying to keep us from
the table, but can I tell yousomething?
Take a seat, because you areready, you are capable, you are
(05:40):
a good host.
You are a good host.
Okay, I never record interviewsat night and I'm sipping on
water.
I'm like I should have wine orsomething I should have, or
whiskey.
Right, we're talking abouttoday Something more exciting,
(06:01):
but welcome, ashley, so excitedto have you.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Thank you so much for having me, and, um, it's not
quite night here.
I'm on the West coast, but itis almost to that happy hour and
I too should be sipping on somewhiskey as well.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
We should have arranged that.
Oh well, after a celebratory.
Um, okay, well, let's talkabout my little like
mispronunciation.
Okay, well, let's talk about mylittle mispronunciation.
This is so funny.
So, growing up, I spent moretime when I traveled outside of
the US than in it, and myhusband and I went to Arizona,
(06:35):
which was like five years ago,which was the furthest West I'd
ever been, and I was tellingsomeone I was writing that we
were going there and I spelt itArizona.
I a like Arizona and my husbandwas like oh no, we have a
problem.
So it's Nevada, nevada, is itreally Nevada?
(06:56):
Yes, yes, okay, so it that mustbe like an East coast pronounce
like pronunciation and itdoesn't bother me.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
I I think Nevada sounds very pretty, I think it
sounds um elegant Nevada, butyou know, nevada is a rugged
state, so um Nevada means snowcap mountains, which we have
here, and um yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay.
Well, I've kind of made a jokeover the years that typos are
like part of the brand now,cause I'm just like the queen of
them, and mispronunciations areas well.
So, nevada, nevada, I'm goingto say it wrong.
I'm going to say it a differentway every time, and then one of
the times, I'll get it right.
Well, that is where youcurrently are and you consider
(07:41):
your favorite place to be, butyou didn't always live on a farm
, which is very interesting tome.
So talk to me about, I guess,your childhood and the road to
Fray Ranch.
What do you want people to knowabout it?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
So I grew up in Northern Nevada, about an hour
and a half from where Colby grewup.
My husband, colby and he grewup here on the Fray Ranch, and I
also grew up in a, in a prettysmall town, which I loved.
I love small town, rural Nevada.
Um, we both went to theuniversity of Nevada in Reno.
(08:12):
I'm actually um a year olderthan him in school, so about 14
months, which is like an ongoingjoke.
But a mutual friend introducedus and, um, we have been dating.
We started dating almost 20years ago.
We were talking about thisactually this morning cause
it'll it'll be our 15 yearwedding anniversary this August.
So, um, we met in college.
(08:34):
We were young and, uh, from theminute that I met Colby, I knew
you could just see his passion.
He wanted to take over hisfamily farm and it was truly in
his blood.
People say you know thatsomething runs through their
veins and it's it's theirpassion.
But with Colby, if you meet him, it truly is.
There's, there's no denying it.
And I knew, oh my gosh, I'mgoing to end up in another real
(08:58):
Nevada town, but on a farm thistime, which was not really my
dream.
I love big cities and I workedin, like you mentioned, casino
marketing and I even worked fora law firm at one time, and I
love to travel.
I did a lot of study abroad andstudied abroad in Spain, and
then I did another study abroadsession in London, and so moving
to a small town wasn't reallymy first choice, especially a
(09:22):
farm.
I knew nothing aboutagriculture but I loved Colby
and I just I loved his passionfor all things farming and
agriculture.
So I ended up moving out to thefamily farm in 2010.
And after we got married, hetook over the farm from his
parents who worked the groundand built, you know, their
(09:45):
agricultural business and theirheritage for about 30 years here
and they moved on and let meand Colby take the reins and we
really wanted to be able to takethe crops that we were growing
on his farm, which were, at thetime, a lot of corn, wheat,
barley and rye, and do somethingwith those crops.
(10:05):
You know, as a farmer, when youtend to your soil and you tend
to your crop and you really careabout the quality of the grain,
you think when you send it offto the commodity market or it
goes somewhere and mixed in withother grains in a big silo.
