Hickory Creek Capital Partners

This project is a large-scale, business-to-business distillery in Morehead, Kentucky—being built to solve one of the biggest bottlenecks in today’s spirits industry: new and mid-sized brands cannot access high-quality, affordable whiskey. Even with headlines about oversupply, that surplus is concentrated inside the large legacy distilleries and primarily affects brand owners struggling to sell finished bottles, not the infrastructure side of the business. Emerging labels still face long waitlists, steep pricing, and inconsistent supply. This facility will produce world-class distillate at scale and at costs smaller brands simply can’t secure anywhere else, creating diversified revenue from contract production, long-term barrel aging, and logistics services—not from betting on any single label’s consumer success.

What makes this opportunity so compelling is that it actually benefits from the very headwinds making the news. Oversupply and tariff pressure squeeze brand margins, driving more companies to seek lower-cost, reliable production partners—exactly what this distillery provides. With a world-class team that includes the youngest Distiller of the Year ever and leadership experience from Jack Daniel’s, Maker’s Mark, Southern Comfort, and Kentucky Peerless, the operation is designed to help brands survive and scale in a tighter market. For investors, the project is anchored by significant hard assets—land, rickhouses, equipment—which enable exceptional depreciation benefits beginning in year one. This isn’t a whiskey speculation play. It’s a mission-critical infrastructure platform with early cash flow, downside protection, and a business model strengthened—not threatened—by current industry conditions.