Ep. 184: Oaklore Distilling Co. with Founders Matt Simpkins and Tom Bogan

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Hey folks, welcome to a new episode of the Whiskey Ring Podcast. Today, we're going back
to North Carolina and we are here to talk oak
lore distilling. To join me, we've got Matt
Bogan. Okay. Bogan. Uh, Matt and Tom are co-founders of
Oak Lore, uh, founded it in 2017, 2018, depending on

(00:33):
Absolutely. So, um, let's just start off where we usually
Wow. It started about 55 feet
from where we're sitting right now. We're neighbors and
Tom has always been walking his kids to the bus stop. We moved in and

(00:54):
I started walking my kids to the bus stop and we're walking together,
started chatting, realized that we both liked whiskey.
quite a bit and hung out at the bus stop. And
that became a great friendship, neighbors. And that's
sort of where it all began. Our story

(01:14):
then developed to us realizing that we were both not
only whiskey passionate people, but we were just absolute
whiskey nerds. And we love whiskey. We love how it's made.
We love understanding mash bill and temp and yeast All
the things that make whiskey what it is. And so we
were sitting up on Tuesday nights. We called it Tuesday drinking

(01:36):
because, you know, everybody gets together on Tuesdays and drinks, right?
That's pretty normal. Yeah, totally. I think it's
normal. We have normalized. It's normalized now. That's great.
It's exactly right. But we started out by doing blind. blind
tastings because we thought that was really fun. So I would bring something
in, Tom would bring something in, and he would have to try the stuff that I brought

(01:57):
and vice versa. And we started out by kind of figuring out which one
was the Irish whiskey, the scotch, the bourbon, the American whiskey
or the rye whiskey, those kind of things. And then we kind of graduated from
there to figuring out a little bit more about what kind of bourbon
it was. You know, was this a weeded bourbon? Was this a rye bourbon? Then
we started getting into like actual learning and understanding mash

(02:17):
bills, trying to pick out a mash bill on the palate. Um, and,
uh, and then state of distillation age, all those kinds of things.
And so we would kind of test each other and this happened for a
while. We, we, um, we didn't realize that we
were, we thought it was just kind of hanging out, having fun. But what we realized now is we're really training
our palate. to understand how whiskey really works and what

(02:37):
makes it wonderful and beautiful in all the ways that it
is. And we started studying those variables. And it was
Yeah, late one to the night. I'm a builder for
many years and I spent some time, you know, doing a little bit
of brewing. So I kind of had some leftover equipment that I hadn't

(02:58):
touched in many years and thought, well, goodness, you know, I mean, Matt,
I can build a still, we can just
do this. And Matt with the look in
his eyes of I'm not sure why you waited four years
to tell me this civil let's do that and so
that's sort of began what what started

(03:20):
to be this passion of or we. We
spent all those years sort of building to a point where
we understood what our passion was, not only
as a company, but also as what we wanted to produce. I mean,
we had a goal early on that if we could make a whiskey that
would be our house whiskey, that if we went to our cabinets of

(03:43):
whiskey, whether it's whichever cabinet it
is, whether it's in the basement or in the kitchen cabinet.
So whichever cabinet you go to, we wanted to make sure
and produce a whiskey that that's the one we wanted to drink at
that time. We all have a lot of whiskey, but can we make something that

(04:04):
we love so much that it is our house whiskey and that's the one we pour? And
I was gonna ask this question later, but I think it fits well now, which is you
did some stuff with taking basically moonshine or unaged
liquor with unaged whiskey and testing it out with different barrels and

(04:25):
finishes and stuff like that. It made me
wonder, you know, North Carolina being a control state, how much did
you have to, how much did you find in the state to do that? And how
Oh, to find like more... I don't think we're

(04:52):
And you know what we learned is how
we wanted to make it. And that was
a big part of our journey. What
Nashville we wanted to use to make it, what we
wanted to do once we made it. We
experimented in so many different ways. Matt talked about being whiskey

(05:14):
nerds and just being a passion, and we spent a lot of time, what
kind of finishes work well with
weeded bourbon, and what kind of finishes work well with rye, and
what kind of finishes do we love and are we passionate about? So
we spent a lot of that time experimenting, not only to understand what
happens, but also to know what we loved. And

(05:36):
we did that sort of without even knowing that that was
going to be the decisions we were going to have to make in the future, which was, which was incredible.
It was, it was sort of amazing. I think I said this a long time ago when we were
in the beginning, I was like, man, it's amazing how we, we
are just ready at the time we have to make the decision. And we just know what decision
to make. Not that we knew every decision because there's a million flying

(05:58):
million questions flying at you at a hundred miles an hour, but. But
we kind of built into it and took it
a step at a time. And we were excited about every step and
the next step. every little bit of
work we did and every late night till 2 a.m.
It was good work. It was good work. It was work. We were working. We

(06:20):
didn't realize at the time. I think one of the interesting things
we really fell in love with what the wood does to
the distillate and how that interacts in a different toast levels,
different char levels, different amounts of wood in terms of
being able to double oak or trying a French oak In our
case, we put together a prohibition era oak where

(06:42):
we had staves that were harvested during the prohibition and
seeing how those interacted differently. So we really kind of studied
that and we thought, you know, ultimately the story of the
stave matters, right? You know, and that distillate, you
could do all kinds of variables to get it there, but the one who really gets the final
word ultimately is that barrel. You could have the

(07:03):
exact same distillate go into 50 different barrels and you're going to have 50 different
single barrels of whiskey. And that's, that's really fun. You know, they're
organic, it's organic material, right? So it takes a life of its own, tells
its own story. And ultimately, that's really where the name of our company came
from, Oaklor. We think that that oak stave has a story to tell. And,

(07:25):
I gotta say, I, I love the name. Uh, when we were first introduced online,
I, the name just caught my eye and the subject of the email. And I, um, it's
one of those things I'm kind of amazed no one had gotten to before you guys got to, but
Hey, you want it. So fair and square, uh,
two questions that just came to mind. The first one was, um, the,

(07:51):
question of, oh, prohibition. So again,
North Carolina is a control state and that's vestige of prohibition. So I'm curious
how much in your, like, just growing your
pallets, developing the pallets, developing the idea for the business
and distillery and all this, how deep

(08:13):
you went into like North Carolina's history of distilling pre
Well, I wish I had time to go into every
state's history because it's fascinating. I wish that
we could have spent more time with North Carolina's history
because it's just the beginning. we

(08:38):
got hit so early with solve this problem, solve
that problem. And, you know, we'll learn
the whole federal government's regulations and make sure you do that right.
Cause then you don't want to get shut down and oh yeah, you have to add, add
in all the state regulations. You don't get shut down. So we were, we
were extremely passionate about it, but we did, we followed it a lot. North Carolina is

