Hello everyone,
I am a partner at a distillery in Tempe, AZ and we've had our distilling license since Nov. 2016. We have had vodka since January, our unaged bourbon and rum since early April, and our gin since late May. People who come into our distillery really like our products and we are on the sales trail and self-distributing. After 3 months or so of pushing we're in 6 restaurants/bars and a handful of liquor stores. I wanted to ask how long it took for other distilleries to break momentum and start making a name for themselves. One thing that we know is we don't have a whiskey ready (bourbon soon and a smoked whiskey bottling in early September) and we keep saying, "we'll take off when we get our aged spirits".
We're going to continue pushing sales and I was looking to see what it took for others to really break into the bar/restaurant scene in their area. What marketing worked, what hasn't? We don't want to assume that it'll be easier getting sales with whiskeys (although it may be) so we will keep pushing. Just want to know if we're an anomaly and how long it took others to gain momentum.