Where’s Witherspoon?

When we ask our team what questions they are asked by guests, the first, and most common question is some variation of “Where’s Witherspoon?” Although there’s a fairly simple answer to this question, it often doesn’t seem to satisfy their curiosity. People want an answer that feels more like the Balcones / Chip Tate saga - something meatier and with more drama. And when left none, some have even created wild stories to fill the void.

The root of why the “Witherspoon” in “Witherspoon Distillery” is no longer here is money. Not money in the sense of fighting for it or greed, but the monthly need to pay bills kind of money. Making whiskey is EXPENSIVE. And once you’ve made it, you have to sit on it, essentially just looking at it, for 4+ years. Imagine starting a t-shirt business and going to the bank for funding. You have a great business plan, location, materials, budget, maybe even customers, but then you tell them that after you make these beautiful shirts, you won’t be able to sell any for 4 years. No income. FOUR YEARS. For starters, no lender in their right mind is going to want to work with you. And the next problem is - where is that money coming from. A quick look in the mirror and you’ll figure it out.

Now snap back to 2012. Some friends were working together to figure out how to run and pay for a distillery. Most of us contributed some funds to get things rolling, I was able to start working full time fairly early, and Quentin, Ryan and Laurent worked as much as their other jobs allowed. Laurent stepped away early on, and Quentin came on full time to help fill the void. Our growing family could not afford for Ryan to leave his full time job at the time, so it would be quite a few years before he was able to join us. We hobbled along, barely making ends meet, for years. None of us were getting paid regularly, and when we were able to, it was barely enough to cover a personal bill or two, and the amount was generally decided at one of our kitchen tables while discussing “what is needed to get your bills paid through the month". Regular paychecks were a pipe dream. Although the business itself was growing, that time gap between production and sales was hobbling us.

After years of struggling and needing for Ryan to be a part of our team full time, he was finally able to join in 2016. There was still relatively no pay available to any of the owners, but the value that Ryan brought to our small leadership team of three was irreplaceable. Another year or so down the road, Quentin came to us to let us know that he would need to seek outside employment and would have to suspend his work with the distillery as a result. Better than anyone, we knew the issues that come about after years of little to no pay come into your household. It wasn’t ideal, but we understood and for the sake of the distillery and our team there, we kept the ball rolling and lived off of our personal savings. A while after he left, it became apparent that some formal changes would be necessary. Signatures needed, license and permitting renewals, and other formalities that were previously easy to grab from a partner who was sitting next to us, suddenly became a major struggle with 1/3 of our team gone. The deciding factor for us was when funding was needed for distillery equipment, and we were told that all three of us would need to sign personal guarantees to make it happen. The time had come to formalize the situation as it already existed.

It’s at this point in our story that we’ve heard we “bought Quentin’s company” or that we “kicked Quentin out”, or even that there was some kind of fight that led to his departure. None of these are true. We were partners, and for very straightforward business reasons, we are no longer. Although we are not in regular contact, there are no ill feelings from us, and when we have been in touch, Quentin and his family have been doing well.

Over the years, we’ve been told that some people love the changes we’ve made, while others hate it. Change is hard, but I think that anyone who has put their heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears into something they love would understand that it’s hard not to take harsh words personally about your life’s work, but we try to just move on. Some folks drop the distillery wanting to swap stories about the early days with all of us here, which we also love to do. Others want to bash those times or him and have negative things to say, which we could do without. And others want to tell us what a terrible job we’re doing now and that we’re bad people for what we did to our former business partner. Maybe every story needs a bad guy, and for those folks, we’re it. Telling anyone that we’re not bad people is likely a waste of breath, since people will believe what they want to believe, so we just keep working hard to make the distillery great and to keep the best team in the business happy. We love our team, each other, our whiskey and this distillery, and nothing is going to change that.

So, cheers to good whiskey and a bright future.