(08:58):
a hotbed for, for whiskey. It absolutely is.
It's the stop right before the Appalachian mountains. So it was, everything was, Moving
west, we had a big stop right here. And this was one
of the first areas before people made it into
and over the Appalachian Mountains. So we have a long history here
in North Carolina of whiskey and an early history. So

(09:22):
it's super exciting to be part of that, at least a
little bit. And being in a state that produces
great whiskey, that's also something that we're very proud
For sure. We've had, trying to think off the top of my
head, definitely one from North Carolina, maybe two. We had three
from the Carolinas kind of back to back to back. And for some reason I'm

(09:45):
mixing up in my head who was in each state, but it
was just a wonderful thing to talk to. I'm
trying to hit every state on this podcast and I'm about
halfway there at this point. And the Carolinas hadn't been
gotten to yet until just

(10:09):
Are you good looking for bourbon in every state or just whiskey or any
Whiskey. It doesn't have to be bourbon. It can be single malt, whatever.
I've got a lead on someone in Alaska, in Montana. Those are
the hardest ones. Hawaii is going to
be hard to get out of rum. That's true. I have the rum
in Hawaii. I do have a whiskey producer in Hawaii, actually. I just have

(10:32):
to find a connection. I think I have a connection, but I'll
follow up with him. So North Carolina, too.
Oh yeah, absolutely. Business expense. That's why you form the LLC. With
North Carolina, it's It was fascinating to

(10:54):
look into just because before Piedmont in
2005, that was the first distillery that made legal liquor in the state since
prohibition. And as we've seen
with a number of other states, there were a lot of laws that had to be changed from zoning
to distilling permits to everything you could
think about. One of the more surprising ones though, to

(11:15):
me, was that North Carolina is
the fifth largest market for
liquor in the U S is that not that
Hmm. That's probably a Jack question. I know Jackson and he's tracked
I think what's crazy about the state is it has the sixth most distilleries in

(11:37):
the country. Yeah. And, um, and
I, we know it's a control state, but there is some advantages to North
Carolina's control state is it sort of equals the playing field. It
gives, it gives small distilleries a chance to
be on the shelf. And, um, that's, what's really great about it.
That's the one advantage in it. puts everybody on, not

(11:59):
on equal footing, but it gives everyone an opportunity. And as
we have started small and grown in
the state of North Carolina to something we're extremely proud of,
we've used that as an opportunity to
sort of get there. And then now we're taking traditional steps to get our whiskey
out there. But in the beginning, I think the control state sort of helped. They had to bring it

(12:21):
in and put it on the shelf. And then we were able to help build
the brand from there. It is. It's
a great state. We're very, very proud
to be a part of North Carolina. We tell the story
a lot because our North Carolina rye is all
North Carolina. The grains are grown in North Carolina, distilled in North Carolina, aged

(12:44):
in North Carolina. So we're really, really proud of that. We are not
from North Carolina, but we are North Carolina guys. I
went to school here, went to college here, met my wife here, her family's from
here. Two-thirds of my kids were born here.
80% of Matt's kids were born here. So we may not be

(13:04):
from North Carolina, but we are North Carolina guys, and
we're very, very proud of that. We're excited about that because we
talked about the history of whiskey in North Carolina, and
what we didn't talk about is the conditions in North Carolina, especially
in the Piedmont, which is where we're located. We're in this really great area between

(13:25):
the coastal plains and the mountains, and the Piedmont just
has incredible weather. perfect conditions
to age whiskey. And we take advantage
of that. So we're, you know, it produces great whiskey, whiskey we
Love it. And Jack DeChineman's fifth largest per capita,

(13:46):
which is still incredible. I don't know
why I wouldn't think of it. And just to your point too, I want to reiterate that
when I was doing early episodes of this podcast and I started doing a couple in
Pennsylvania, it being an adjacent state,
easy to get to, easy to visit. I thought that it being
a control state would be more difficult for the distilleries because

(14:08):
just for whatever reason, I don't think I had a reason other than just ignorance
at that point. But just like
in North Carolina, it does have an advantage in
that you can say, all right, there are 200 ABCs in
North Carolina or Pennsylvania, where a Pennsylvania distillery
want to be on your store shelves. Now,

(14:30):
that doesn't mean they're going to hit the states surrounding you, But
it means that anywhere in the state, you can find your products. And
that alone is going to kind of jumpstart you with
the local market. So there are benefits that aren't necessarily seen
in a non-controlled state. Let's say like New York, New

(14:51):
York's its own beast. That's its own. Yeah. I,
the next one is to Matt, your background.
So Tom, you said your background is in construction. You've been in that
Uh, from Chapel Hill in biostatistics and

(15:11):
then went into, um, construction building and did that for
Yeah. Matt, Matt's way more exciting. So I'll
keep it and then I'll let it go. I'll let, I'll let the
So and Matt is a Lutheran pastor. So one

(15:33):
of the other things that I found really interesting in the history is that
Matt, you've said on other podcasts and interviews that the, let's
try that again, the Lutheran traditions and associated denominations
don't view alcohol the same way. So when
I was looking at the prohibition a while back, the

(15:53):
split was not really a political divide so
much. It was really more of a religious divide in terms of which denomination was
where. So county by county, different states would
have more of one or the other. And the ones who were Lutheran leaning
tended to be slower on prohibition and not necessarily

(16:14):
That's true. Did you say that or are you just saying it?
I'm embellishing it, but I'm adding
details to it. But Matt has said, he did
say, so I want to give him his credit on this, that in
general, that Lutherans did not view alcohol as evil, that
monks have been making beer for hundreds of years

(16:37):
in the tradition. So it's a very different mindset than the
kind of Christian pro-temperance movement that we generalize. Having
said that, I would love to know from
you, Matt, if there was any hesitation or any

(16:57):
kind of dissonance between being a pastor and the whiskey,
Well, there's a fun story behind this because our
group of founders were all friends that we met.
I met Tom as my neighbor, but our other
founder, Travis, went to the church where

(17:20):
I was pastoring, and we decided to start this men's group
for men who hate men's groups. And the whole idea was just
meet people where they were. And Tom and I were nerding out
on Bourbon. I was like, Tom, would you come? like, you know, just lead a tasting
on Friday night, just to whatever, you know, whatever we got and bring
in. And we had a guy that was willing to donate all the bourbon.

