- June 29, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
“We had great productivity and cost controls, and corn was trending to all-time high prices a decade ago, but it became clear to me we needed to do more,” says CEO Jamie Walter, who practiced law and once dabbled in seed sales, farm equipment financing and wine-making. He first considered growing his own grapes for wine and later on corn for popcorn making. Neither panned out.
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“It hit us that we grow the very best corn in the world right here in DeKalb County, and that’s the essential ingredient in bourbon,” says Jim Walter. “So we decided to start up a distillery.”
The partnership knew nothing about distilling, nor did they even have a deep-seated love of bourbon, but they hired top experts from Kentucky to journey to DeKalb to lend advice. Eventually they found a whiskey maker with real Scottish training, Robert Wallace, who remains as the master distiller. They invested $250,000 in a Kentucky-made copper still with a…