It's very unfulfilling.
You want to know where does itgo, where does it end up, what
is it used for?
So we decided we're going tokeep all of our grains here
(10:29):
in-house and produce somethingthat we love, which was American
whiskey.
We've always followed thatcategory and with bourbons and
American whiskey we loved whereit was going and we put our
heads together and we thought,thought.
What better way for us toshowcase these grains than to
produce this like world-classwhiskey, a hundred percent from
(10:49):
ground to glass, right on ourfarm.
So that's ended up where, whereI am now, and it's been such a
joy to build this brand togetherwith him.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Wow, yeah, it's so interesting.
So my Colby and I started ourmarriage working together as
well, and currently in thisseason he works another job
outside of the house.
But we always say we're thehealthiest and the best when
we're working like hand in hand.
But that's not everybody, andso I love hearing that about you
guys too.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah, he definitely handles more of like the finance
and the production and thefarming side and I handle more
of the marketing, the PR, thecommunication, the more
emotional side, which is, youknow, we kind of that happened
very naturally for us to likekind of stay in our own lane I
guess, if you will.
But yeah, we, we really doenjoy working together, living
(11:38):
together and building the brandtogether.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I love it.
I love hearing those stories.
I'm curious where I'm hearingtoys tumbling in the background.
Everyone okay.
Where in Spain were you withyour study abroad?
Speaker 2 (11:52):
I did study abroad in San Sebastian, which is a
little town that I think isfairly close to the French
border, if my memory serves meright, but it was a beautiful
beach town and I was able tospend the summer there and
travel to Madrid and gosh, wedid running of the bulls and we
would do Paris for a weekend andjust a ton of fun stuff and the
(12:13):
culture and everything wasamazing.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, I was in Barcelona for a while and I love
.
Barcelona, um, dying to go back.
It actually that when I wasgoing on that trip, um, I went
because there was an emphasis onFrance and there was a terror
attack at the time.
It was a small one, and so wegot rerouted and I was like so
disappointed at first, but Idon't think I would have like
willingly gone, and so I'm gladI was kind of forced to go,
(12:38):
because I love it.
I'd go back a hundred times.
It was so nice.
So one of my favorite partsabout learning about you and the
way that you've been describedto me is that you are a chief
storyteller, and I'm superpassionate about telling
people's stories, obviously.
(12:58):
So I'm curious though what isthat?
What does that look like to you?
And I guess as a part of yourcareer?
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Sure, yeah.
So me and Colby, when we set outto build the Frey Ranch
distillery and launch ourbourbon, what was really
important to us and what reallywas our driving force was to
authentically tell our story,and we wanted it to be our real
life.
A lot of times you can, you know, create a product, but then you
have a marketing companytelling your story how they want
(13:28):
to, and maybe they gravitatetowards one little piece of your
story and they just blow it up.
But for us, I I was really meand Colby were both really
passionate about being authenticand making sure that this was,
you know, our real life storyand what we do on a day-to-day
basis.
That is something that I don'twant anybody else to tell our
(13:50):
story.
So, from the social media toall of our email posts, to
everything, it's in my voice andit's our story and it's me
really sharing what we do on thefarm, how we do it, why we do
it, when we do it, and gettingjust little pieces and glimpse
of daily farm life for usstories matter so much and I
(14:10):
think that, like modern day,marketing and PR is finally
catching on.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Like the perfect polished, it doesn't sell as
much as a raw story.
People don't connect to it asmuch as a raw story.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
So I love that part of your heart and what you do.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Um well, um, okay.
So I have never personally beento a distillery or a ranch.
Honestly, I mean, we don't,really I don't.
I mean, would we have adistillery here on the East
coast?
Do you know of any?
Oh my gosh, yeah, there's tonsof distilleries all over.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, as American whiskey has grown, I think
there's craft distilleries thathave popped up in all 50 States.
You know you have your legacywhiskey producers that are going
to be in Kentucky and Tennessee, but as really the American
palette has grown and hasstrived to innovate and want to
(15:06):
try new things, craftdistilleries have popped up all
over, which is truly amazing andwe love to see producers really
, you know, shining and showingwhat they um, what they're
producing.