(17:41):
And so, you know, we had all these really cool bottles that we bring in.
And basically, we just had a men's retreat that
was that started off with tasting bourbon and talking about life and
talking about life around the tables. And it was a really laid back
kind of group where we played paintball and ate
barbecue and zip lines and stuff like that. But the

(18:02):
point of the whole thing was to let people come and just just
be just be guys and hang out, talk together and and
form some relationships. Because, you know, it's been said that
Jesus' greatest miracle is having more than one good friend over the
age of 30. So, you know, I think it's hard for guys
to get older and have more than one good friend. So that's

(18:23):
kind of the guy at that. But we started with bourbon and started around bourbon. And what we
saw was you know, people engaged differently
when they could sit around and talk about a bourbon first, and it opened doors
to stories and people getting to know each other. And I
think that was really kind of special for us because, you know, Tom and I got to know
each other and became incredibly good friends, hanging out over a

(18:44):
whiskey and just talking life, talking kids, talking life, you know, what is
it? What does it mean to be a dad right now? And we both
have a bunch of kids, and so we could share stories with each other.
My boys were older than his boys, and his girls older than
my girls, and so we had great advice for each other. Although
I think his was best, is that you will make it through the

(19:04):
teenage years, potentially. You're going
to make it, but potentially not. But,
Yeah, we hope we make it out of the teenage girl years. But
whiskey's never been a tough thing for me, man. We had beer
fests and Oktoberfests and things like that when I was growing up.

(19:28):
I love Trappist monk ales and studied them back 20 years
ago about how they were doing their processes. And even in
seminary understanding that that was a great way for monks
to be able to provide for the monastery and people love beer.
And also it was healthier to drink than water for a long time, right?
So they were doing a service to the

(19:49):
community in a few ways, but no, never really any dissonance. You know,
I thought in the South, you know, we'd run into some
issues and I remember when we put our place up and there's a
church that's kind of like right down the street from us and they sent us an
email and I was like, oh man, I know this is going to go poorly.
It's going to be some kind of protest or something. I was kind

(20:09):
of nervous about it because you're in the South and Sometimes people are a
little bit over the edge of this stuff. And they were like, hey man, just
wanted to say welcome to the neighborhood. We're super excited to hang out with you
guys and wondering if we can come over and taste the product. I was like, all
We're gonna make it. Well, we're in the city of Charlotte and it's a great city,
really, really supportive of all kinds of businesses. And

(20:32):
so that's really been helpful to us. And so that's, I mean, that goes along with
That's okay. I

(20:55):
So before we get into the, uh, the products,
uh, two more questions I have for you. First one was, or
by the Um, by the
time you guys opened, there had been a
bunch of legislative changes. Uh, you know, the fact you were able to
open a distillery and, and sell

(21:15):
product, although there was limits on it at first, uh, what
at this, you know, what, at this point in early 2025, let's say
what's some legislations or regulations that still need changing
Well, no, I think I was going to start with
the most important one that changed was in 2019. That was how we

(21:38):
could have opened up a shop. And that was the most important one. But still need
Yeah, breweries and wineries are able to do a few more things than we
can. You know, they're able to self-distribute. And I think that that's
something that would be really helpful for our industry, especially for
local producers. I mean, I think within the state, being able to, you know,
ship within the state, those things would be helpful, deliver directly to mixed

(22:03):
Taxing would be great, even if it was on proof gallons. I would love it to
be the same. You know, it's just not. I mean, we
can't put a 8% RTD in
a grocery store next to an 8% malt beverage
RTD. We are not allowed to sell in that grocery store. We're not allowed
to sell anywhere but an ABC store. And I think

(22:25):
Proofkallen and ABV is the way to do that. I think
taxing is probably another good one that we would like to
I hear that. It's a common refrain in one way or another. So I hear
you on that. There was one let's
say, vestigial legislation that helps

(22:48):
in a way drive people to you, which is that at least as of October
2024, it was on the tortured bourbon, that
on Sundays, people couldn't buy alcohol from the ABCs, but they can buy
Yeah, we changed our hours because of that. It
doesn't keep the lights on, but we're glad to be open for the

(23:08):
consumer and for our customers on Sunday. Happy
Yeah, that 2019 legislation opened the door and there's been
some other things that have gotten loosened up and we hope that that'll continue to
happen. you never know what's going to bring
it one way or the other, given the political climate that we're in.

(23:31):
But I will say that we have, we found that,
you know, North Carolina legislators, there are
some that are excited about trying to help us out. generally,
which is really great. And folks in our industry that are working hard
to kind of bring those things to happen. So we're in
a good place and at a good time. But I'm looking forward

(23:52):
to potentially having more openings and availabilities for us.
for sure. So now we're getting into the
So tasting is me. We
don't drink whiskey anymore. That's not anything that
we do. We've retired from drinking whiskey all the time. All we do now

(24:15):
is taste whiskey for hours. Yep. As adults and
Yeah. And we taste whiskey sometimes till 2 a.m. But
as professionals, we enjoy the taste.
And so do we on Mondays. And on Monday.

(24:43):
I do. I have... Show us what you got. I want to see it.
I left the bottles out there, but I have the foregreen and the
Yeah, so our core products, we
are super passionate about that. Those are the products we absolutely love.
And if we could have anyone taste something of ours,

(25:04):
those are the two that we would say, please, please
just take a taste of these if you ever have an opportunity. Because we think that
that really embodies us, it really showcases who we are.
And so we're excited that you have those. And
let's get cracking. Let's do it. I want to see. Let me see the
glass that you're drinking out of too. I want the whole experience. Are

(25:28):
you drinking with us on the podcast? Are we drinking alone? I mean, that's
Drinking alone for now, just because I have baby duty after this.
I've tried the product twice now, because I always do twice. Even if
I like it, try twice, different scenarios, different

(25:52):
Oh my gosh, different palettes. So with this, what
we've learned is it doesn't matter. Your palette is
always what it is. Good, bad,
matured, it always is what it is. Depending on
the time of day, depending on what you had to eat the
day before and the day of, your palate will change. So your

(26:14):
plan of always taste it twice is excellent. Matt
and I have learned that at 2.30, 233 it's
the witching hour no matter what you pour it
is amazing so if
we're trying to be critical we're not drinking at 230 or three because
boy i tell you that is the best hour

(26:40):
I tried the product. The first one was on the same night that I
tried a 142.7 proof American
That's something that you drink. It's tough to go
back down. But you know what I have in front of us, Matt? So I have R3.
So if we're drinking, let's pour that so we can taste it as we're talking

(27:02):
Yeah. Those two right on the top right there. Both Oakwood glasses.
Yeah. Boom. So we have in
front of us as well, our distribution, 92 proof,
oak lore, North Carolina straight rye whiskey.
This is the one we were talking about. We're bourbon guys. We're

(27:24):
just, we love bourbon, we love our corn, America's whiskey,
it's fascinating to us. But this is super exciting because
like I said, we are North Carolina guys. This
is North Carolina grain, grown in North Carolina, distilled, and
it is a passion for us, and we're super excited to

(27:45):
showcase it. We think it has such a
beautiful taste and character. It is 70% corn,
70% rye, 20% corn, because we love our corn, because
we're Birmingham, and then 10% malt. So 70-20-10, with a 70 being that North Carolina
rye. So

