By Richard Thomas
The saddest news in this update on closures, bankruptcies, lawsuits, lay-offs and sell-offs in the whiskey industry is the closure of San Francisco’s Hotaling & Co. Distillery. The distillery that became known as Hotaling was started in 1993 as an outgrowth of Anchor Brewing, itself started by Fritz Maytag decades before. Old Potrero malted rye was founded there, and I have long referred to the distillery as part of a small class that was craft whiskey before craft whiskey became a thing. Maytag sold Anchor Distilling in 2010 and it was renamed Hotaling in 2018, then moved to a new location in 2020.
Despite its illustrious history and very high marks from cognoscenti, attention from the broader swathe of whiskey fans has eluded Old Potrero, even as newer brands rooted in either rye or single malts (Old Potrero refers to itself as both a rye and a single malt, since it is 100% malted rye and dates from an era when the latter had near zero domestic production) found more success. Even so, it outlived its former stablemate, Anchor Brewing. That company was bought by Sapporo Brewing in 2017 only to be shut down in 2023, even as Old Potrero became the property of a company best known for collecting the import and distribution rights to foreign whiskies.
Although the distillery has been closed, the Hotaling company has said it will continue to be made under contract by an area distiller. With Old Potrero stock already in the pipeline, the brand looks set to soldier on into the future.
Former Executive Turns Whistleblower, Files Suit Against BBCo For Discriminatory Practices
On February 13, the former chief of human resources for Bardstown Bourbon Company (BBCo), Sylvia E. Sanders, filed a lawsuit accusing BBCo’s President; the CEO Of BBCo’s parent company, Lofted Spirits; and the owner of Lofted Spirits, Pritzker Private Capital (PPC) of gender discrimination and retaliation against her. Sanders alleges she was fired from her position in May 2024 after reporting “illegal, unethical, discriminatory and improper conduct” by her employers as part of her job as Vice President of Human Resources.
In more detail, Sanders claims in her suit that she sent a report to Mark Erwin, Lofted Spirits CEO, detailing “widespread discriminatory animus and slurs; improper protected classification jokes and commentary; blatant racism, ageism and sexist/gender bias; illegal identity-based decision-making; employees arriving, or becoming, while working, under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol and not being properly disciplined or addressed by supervisors; falsification of mandatory occupational health, and incident-related documentation and regulatory mandated reporting; theft of company product; a hit-and-run alcohol-related accident; omission of human resources altogether from mandatory reporting and/or engagement under BBC and Pritzker Policies and Procedures; and employees, including underaged employees, being served the corporate group’s alcohol during work hours including encouraging underage drinking.” According to Sanders, she was fired just weeks after submitting the damning report.
Sanders had been at her post for five years at the time of dismissal, and also oversaw human resources for other Lofted properties, such as Green River Distilling in Owensboro.
If the name “Pritzker” sounds familiar, that is because Illinois governor JB Pritzker is one of the owners.
BBCo denied the claims in a statement, labeling them inflammatory. Whether the allegations of hostile workplace culture extend to Lofted Spirits other major plant, Green River Distilling, is not known.
David Mandell, John Hargrove, and Daniel Linde–the founders of BBCo who left in 2019 and subsequently launched The Whiskey House distillery in Elizabethtown, Kentucky–have not commented on the scandal at the distillery they opened in 2016. However, The Whiskey House had a $1.7 million lien put on it by Buzick Construction last summer, and that lien is still in force, so they have legal/financial problems of their own.
Kentucky Owl To Get Trustees
The day before Sanders filed her lawsuit, a court in Texas assigned trustees to take charge of Stoli USA, the holding company that owns Kentucky Owl, as part of the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Said proceedings first began in November 2024. The ruling followed opposition from Stoli’s creditor, Fifth Third Bank, to convert the case to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and liquidation. Stoli had been pushing for Chapter 7 precisely because Fifth Third was opposing the appointment of Chapter 11 trustees, so the move broke the logjam in court.
Mississippi Goes Dry Again, This Time By Mishap
Mississippi repealed state-level Prohibition only in 1966, the last US state to do so. Although the very conservative state has not been backsliding into temperance, recent events have seen many of their liquor store shelves left bare all the same.
Mississippi has a half-ABC system, where although the state’s liquor retailers are private, the state’s Alcohol Board of Control is the state’s distributor (usually the state fills both rolls in an ABC state). Apparently the state is suffering from a severe backlog of unfulfilled orders from retailers, all of which must go through and be supplied from the central ABC warehouse in Gluckstadt. State officials have blamed an incompatability issue between new software and old distribution and packaging equipment.
Drinks shoppers are liable to be waiting several weeks for their bare shelves to see restocking. The official predictions are that half the backlog will be met by the end of March, and the entire backlog resolved sometime in May.