So, yeah, definitely, if you,if you search, you'll find one.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Yeah, if anyone's listening to this, feel free to
laugh at me.
I like I, I know nothing.
Like you, talk to me about redwine.
I'll talk to you all day, butwhen it comes to like anything
else, I just haven't branchedout much.
And Colby and I, my, my Colbyand I were talking.
Our families are kind of likewine and beer families and we've
never just like been around it.
(15:41):
I don't know, I haven'texplored it and I'm I'm such a
foodie, I love hospitality andso I'm glad we're talking about
it because I want to branch outmore.
But my East Coast listeners areprobably like what are you
talking about?
There's distilleries everywhere, but I've just never been.
But give us a picture of what aday on like Frey Ranch
distillery looks like.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, it's a great question and, to be honest, no,
two days are really the same.
So, like today, for example, Ihad the buyer from whole foods
come.
They came to the ranch and wedid a seven barrel blend.
So we pulled out 16 differentbarrels that are in our single
barrel program and we blendedthem together and we landed on a
(16:25):
seven barrel blend that's goingto be going to 12 different
States in their whole foodspirit program and that was a
lot of fun to be able to tastethrough.
And he had this like and thisis really cool Cause he's like I
really want it to have thiscrisp apple like green apple
tart taste and then kind of fadeinto this really nice, rich,
rich, viscous, like you know,front of the palette and then
(16:49):
baking spices on the finish andI'm like, okay, we're going to
get there and and we blendedtogether and we had a lot of fun
.
And of course you don't alwaysget like what your brain is like
wanting, you know, but we wedid find some of those crisp
green apple barrels and somereally nice, rich, like caramel
that we blended together.
It was a lot of fun.
So that was today, um, buttypically I'm I'm in the office
(17:12):
five days a week and then ourtasting room is open on
Saturdays, which I love to beable to visit with our customers
and you know experience howthey're experiencing Frey Ranch
Colby is.
Typically he loves to be out ona tractor, so that's kind of
where he does all of histhinking.
He doesn't get to spend a lotof time out on tractors anymore
(17:33):
and he's forced to be in theoffice, like doing you know the
finances and running differentfinancial models.
But that's what he reallyenjoys is anytime that you're
planting or harvesting or doingsome ground prep, he'll be out
there and he'll be gone for 12hours, you know, out on his
tractor, bouncing around.
But but for me, for me, I'mprimarily in the office and
(17:54):
working on our social media orour e-commerce campaigns that we
do, where we can ship differentproducts to people and just
having fun.
Tomorrow I'm going to Coloradofor our Colorado launch, which I
travel a lot.
So that's what I really loveabout my job is no, two days are
the same.
Like every day.
I'm doing different things andI'm getting my hands into a lot
(18:16):
of different stuff, which isonly capable because I have an
amazing team that helps me, youknow, pick up the pieces and put
things together.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
That is so fun.
I feel like that's a dream.
That's everyone's dream right.
When people say they don't wantto work a nine to five, it's
not most people, it's not thatthey don't want to work, it's
just they want.
They want to be interested inwhat they're doing.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yeah, challenge, and I'm always doing my best when
I'm ideating and you know,sitting down with different
members of the team and saying,hey, what about this?
Or how have you thought of this?
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Or you know, um, that looks beautiful, let's expand
on that, or that's a great ideathat's those are my favorite
days is when we have thesebreakthrough moments where we
create something really cool andfun.
That's so fun.
A few guests ago his brand wasdiscovered through Whole Foods
and I've learned Whole Foods isreally like an incubator for
(19:08):
business and I don't know if youknow this, but in the state of
Connecticut they can't have Idon't know if it's all liquor
but like sold at grocery stores,so our whole foods don't have
alcohol and so that's.
That was interesting to hear.
But that side of the industryis so interesting to me and I
always say like in another lifeI'd love to be a buyer for
someone I love sourcing.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Right.
So after this is just a funfact.