(28:10):
Actually, I have a, I have an RTD in front of me that I'm going to be probably
pop up. So I'll cheers with that because bad
So if you've tasted this, tell us your notes on this, uh, this rye. I love
that you have it a couple of times because you really do. And I'll tell

(28:30):
you the other thing. And I don't need to keep talking. You just tell me to
shut it. But I love talking whiskey. I talk whiskey all night. Another
thing that sometimes I have to do. And
we have to do, but if we're struggling through something to really get
an understanding of it, we will pour samples and take it
home. And then I'm like, hey man, I just got to sit

(28:51):
with it for a night. I need to put it in a glass and I need to
let it be open. I need to just sort of have a couple of tastes on it and
sips on it while I'm sitting down and watching TV or doing something
or drink it throughout the night, just so I can have a true understanding of
how that whiskey sits for the evening. And sometimes we have to do
Yeah, job. Someone's got to do it. I'll say from

(29:14):
the start, I did enjoy both products quite a bit. But
the rye was my favorite between the two. So
I got A lot of evolution throughout this. It
goes from, you know, fruity to spicy to sweet.
I wrote, it keeps me on my toes. Um, for 92 proof,
it was very full bodied, which I appreciate it. Like American whiskey

(29:36):
can. You guys know, like under a certain proof
point can just be very thin. Even if there's a lot of flavor there, it feels
like there's too much water. So definitely didn't get
that. There was a lot of full body would stand up an ice to a cocktail. I
actually wrote that I'm not sure this needs more proof. Sometimes I drink
something and it's not watery, but like the flavor

(29:58):
isn't quite where I want it to be in terms
So that's a great compliment to hear. I'm going
Absolutely. I mean, just some of the fruits that, you know, sugared pineapple,
wild strawberries, dried papaya. I didn't know that

(30:19):
for 70% rye, like this was very soft
in terms of spices, like the spice level, the baking spices that you sometimes get for
rye, black pepper, cinnamon, all those were there,
but they were very controlled. You know why? Well,
because you're a weeder, guys. because this is a

(30:39):
It's a bourbon drinker's rock. It's that
20% corn that really brings that. I think that brings that sweetness and
it nuances the spice of the rye.
But there's another thing that we do. We practice
a lower entry proof typically. So we're not throwing whiskey
in at 120 plus. People are

(31:01):
doing that. That's fantastic. We tend to go lower
and that ends up giving us a little bit more well-rounded product. And that brings
that full body nature all the way through at
Absolutely. I noted that and I love that. I love the
lower entry proofs. And I'm

(31:26):
rereading my notes too, because I hadn't memorized them quite
yet. But yeah, the mouthfeel is
oil encoding. Mouthfeel is a big thing for me. That's going to be the biggest determinant of whether I
like something, is mouthfeel. Uh, and
I think it sits in a nice, like real
sweet spot of it's not the 95, five that's super

(31:47):
dilly or super herbal, which has its place. And
it's also not the barely legal rise that
are basically bourbon. Um, It's,
you know, this is a rye when you drink it, it's got the rye, some of
the rye spices, even if they're a little calmer than
they would normally be sometimes in like a 95.5, they're

(32:09):
there. The fruits I normally associate with a rye are
there. And even a little hint of mint there, the
black licorice on the back end, the really like sweet
black licorice, not the super sharp Ouzo kind
of black licorice, although I love both to be honest. This
just was rounded. Yeah,

(32:33):
to me, it hit all the right notes. And the thing
I was thinking about is So
it's a bourbon drinkers, right. And the rise where it's also, this is
your like North Carolina statement. It's North Carolina green, uh,
or North Carolina, right. I should say, I want to, is, is all
the green North Carolina or just, uh, is,

(32:56):
is not, but the corn in the ground. Okay. I know the malt
is like, that's the wildest one. Yeah. It's
the wild card, but you got 90% of the green in there is
from North Carolina and To
me, you know, when you're doing, when you're starting a
distillery and you guys, like you said, you're clearly passionate about whiskey.

(33:19):
And I was kind of fascinated that the rye was my favorite
of the two, just because I had heard you guys were more like bourbon
side, more weeded bourbon in particular was kind of
your, your go-to, if you will. And
instead the rye was amazing. The four grain was great
too, don't get me wrong. But even the four green was a four grain, not a

(33:39):
weeded and had that little bit of Ryan there. So
I was, I wanted to take this back to kind
of some of your inspirations. So I heard in
the research, at least, uh, Charlie
and Andy Nelson. Drew
Colesbean at Willett, John Hargrove, who was

(34:02):
at Bardstown and now he's at Whiskeyhouse, Kentucky, Chad
Slagle at Two Trees, and to
a lesser extent, I think I'll get to that in a minute, Mark
Carter over at Old Carter. Um,
and I think the, well, the old Carter one was more of a reference to how the
different batches are going to have slightly different profiles. So that's kind of,

(34:24):
it was referencing back to how there's kind of does that, but so
let's stick with the other names. You know, Andy Nelson has been on the podcast. Um,
I haven't had John Hargrove on, but I've had Bardstown bourbon on several times to talk to
David Mandel. So we've got the, the mindset, um,
people who clearly are not afraid to take chances in whiskey and
play around and. particularly with the Nelson

(34:48):
brothers and their Bellmead line, which I
think I saw they just bought back that brand, relaunching
it. So, which is very cool. I know
that in addition to your core products, you've got a
finishing series. And in
looking at the finishes, you've got, you know, the port wine, honey,

(35:12):
Merlot finish. To
me, that it screamed inspiration from the Bellmead
line because they're, I mean, when they had that honey barrel releases, that brand
just blew up. So, I
say all this to ask, how do you feel the inspirations that you went
to and tasted and talked to during your startup

(35:34):
phase, how are they still influencing your decisions
Well, I don't know if it was influencing
the products. Matt and I are pretty excited about
pushing that. I think what all those people
did for us in the startup phase was just that. get

(35:56):
us started. The information that
we needed to get started, starting a distillery is not easy. It
is problem after problem, solve this after solve this. And
the fact that Charlie and Andy would even talk to us, much less let us in their place
and walk us around, was just
such an amazing opportunity. And it may not

(36:19):
have been the products, And you can say how,
you tell the story how, but I think that those people helped us
get to where we could even open the doors. And
all that information got us to open the door. That's the hardest part.

