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New to ADI but certainly no newby. Move over boys!


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happy to be here and I have been a lover of ADI boards and forums for years. i sketched out a bit about myself here, so just know I consider distlilling a rewarding and fun career....now, on to planning our own distillery.

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we will be setting up in Santa Rosa, about 40 miles North of the Golden Gate. Ironically, right in the heart of Sonoma/Napa wine country....I have a property within the city - a half acre, with a nice 600 square foot outbuilding - that should be a perfect place to start.....our initial aim will be to see what tweaks we can do to really make a deeply crafted bourbon.....the site is blessed with a well that draws really super water too. We all know how critical that is to finely crafted liquor, especially whiskey and bourbon. I am originally from Baltimore and I grew up marveling at the monoliths that were Baltimore Distilling, as well as a few of the Seagram's distilleries....namely Four Roses. And who can forget that venerable name in Rye, Pikesville Rye Whiskey....:-).

Anyways, from staying current with these forums over the years I have come to learn how critical local zoning is to establishing a distillery, particularly one in a city setting with a mixture of residential and commercial ventures. I reckon every zoning board member's inclination anywhere in the country (with the likely exception of Lexington Kentucky...lol), would be to turn thumbs down on a distillery project. Therefore, at least in my opinion, drafting a cogent, extremely detailed, well-written proposal will be absolutely critical in helping to overcome the natural tendency to want to say, "no." This almost demands a proposal that LOOKS as weighty and considered as it will read....When I was working towards my MBA back in Maryland, I will never forget my marketing professor's admonition that One never gets a second chance to make a good first impression. I can't help but feel that put a "wow" proposal together will be key to getting City of Santa Rosa approval.....maybe that and some folding green! In any event there is no more exciting business to be in than distilling beer and making it something exponentially more exciting.

I am also struck by how important marketing is to the success of operating a distillery....in truth, I think most of us want to believe the world with beat a path to our door to buy our finely crafted products. Yet, the greatest wheated bourbon in the world would go no where without the know how to move it into the marketplace. Overall, if truth be told, I have often considered pulling the license and just buying some nice barreled product to pitch under our own private label, just to get the marketing machine going. I just can't see sitting there looking around at my partners, after just knocking out a top shelf whiskey, for example, and saying, "Now what?" Thus, in my case, because I do come from such a hard charging sales environoment (working in China 5 years teaches alotta get up and go!), sales will be job one....even if I am not initially moving our own product into the marketplace at first, I will at least have the certain knowledge that, when the time is right, I will have the rolodex and wherewithal to open our own product's marketing campaign with a bang....nothing beats persistence!

I apologize for the length of this posting but I want to be a known commodity at ADI and not simply known as someone who dilly-dallyed with the idea of making some hooch juat to see what would happen....I am in it to win it. I love you guys.....thanks!

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Btw, McMillan Distilleries....judging by your picture you guys are enjoying this distilling way too much...anyways, a nice crew of handsome mugs :-). Thanks for the welcome and mistakenly givin'n an Irish gal the okay to shoot off her mouth!

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