But a lot of people don'trealize that after prohibition
the federal government left theliquor laws up to each
individual state.
So every state in the UnitedStates has a different set of
liquor laws.
So for us, as we'redistributing to multiple states,
there's a lot of compliance andthere's a lot of understanding
(19:51):
of like.
Can that you know?
Can we go into Whole Foods in alot of understanding of like?
Can you know, can we go intoWhole Foods in Connecticut and
it's like no cause they don't.
You know, their grocery storesdon't sell liquor.
You know, in Texas, for example, all the bars and restaurants
don't buy directly from thedistributor.
They have to buy from a retailstore, which is like totally
against the law in Nevada.
So it's interesting how everystate is completely different.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
So we lived in Thailand for a while my
listeners know that and they hada liquor law in the country
that they can't sell any kind ofalcohol during school hours, or
no, no, no, it's when you'redriving the kids to school and
when you're picking them up.
Isn't that interesting?
That's interesting, yeah.
So it's like eight to 10 in themorning and then like four to
(20:34):
six, like when the kids aregetting dropped off and picked
up.
It's like, oh, what is thatgoing to?
Speaker 2 (20:39):
do.
And then we're in Nevada and Ialways tell people Nevada is a
24 hour state, Like we don'thave last call.
We sell liquor everywhere andanywhere and we've got slot
machines in our grocery store.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
So you know that's wild.
How far are you guys from Vegas?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I know nothing about the layout, so just to kind of
give you a picture and thelisteners where we are.
We are just East of the SierraNevada mountains.
So if you think where LakeTahoe is or where the bend is in
Nevada, we're just East of thatand actually all of our water
comes from both sides of LakeTahoe.
We call it the Sierra snow meltthat melts down through a
(21:17):
series of rivers and streams andflows down to our Valley and to
fray ranch.
But, um, just as like a metric,we're actually a hundred miles
closer to San Francisco than weare to Las Vegas.
So Las Vegas is way South andthen San Francisco would just be
West to us.
So, um, yeah, so we're, we'repretty far from Las Vegas and
(21:39):
really we're nothing like LasVegas.
We're not glitz and glam or notlike city lights, we're very
rural.
But that's what makes Nevadareally wonderful is we've got
that diversity and we've got somuch you know different um.
Wonderful is we've got thatdiversity and we've got so much
you know different, um differentlives that you know you can
live here in Nevada between therules and the big city, I'm sure
that's helpful for you withyour background.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I know that's what, like my Colby and I would need.
We would need access to both.
Right, yeah, that's a goodbalance, it is so.
I admitted I'm new to whiskey.
I'm new to all of it, so feelfree to correct my like the way
I'm talking about anything, butI want to dive into it a little
bit more Because, like, forexample, I know how much like a
(22:24):
typical wine pour is, I know howto buy wine, I know what to
serve it with, like all of that.
When it comes to whiskey, noclue.
So I don't know that there'smany like me, but for those
listening that are, um, what dolike maybe new people that are
new to whiskey need to know Like, what would you say, are the?
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
So, um, I would start , like for a brand new whiskey
drinker, I would start with abourbon.
Um, bourbon is going to be alittle bit sweeter than like
maybe your rye whiskey, forexample.
Rye whiskey is a little bitspicier, but bourbon has the
corn in it.
Our bourbon is a four grain, sowe have corn, wheat, barley and
rye, and the corn and the wheatreally give give us some
(23:04):
wonderful sweet flavor profiles.
Think like creme brulee,caramel, maple syrup, and you
don't have to drink it straight.
I always tell people start it ina cocktail.
We've got some great cocktailson our website, but one of my
favorite is our take on theclassic cocktail gold rush.
We call it the farmer'slemonade because it calls for
honey syrup.
So just that really nice honey.
(23:24):
You put some warm water in itand create a syrup and then
lemon juice balances out twoounces of bourbon and it's so
approachable.
I've got all my friends hookedon it, who are typically wine
drinkers and they would nevertouch whiskey.
But because whiskey and bourbonholds up so well in a cocktail
it I can't even drink a vodkacocktail anymore because there's
(23:47):
just not, there's nothing there.