(36:40):
The whiskey is the fun part. The
distillery and the business, that is the hard part. And
those, everyone you mentioned, And
we, I mean, we had Hargrove in our shop and
helping us before we even got the doors open. And
without that, we wouldn't be here today. So

(37:04):
opening the distillery is what all of those people helped us
achieve. And they're so open. and
willing to help, which is amazing. It's absolutely amazing.
And I think everyone just wants the entire industry to do
well. The whiskey sort of, that's
the part you get to own. That's the part you get to, you really get to be excited

(37:26):
about and own. Finishing isn't new. Finishing is
crazy. People finishing just crazy things. Matt and
Yeah, those guys were great. I mean, it was great to be able to sit with
folks that, um, you know, knew a ton about the industry and
were able to help us, you know, advance months of research and,

(37:47):
you know, half an hour. Um, and, and that was incredibly, that was
incredibly helpful. I mean, we were just texting with Andy, uh, last
week, um, and, uh, John Hargrove last week as well.
And Chad Slagle is one of our neighbors over here in Western North Carolina, who's
just a brain when it comes to interesting processes. And, and those
are folks that have been great to us, you know, all the way through, you know,

(38:07):
just, uh, Being able to text Drew out of the blue and ask him a
question is pretty incredible. And Dave
Mandel is another one, as you mentioned his name. He's been
a good friend of the brand as well. And so we just found that
across the board, people are willing to sit and talk, distillers
are willing to share information. And we've been really

(38:30):
encouraged by that. by
that practice, because that's not the case in most industries. It's kind of odd.
I think sort of took us both off
guard because we were like, wait a minute. So we're invited to
their place. I mean, we were having conversations with these guys years
ago, and they were in the midst of their bourbon boom. And they

(38:55):
But the whiskey industry is extremely difficult. The
finishing part, I think that's the creativity that
each distillery can put a little twist on and do. And
there's so many different ways and avenues to create that. Ours
is a little different. We made some really great relationships with

(39:17):
some wineries and we sort of hand pick barrels and
physically pick them up from wineries and fill
those so that we can manage that entire process. when
But our port finish, which is available online still right
now, our port finish has a pretty personal story to
us. And Tom and his wife's background

(39:41):
and time that they spent in Florida and then fast forward to
our families going vacation together. But we really fell
in love with San Sebastian Winery down there and the port that
they make and have a great relationship with them where they were willing to trade barrels
with us. What's really fun is that when you go down there and
you do the fancy tour, upstairs tour, they take

(40:01):
you in the back and it's just littered with oak or barrels
behind the bar, which is really cool. But
that's more of a personal for us. I mean, I kind of glazed your story,
So I was planning to bring up the San Sebastian connection a little bit later,
but let's jump on it right now. Just because I think sequentially

(40:22):
the episode before you guys is going to
Yeah. Who also, you know, they're like two blocks from San
So they use San Sebastian as well. We have gone down, we have
met with the St. Augustine folks. They have a great system. We

(40:43):
have a really, really good relationship with them. St.
Augustine's been a really great part of my
life. My grandparents moved there in the 80s. My
wife and I moved down there, 90, 1990. Our
daughter was born there and we started our life there. That was
a big part of my wife and I's beginning of our family.

(41:07):
And then, you know, Matt and I go down there and share these
experiences and literally drive down there and pick barrels and change
barrels and bring them back up. And if you want an experience and
you want to compare whiskeys, it's great. Drink their port finish and
drink our port finish and compare. We would love that.
That's that's amazing. Whiskey is amazing and it's super fun. And

(41:28):
so Everyone should be trying to do stuff
Yeah, I think they're sending me some of the port finish. So I'll hold you to that if
Yeah. Some of the ports you can compare them together. Absolutely.
I think we need to do that. Jack, are you taking notes? You got to put that on
the list. I haven't

(41:51):
I got to bring up something. I don't remember which
one of you gentlemen said it, but it was said on North Carolina
Food and Beverage Pod, January 2024. One of you

(42:11):
But you know why? Because everybody wants bourbon from North Carolina. That's
All right. All right. It's a good cover. We'll take that. Someone said
it. So, and I was going to bring up the San Sebastian, St.
Augustine. So if you know the St. Augustine guys already, that's, that's great. They
That was one of the beverage guys that said that we wouldn't say that we're

(42:46):
No, I think there's definitely some interesting things that happen like when
you're when you're in states that are as hot as Florida and Texas. There's
a lot more variation on that whiskey and I think there's a palette that really
loves that we've seen that especially with the love for things that
are coming out of Florida and things that are coming from Texas. I think one
of the things that makes North Carolina special is the Piedmont spends

(43:08):
way more time in the ideal aging temperatures,
right? Humidity levels are the right thing. That
really helps the whiskey to do better. Kentucky plains are
great, Tennessee hills are fantastic, but North
Carolina Piedmont even spends less time below 40 degrees
than Kentucky. and when it's below 40 degrees it just

(43:30):
doesn't do as much and it sort of freezes and you sort of lose that time.
In the Piedmont here it doesn't spend as much time below 40 and
it also doesn't spend as much time above 90 right and I think
that that's that's really helpful for our for our aging processes and
so we'll claim that yeah I mean you know I'm a Tennessee Vols
guy so I probably said nobody wants anything from Florida so

(43:52):
you know there you are. I
see you worked that in there. Another great cover.
That was well done. I got to give it to you. That was well done. Uh, so
we've talked about the rye, uh, got to jump back to the four grain,

(44:14):
your other core. We've got 72% corn, 11% wheat, 10% rye, 7% malted barley. Uh, And
you guys, besides the fact that the four grain, which is, it's
definitely something more on the craft side, like the big guys aren't really doing it.
And it's a great way for smaller distilleries. And once getting
up on, you know, on up, uh, what am I trying to say? I

(44:38):
haven't had anything to drink and I can't think of what I'm trying to say. We're trying to get
on their feet. There we go. Um, that, you know,
it matures differently and the
on, on the, uh, bourbon podcast. Also,
there's also January 24. I think you guys did like a burst of stuff early

(44:58):
in the year. And, um, it all kind of came out at once. Um,
so that the, you're not aging
a four green bourbon all
at the same time for its entire maturation, you're taking a rye bourbon
and a weeded bourbon aging them separately because the greens are going to peak at different times.
And then eventually, you know, blend them together at the right point and

(45:22):
let them mature another six to eight months or so. Where
did that idea come from and the development of that product?
Well, it's a little bit of two things. One,
nobody else was doing that. Nobody
else was taking those barrels and then re-barreling them, bringing

(45:43):
the four grains together that way. I think that was kind of interesting to us. But
all in all, we found that I know
it sounds kind of crazy, but I love to cook. I love to cook. When I'm not making
whiskey with Tom, I'm always cooking. Smoking meat, making
something. One of the things that I think is important is when the ingredients come
together and they have time to sort of sit together, instead

(46:03):
of just rushing it out and just throwing a bunch of garlic
on it and then you eat it. When you give those ingredients time to really
work together, They start to come together in a way that
makes the story even more beautiful. That's part
of our name. That's where it came from. If you look at
our logo, actually there's one right behind us, if you lean a
little bit, a couple of staves, and then those staves

(46:27):
develop into a much bigger story as they start to come together. So
the recipe in the barrel from those barrel stays, but that's what those
They start to work together and you know, blending those barrels
together is an art proofing down as an
art. You don't just. add
specific kinds of water, you do it in a way that it affects and changes

(46:48):
how the whiskey comes together. And it's not just
throwing ingredients in a pot, it's
cooking. And so when you create a whiskey, it's
about doing these things and controlling the parameters that
are most important to you. So, what kind of water do
you use to proof down? How

(47:09):
quickly do you add the water? At what temperature do
you add the water? Which
barrels do you use? When we
read barrel, what barrels do we read barrel in? Do we read char? Do
we read age at specific time?

(47:31):
There's a lot of factors and the whiskey is fascinating because of
that. There's so many factors and there's so many parameters. And
so we focus on the things that we think are important and
things that produce the best whiskey for us. And
so yeah, that's what we do. We pick those things and we think that
when we put that whiskey together and we let it age

(47:53):
together, it produces a really, really great
rounded product. Rounded is the word I would use.
I think that's what sets us apart, David. There are a lot of folks that just
You know, they kind of live in a story, which is, we've done this one thing, and this
is the one thing we've done, and we do that for 60, 70 years.
It's what we do. We find that the

(48:15):
barrels have such a unique story to them that, you
know, there's folks that'll charcoal filter and try to pull the pallet out.
There are folks that'll just throw these massive 100,000 gallons, not 100,000 gallons, but
tons of gallons of a
tank and hoping that they can keep some kind of consistency because they
have a customer base that just wants, I want to go and pick that

(48:36):
bottle up, I want to be exactly the same every single time. Well, whiskey has
a story to it. And we're okay with that story. I'm
having some movement and some chapters and ours is going to be
consistent equality. That's what we know. It's going to have a deep palette.
It's going to be a well-rounded whiskey. You're not going to walk away from buying our bottle and
be upset about it. And that's important to us is

(48:57):
that we tell that story well. So that's really where that process came from.
Although we can't tell you all the ins and outs of it, because then we wouldn't really
have a job anymore. I guess somebody would figure it out. But, you know, we feel
like it is an art. We take it very seriously. It has
to be at a particular level before it even goes out.
You know, if it doesn't hit Tom in my palate the right way, it doesn't

(49:20):
We taste every single barrel that comes out. Again, hard job, by the way. We
taste every single barrel that comes out and we categorize where they're going to
go and how they're going to fit in the process. And that's what I think
So you guys came out of the gate swinging, you had, you know,
you opened to the public in 2023, is that right?

(49:43):
So, you know, you came out swinging with
a, the four grain bourbon, which was four to six years and the
rye being six plus years. So, you
Well, probably six plus now. Six plus now. Yeah. When
we started, we would go to distillery after distillery

(50:05):
and ask questions. And you mentioned the names and there was
even more distilleries than that. We would travel almost every
other weekend. We would be on the road and we found a number of great distilleries that
would let us use their equipment. We even now are
partnering with the distillery that lets us go there and use their
equipment to make our stuff. I mean, that's unheard of. But

(50:26):
back then, man, I
say this story all the time. Back then, we put everything together
we had and made a rye. Had
we known then what we know now, like the fact that we
Absolutely. And we just didn't know that. And we

(50:48):
was everything we had. And so we laid down what we could and
thinking it'd be fun story. Yeah. And we
sort of figured we'd just be a little. Yeah, our plans in the beginning have
changed from what we thought. We thought we would start
one place. And so we ended up in another
direction, which has been great. But yeah, we

(51:08):
only laid down just a fraction of
what we should have back then. But that ride wasn't
six then. It was like four, four
and a half. Because that's all we had. In fact, that's the first
thing we released in our shop was the ride, because that's what we started. So

(51:29):
Same thing with the whiskey, it was all four. Now it's
We have some great distilleries and areas that we
found our love and passion and some that were
never even opened and we were able to find some barrels that were
very unique. those are the only ones we were searching

(51:51):
for. And so we were able to find that and build the
bourbon that we loved. And so that's how we started with the bourbon on
I think, I think I heard one of the stories was that there was a distillery
that, as you said, either opened or had not really opened for a long time.
So you were able to secure some or all of those barrels? Yeah,

(52:20):
it's super fun with the connections that we've made over the years. We
got a play at them, which was super exciting because
So we have these barrels that were built and made in a distillery and
never opened. And so they were never actually released or put in a product or
anything. I mean, super low entry proof. Yeah. And

(52:41):
we were able to use those. And then we still have our stock of
our bourbon is from that. So it's really fun that that
Yeah, and fast forward now is that that
still is back up and running and we're able
to lay down a bunch of our new product on that same still from the

(53:01):
original barrels that we got. So it's pretty exciting
for us because it has a really unique character
that it brings. I think it's been something that we've kind of fallen in
love with and been able to utilize in our batch
I heard that story and I was like, I got to bring that up because it's, it's unique

(53:22):
It's just fun and
exciting and it's just fun. And it should be.
Yeah, exactly. So, you know, you use the
word chapters earlier and the oak
lore story is going to have many chapters going forward. Some

(53:42):
of those chapters that have already come and gone, or are still
open, are, as you were saying, different sister
stills, is the phrase that I kept hearing, that have
allowed you to either go in or purchase barrels that you've really
liked in different situations. Um, at
various times or, you know, Kentucky, Tennessee, North

(54:04):
Carolina, uh, Virginia came up once, but only
once. Uh, so I wasn't sure about it, but I'm curious what, like
the snapshot in time today, end of March, 2025. Um,
you don't have to reveal the stills, obviously, like don't, I'm not asking you
to break anything like that, but, um, can you tell us the states that

(54:27):
Kentucky and North Carolina. Yeah. Kentucky, North Carolina. We did some experiments
in Tennessee. We did an experiment in Virginia. And part
of that was just to see how those, how those would turn out. They're
a little bit different to our law and that that's kind of fun to try something new
and different. Um, but, uh, but the mainstays, uh,
that we, that we've got are, are, are Kentucky and North Carolina. Yeah.

(54:48):
Awesome. You got, uh, long-term partnerships, so you're don't have
to worry about, uh, switching things
Oh, I mean, we love the idea of keeping
things as consistent as possible. We know in the whiskey world that
it's not even mentioned earlier, every barrel is different. It's super hard to
have consistency, but the profile is really important to us.