So for me, I love to drink thefarmer's lemonade.
Like we, like we all.
So, yeah, you'll have to try it.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Yeah, that sounds great.
I'm like a big lemon.
Anything with lemon lime, likecitrus.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
I love balance.
You've got like the sweetnessand the acid and it's balances
out Perfect.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
This is actually funny.
It's like a fun fact about me.
My favorite like drinking glassof choice is a wine tumbler.
This is just water, but I'm Iuse a wine tumbler all the time
because they're pretty, theymake me happy.
Um, but I know like whiskey andbourbon are served in different
types of glasses, and so what'sthe glassware?
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Sure, um.
So if you are, you know,drinking it straight, we like
what we call a Glen Karen.
Um, this is what we do all ofour tasting in.
They kind of go, um, like atulip at the top, and that way
you can really stick your nosein it.
You can get some great, youknow, flavors coming out of it.
But you can also use a rockglass, um, which is just, you
(24:45):
know, your, your standard, kindof like what you've got there,
but just a nice little rockglass that you can put an ice
cube in if you want, or you canjust drink Okay.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
I don't even have any , yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Out of your, out of your wine glass.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I used to sell these on our website.
They're kind of like diamond.
I don't know if you could seeit.
They make me so happy, they'reso pretty.
But no, we.
So we lived abroad for a while,kind of like, sold almost
everything before we moved backand I'm like slowly recovering
everything we need forhospitality.
So I need to get some.
Um, where, where do you guysget them?
(25:23):
Do you do like a crate andbarrel or do you?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
So we order our Glencairns directly from the
company Glencairn and they'reout of the UK.
We order them by the paletteand they're branded and they're,
they're so great.
We use them in our tasting roombecause you, you know, when
you're tasting things, I I don'tlike to taste out of plastic, I
want to taste out of glass.
I really want to get theflavors and, you know, enjoy it.
So that's, we order themstraight from Glencairn.
(25:48):
That's great.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, very fun.
You said England, they're in.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
England.
They're out of the UK.
We order them, like I said, bythe palette.
There's like 3000 glasses onthere, but they're one of our
top sellers in the tasting room.
People love them.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Wow, that's like top of my travel list.
Yeah, is the UK?
I haven't been yet.
I've been to a lot of otherplaces in Europe, but maybe I'll
go get them for you next timeyou need to order, I'll just
personally go for you, okay.
So yeah, I remember when I firstwent to your website.
So for my listeners, usuallywhat happens is when guests are
new to me, a PR company willsend me like hey, this guest is
(26:31):
really interesting, they'd begreat for your show.
Why don't you check them out?
So I vet everyone just reallyquickly, just to make sure that
they align with what you guyswant to hear as listeners and
that are interesting to me.
But the first thing that Inoticed when I went to your
website was that your brand wasincredible.
I've spent the last's not justlike it's not a snap, it's a lot
(27:00):
of decisions, hours of strategy, trial and error, and so I for
sure like to celebrate it whencompanies do branding well.
I heard a quote once that goodbranding is good business, and I
think good branding is likebehind.
Good branding are like seriousbusiness owners that's maybe a
better way of saying it.
(27:20):
You're committed.
It almost.
Good branding almost brings anidea to life, like in a, in a
new way.
So I then learned that youutilize your PR and business
background so, like youpersonally led the charge on
these changes.
So I guess, with all of thisconsidered, why is it so
important to you?
I guess let me backtrack.
(27:43):
I think what this showed me wasthat you're wanting to bring a
fresh spin on whiskey right Likeyou're trying to give whiskey a
new face, a new name andculture right now.
So why is that important to?
Speaker 2 (27:55):
you, yeah, no, it's such a great question.
So when we started the brand,we could have really focused on
Colby's family legacy, or wecould focus on, you know, our
malting or sustainability, oryou know, there's so many
different things that we couldfocus on.
And we really thought, you know, it's really about this new
(28:17):
generation that is, you know,raising this whiskey of the land
, and we really wanted thatstory to shine with our
packaging.