(55:11):
Yeah, it's got to hit the right way. And like
we talked about, that's one of the things that makes us different. If
it comes out as Oak or Matt and Tom put
it out, it's important to us that that's the case. It's
not some conglomerate. We didn't bring in MGP. We
didn't buy George Dickel barrels, although that's, I mean, I know a

(55:32):
lot of folks are doing that and they're doing some neat things with it. Our story is
it comes through this bottleneck. And if it takes longer to come out,
so be it. If it's not the right thing, we got to do something else, put
it back in the rickhouse. So be it. It has to be right. It has
to be of our palate. And so folks that have a similar palate
to us are going to like our stuff, I think. And that's, hopefully, there's

(55:53):
a lot of people that have a similar palate to us. But that's
what makes this thing tick. And we have
a great team around us. We have great ownership
team. We're proud of what we're doing, but
it has to be right. And if Tom and I don't like it, he doesn't
go out. And if somebody has a bottle in their place, they

(56:15):
order one online, we tasted it. It came through us.
We approved it. We did taste that bottle. We didn't taste that bottle. We
didn't drink from that bottle. So we should be clear about that. We
don't open your bottle, take a swig, cork it, and then send it to you.

(56:37):
Yeah. Oh, yeah. We just, we didn't, we didn't taste your bottles either, but,
uh, but every product that we send out, uh, it's, uh,
it's something that we got to love. Not just
like, not just say it's good enough, but it doesn't work. All
In, uh, mid 2024, you guys underwent an

(57:00):
But a new 6000 square foot, four acre plot next to you.
So I know you have plans for it. What's what's come so far?
Yeah, so that actually started way earlier. We opened up in 22 and
knew immediately we needed more space. We knew we needed more
parking. We knew we needed more production ability. And so we immediately started
working on that. It opened up

(57:23):
that we could actually start moving into it in 2024. But
boy, we worked on that almost from day one to have that extra space. So
we knew we had to expand and build and
grow. We were lucky enough and
fortunate enough to be able to buy the property that was next to us, and it
was a 6,000 square foot space. We were able to begin

(57:45):
production all in that space. That helped us
fuel ABC, helped us fuel our shop, and everything we
wanted to do. We are able to
do our processing, we dump our barrels there.
We fill our barrels there. We have a bottling bay where we do
all of our bottling. Incredible bottling system that

(58:06):
saves us so much time and money from the beginning. And we have a shipping
bay, and then we have a transitional barrel storage bay. So we will ship
in about 200 barrels, store them in that section while they're being
used for whatever product we choose. Those
are the times we have to taste those barrels and know where they go. And that's
what that space is. That space has been what has allowed us

(58:28):
to, you know, get it in front of you and get
you to be able to try it and taste it and get into the stores in North Carolina and
e-comm, you can buy our stuff online. So that is what allowed us
David, this will be something that we'll say on your podcast that
nobody has had on their podcast before. So then other podcasts are

(58:49):
going to reference your podcast. Are you ready? So in
this production building, Thomas is like, what are you about to
say? In this production building, putting all the pieces
together was incredibly hard. We put a state-of-the-art bottling line in. We
have a better bottling line, bigger bottling line than a lot of distilleries out there. We're
very proud of it. It changed our production ability.
But to feed that line, We had to have a tank

(59:12):
that would fit in our space and would fit the number of barrels that we had. And
so we started researching tanks that we could put a ton of
barrels into. All of them were vertical tanks, and
they were way too tall for our facility. We were going to have to either set the
thing outside, or we're going to have to take the ceiling out and build some
sort of contraption roof and all this other stuff. and it just wasn't going

(59:33):
to work. So we started researching. We actually found horizontal tanks
that were from the dairy industry back in the Midwest. And
so we finally found this massive tank and had to get shipped
out on the back of a dude's pickup truck when it was crazy. It's
a huge flatbed. It's a huge flatbed. You had to pull these massive, you
had to buy forks that were long enough to bring it in and

(59:54):
get it into one of our bays so that we could bring it in. So
you talk about the interesting challenges of being in a distillery what
you've got to figure out. I had a buddy of mine a long time ago, you heard
the expression, think outside the box, right? Think outside the box, don't
get stuck in the box. And he was like, no, the best professionals are
the ones that can think inside the box. What's the box that you got to work with

(01:00:15):
and how do you make that work? And I think if there's anything that Tom and
I have found that we excel at over the years, it's thinking inside
the box. We can figure out how to make it work. With the parameters. With the parameters
that we have in place. And So there's a fun fact for you, David, that
nobody else has heard about, that our tank is a horizontal tank
that we had to ship in from the Midwest, US, just

(01:00:38):
Matt has mentioned 500 of the problems that we have to solve,
One of the interviews had
Otherwise, so solve this order to be able to
solve the next one. And that's what we do solve one problem in
order to solve the next problem. And we never stop solving problems, which means we

(01:00:59):
have to stay open. And we get to share our whiskey with people. And that's
There we go. So just based on on
size of the space alone, you have this now huge former dairy tank
that's in the 6000 square foot space, you have the bottling line. For
the moment, most of the maturation is

(01:01:23):
in Kentucky and North Carolina, right? Yeah, so we
have a North Carolina and in Kentucky, those age
there. We will be, our
plans are to move all of those barrels to the Piedmont because
all of our barrels spend time aging in the Piedmont. So
we try to get them here to age and what we're going to start doing

(01:01:46):
now that we have the ability is to age all of our barrels,
the ones that even aren't at this point to even
begin their aging in the Piedmont. So we will be filling our
How many barrels can we fit in our transitional warehousing space

(01:02:07):
And at any given time, I'm around 100 and 200, something like
So we pull our barrels in for a transitional stage while
You have that six to eight months where you're taking the
two types of bourbon together, let it rest and marry

(01:02:31):
Typically between 12 months and two years.
That's right. 12 and 24 months typically. And we don't
know whether that grows or that stays
the same. That's going to be a decision that we make in the future. There'll
be some tasting involved. with that decision, that we
David, when you come to North Carolina, we're going to do some tasting. There's some tasting

(01:02:54):
I'm loving it. So just in the last
15 minutes or so we've got, I always end on
a question about legacy, because I've become
very interested in that. I don't know if it's because I had a kid, and now I'm thinking about that more.
But I want to end on that question. Before we get there, on

(01:03:15):
Bourbon Showdown, I think
this might have been Jack actually saying this, so take this for what you will. All three of you
were on it, but it might have been Jack saying it.
You were relaying a story about, it was two stories. The first one was
when you met Charlie Nelson and you
were asking him questions and he's like, you guys are not the typical people. Like,

(01:03:39):
Literally, what are you doing here? You're not asking
the normal person. It was like, you need to talk to my brother. Yeah, that's
Right. So that was the one story. Then the other one was that you guys were
doing a tasting yourselves and people started
asking about your entry proofs and these quote
unquote nerdier details that guys like us love to ask about.

(01:04:01):
Uh, I was in, in looking
back, you know, pre COVID, which seems like so long ago now, when
you're thinking of starting this distillery, a lot
of the distilleries that have started in like the last 10 years, let's say 10 to
15 years, have a much more educated and

(01:04:22):
just aware base of consumers. Like they want
to know what your mash bill is. They want to know where you're aging your yeast. Like the questions I'm
asking you now, they want to know that before they
even buy the bottle. And
I'm curious from your perspective of, what
was it like building a distillery knowing that people

(01:04:44):
would want to know this information and that in
a way you had to be as transparent as possible just because people were going to ask those questions?
I never thought of that. I did the thing. When I was making
decisions, I made the decisions that I knew were right for the whiskey that we wanted
And then we would answer whatever questions after that. That's kind

(01:05:07):
Yeah. I think because we're kind of nerds already, it's fun to talk about.
So we're like, what's the deal with all the secrets? We just talk about
what you're doing. It's kind of there's no way that anybody, even if you told me what
the match bill is of a maker's mark or Weller's or something, there's
no way that you can remake that. No, they're still as important. They're
parameters. All the things are important on how they do what they do.

(01:05:28):
So, you know, we thought that was fun to talk about and share that stuff and
making the whiskey that we wanted to make was the most important. Putting
the good juice in the bottle is the most important. So
whatever decision had to be made to get there was the decision we
All right. Let

(01:05:51):
me just find my question. There it is. I
know what I want. So as I mentioned, we were talking before recording, not
proper fundraiser by day. So this piqued my interest is something that
you guys do that I love. So I want to just highlight it, which is
your Angel Barrel program. So,

(01:06:14):
you know, this is a, a charity program about three
per year, get to, well, you know, I'm, I can describe it,
Yeah, I mean, I think the short version is for us is that being
an organization that's in a community, you can't say you're in a community unless
you're not part of it, unless you're investing in it, right? You can't be part

(01:06:34):
of a community if you're not going to invest in it. And so, you know, our partnership team,
we've decided to spend benevolent dollars to
do some things. One of those is our Angel Barrel program. We've got one of those coming
out again pretty soon this year. We spent
some time doing an Empty the Shelves for Carolina. Right after Hurricane
Helene, I think we were able to raise like $50,000 for Western North

(01:06:57):
Carolina. We just did a program where
we were the sponsor at Autism Strong here in Charlotte,
and I think we raised about $150,000 of their $650,000. I
mean, that's important to us. How
do we connect with people and remember what
made us who we are? One of the early stories

(01:07:20):
in our whole thing was this, you know, this men's group. And we
had one of the guys in the men's group that was going through a particularly kind
of crazy time. We kind of surrounded him and lifted him up. And
he sent a text to us around Christmas time a
number of years ago and said, hey, guys, I want to thank
you so much for being a part of my life. But I've

(01:07:41):
decided it's done and I'm going to end my life today. And
all of us that are in that group went running to
sort of be there with him, talk to him, make sure he was safe. He's doing a
lot better now and back on his feet. But it's a constant reminder
about what made you who you are. What made us who we are is this
community, it's relationships, it's people. We've got an amazing staff,

(01:08:04):
people that work with us. They're incredible at what they do.
We have great partners in our
team, but it's important to us that we
do something with the platform that we have. If
we have a platform at all, I don't think we have much of a platform, but what we do have,
we decided that we're going to use it to do good stuff. Not just make

(01:08:34):
If a charity is interested in becoming part of the Angel Vow
Yeah, they have to be local, because we have some rules here in
North Carolina that, you know, our bottles to be sold out of our shop.
So typically, that's a local,
So I love it. I, I appreciate greatly. As I

(01:08:57):
said, it's my day job that when when companies use those,
you said Matt benevolent dollars. I like that phrase. So
looking forward, Next, you've
got your first expansion under your belt, you've
got a giant tank you can now use, you're planning

(01:09:19):
to move your maturation closer, and
you're already using North Carolina grains as much as you can. What
Wow, great question. We want to continue to
see this brand grow. We like

(01:09:39):
to continue to saturate our state. You can't go
out and start selling your products all over the place unless you own
your state. If our state doesn't know who we are, we're slacking
and that's no good. So we're going to saturate the state. We'll push into
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, all those states
as we can regionally. And, you

(01:10:00):
know, this is the stage of life now, David, where distributors
come calling and they want to work with us and start distributing our product.
And we're excited about that step. Our e-com
has taken off. We're going to be in the Flaviar calendar,
We can't? No, he's blind. Oh, it's blind. Yeah,

(01:10:24):
I don't know as you like to have the ability to do it blind. I'm glad you caught me.
We are really excited about which day we have on the Flavio Advent
Yeah. And it just, those are the kinds of things that are just the start.

(01:10:44):
You feel like we're just sort of scratching the surface, the tip of
the iceberg for us. I mean, Tom and I got into this with
a plan to build a brand. We want to see the brand grow and
that's important to us. And you talk about, you mentioned legacy earlier.
You know, our name is on the bottle, right? Our
last names are on the bottle. The three of

(01:11:06):
us that founded the company have our names on that bottle because we
believe in this product, because we believe in where it came from. We believe
in where it's going. Look, man, there's a thousand whiskeys you can
choose from. I think you ought to buy every single one of them. Try
every single whiskey you can. Just make one of them Oaklor.

(01:11:29):
So the director of sales is texting us. So we're all
That's the beauty. It's one of the very, one of the few things that came
out positively after COVID is the growth of e-comm specifically for
the spirits industry. So the fact that you can get oak lore, not

(01:11:58):
Yeah. You can get that through our website, okortostilling.com, and
you go to buy now and it'll tell you if you can get it. I think right
now, I think maybe tomorrow it clicks into our
And we're stuck at like 42 states. There's those eight or
nine that are just not letting it happen.

(01:12:22):
But Matt will personally drive the bottle to your house and give it
It's not April is
coming up. Oh, you're so

(01:12:46):
We're going to get you a sample of that pork. That sounds great. We'd love to see what
you think about it. Shoot us a note. It's awesome. And
any of you guys that are out there, guys, gals listening to the podcast
and you're interested in reaching out to us, please do, man. Let us know what you think of
When you're in Charlotte, we'd love to have you come by. We're

(01:13:07):
often around and we love talking about this stuff. So just let us know.
Fantastic. Well, Matt, Tom, thank you guys for,
for coming on and talking about Oak Lord still. And thank you, Jack, for making
this happen. He's off screen at the moment, but he's been a real
help. Just, yeah, just making this happen, facilitating the sample so I could
try the product beforehand. Hang only

(01:13:35):
Cheers guys. Awesome. Thank you everyone for listening. Rate, like, and
subscribe wherever you are listening and I will see you all next

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

The Joe Rogan Experience

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 184: Oaklore Distilling Co. with Founders Matt Simpkins and Tom Bogan

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

The Joe Rogan Experience

All Episodes

Ep. 184: Oaklore Distilling Co. with Founders Matt Simpkins and Tom Bogan

24/7 News: The Latest