So we didn't want to use sepiatones, we didn't want to use a
stock bottle.
We wanted, like, for people tobe able to pick up our bottle
and say, oh, like, without evenreading anything, like this
feels different and it looksdifferent.
(28:38):
And so our label is a, it's abright yellow and it really pops
on the shelf.
And at the time we're like,yeah, nobody else is doing this
like vibrant yellow and it's notlike fluorescent yellow, it's
the same color as the corn thatgrows right in our field.
And all those little subtletouches were what was really
important to me and I called itlike our liquid story.
(29:00):
So how do people hear about usand how do they, you know, get
that feeling?
And that's what's really neatabout brand building is that
you're evoking a feeling and Iwanted people to be able to.
You know, know that.
You know we're in our.
We were in our late thirtieswhen we started the brand and we
were just a new generation hereon the farm that we're creating
this really lifelong lastingproduct from the crops that we
(29:23):
grow.
So we've got some subtle nodsto his family heritage.
You know the shape of a labelis a belt buckle and it wraps
all the way around.
I actually have a bottle here.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Yeah, show me Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And that represents a belt and a belt buckle that was
passed down from Colby'sgrandfather to his dad.
Because we can't forget aboutthe family history.
I mean, that's why we're here,but we just wanted to have some
subtle nods to, you know, hisfamily's legacy and if you ever
see my Colby, he's always gotthat belt and belt buckle on and
it's a great reminder of hisfamily and what they've done for
(29:56):
us here on the farm.
To you know, get it to where itwas for us to take over.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
This is a good like reminder or like encouragement
to listeners to you, like whenyou're experiencing a brand and
you like love their visualpresence, ask questions about it
, cause usually those decisionsare so purposeful.
I'm so glad you shared thatwith me, cause I didn't know
that that was the belts, butit's.
I don't know it's it, it'smeaningful, it makes it really
come.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
It really does.
And a lot of times you knowthere's reason behind things and
so, like, why did you pick thecolor yellow?
Well, it represents the cornthat grows right in our field.
And if you flip the bottle overand boss along the room of the
glasses says be good to the landand the land will be good to
you.
And that was a design elementthat I worked with our glass
producer down in Mexico City andactually went down there to the
(30:44):
glass plant because they werereally worried they weren't
going to be able to get thatdesign element and it was so
important to me that I was likewell, me and Colbert, we're
going to come down, we're goingto fly to Mexico City and we're
going to be there with you guys.
When you ran our glass for thevery first time and it was that
important to us and, you know,being able to make decisions
while we were there to make sureit was perfect, wow.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Wow.
Well, I appreciate all of thatand celebrate a job well done on
the other side.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
I mean it from the time that we um and I'm not a
creative, just to be reallyclear we use several creative
agencies to help bring this tolife.
So wonderful agencies that youknow worked with us for over a
year from like the beginning tothe very end, just making sure
they captured all of our ideasand our thoughts and our beliefs
(31:35):
ideas and our thoughts and ourbeliefs.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
It's so.
I know what that experience islike when you find the right
person and you're all work likethe synergy is that the word?
Like when you're all workingtogether, it's the best feeling.
It is yeah, you know when it'sright, so that's fine.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
Say that one more time.
You know when it's right.
Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, for sure.
Well, we talked about a lot ofdifferent things.
What maybe didn't we talk aboutthat?
You want people to know aboutthe experience.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Yeah, I think when you pick up a bottle of free
ranch, you're reallyexperiencing, um, you know, 170
years of farming tradition, meand Colby, and it's our real
life story.
And I think that there's somany brands out there that, um,
you know, they they fabricatestories or they gravitate
towards one or two things, butwe really want to share
something that we cherish, whichis, you know, growing our crops
(32:26):
here on the farm and be able toshare it with people.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Wow, wow.
Well, I'm excited to plan atrip.
I should know this how closeare you to like Arizona?
Are you close at all?
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Yeah, we're not super close, but if you um, if you
make a trip to San Francisco,it's not too far.
Or Lake Tahoe, if you are intoskiing or boating or even just
going to the beach, we've gotLake Tahoe it's about an hour
and a half from us, which is ourfavorite place to go and take
the kids bike riding and hikingand um wonderful trip.
I always tell people do aweekend trip to Lake Tahoe and
(32:59):
come out to the ranch.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
That sounds great.
Hey, you sold me.
Well, you are offering a codeto listeners.
Yeah, want to get their handson a bottle, and it is one word
making room free, ship, and theycan enter that right on your
website, Correct?
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yep.
So if you go toshopfrayranchcom, we ship to
over 30 States.
Um, make sure you sign up forour email list.
It's called the dirt Um, andyou'll hear from me directly.
Um, on all of our new releases,all of our whiskey drops, any
promotions?
Um, right now we've got, youknow, colby's favorite trucker
hat that we're selling onlineand our ground to glass bundle,
(33:42):
the complete collection which isour bourbon, our rye and our
farm strength whiskey, and thenyou get free shipping with the
code.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Wow, Love that.
Always grateful for codes thatwe get to share with you guys
and the companies that offerthem.
So we will include that in theshow notes and wherever you are
listening as well.
But we end each of ourconversations with the same
three questions and I'd loveyour answers as well.
The first is something you haveeaten recently and loved.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (34:08):
Tough question.
But we did a Rancho on the Roaddinner at Giada in Las Vegas
and she incorporated some of ourgrains.
So she made corn polenta fromsome of the corn on the farm and
it was amazing.
So Giada's in Las Vegas was 10out of 10.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
No way I love her so much.
I don't personally know her.
She's on my list of people.
I want to get on the show.
What an incrediblecollaboration, congratulations.
Yeah, that's incredible.
Okay, something you have foundto be beautiful lately.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Oh my gosh.
So I'm getting ready to go hometo my two beautiful children
and just watching them grow up.
My daughter is 11 and she'sjust.
She's my mini me and I lovewatching her grow every day.
And then my little boy is nineand he is a mini of coolie who
loves everything farming andtractors.
And my kids have just reallyembraced the family business.
They don't fully understandalcohol or whiskey, but they
know Frey Ranch and they knowwhen we're in the grocery store
(35:10):
they can spot it.
So watching them grow up hasbeen such a joy.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
What a cool legacy.
My voice is like failing, butit's good timing.
We're not allowed to question Agathering you attended that
made you feel a strong sense ofbelonging and, if you could
pinpoint it, what it was aboutit that made you feel that way a
annual Christmas gathering withmy friends from college.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
This will be, gosh, this year's 20 years since I
graduated college and we've donea Christmas get together every
year since, which is I can'tbelieve it's been 20 years.
And it really is amazing whenyou have such a core group of
friends that you don't talk allyear, but you get together and
you, just, you know that theseare your people, you know, and
(35:59):
you pick up right where you,where you left off, and so you
don't want to go home at the endof the night, but you know you
have to and you won't see eachother for a year.
But, um, you, you know youbelong, so I'm, I'm going to say
my, my college friends, Wow,that's really sweet and very
rare right that college friendsstay in touch, that long and all
of our husbands are friends nowand, yeah, it is very rare, we
(36:22):
have friends that fly in fromDenver and California to come to
our annual Christmas trip orChristmas party.
So, wow, I love that you havethat.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Yeah, that's a good kick for Colby and I too.
We had great friends in college.
We just I don't know life'shard, People move away and yeah,
and you have to be intentionalabout pursuing that and
maintaining it, it's a priority,right?
Yeah Well, where do you want tosend people to follow along for
more?
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Yeah, you can follow us on social media.
We're on Facebook and InstagramFrey Ranch Distillery, and you
can also follow us and join ouremail list at freyranchcom.
Speaker 1 (37:01):
Oh, this was so fun.
Thanks for sharing andeducating this total newbie and
hopefully, others listening.
We're excited to share thebrand with you and if you guys
buy some and drink it, pleasetag both of us.
We'd love to see it and we willsee you next week.
Cheers, cheers.
(37:21):
I love that.
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