Bring Some Cheese, I have the Whine Covered.

If 2023 had been a sound, it would have been a groan. As I am writing my year-end review nearly into the second quarter of the next year, I am still putting out fires from 2023. Despite being our best year ever, it was hard one, possibly even our most difficult yet.

At seven years into the business, we honestly thought we had already ridden out a lot of the disasters that can face a new small business. Holy smokes were we wrong. In fact, late 2022 I had actually turned to Nick and said (while knocking on wood) “I think we finally did it, I think we are finally safe”.

Then I got covid and lost my sense of smell and taste almost entirely for 9 months. During this time, I also lost the supply chain to make one of our beloved existing products lines unexpectedly and had to immediately begin work on a new product to replace it before our other supply ran out (no pressure). An already formidable task made almost impossible considering my primary way to evaluate was gone. Unfortunately, while developing this product I also learned about the existence of flavor modulating compounds. These compounds act in a way with our own biochemistry to make flavor molecules imperceptible or seemly disappear. Very cool science, very shitty timing for learning about it. Huge shoutout to Troy, Nick, and Jake for being my sensory triage team during this time. After much labor and learning, Hiems gin was eventually born, and now nearly a year and a half into development, I am finally 100% happy with it.

Shortly after finally nailing the Hiems recipe, on the morning of my ten-year anniversary with Nick, we were just departing to a getaway (the very first we have celebrated in 9 years) we received an alarming call from my associate distiller Jake. Our crop of wheat was suddenly infested with what appeared to be small caterpillars. This bug does not normally appear in crop damage this far north and is almost unheard of in silo storage (which made the installation of our new silos much less exciting). Unfortunately, our wheat had to be wasted. Not to be outdone, next the blue corn crop harvest failed due to immaturity and an unknown fungal blight. This was unfortunately due to the haze from the Canada wildfires, as this greatly impacted the amount of sunshine received by the crops. This was bitterly disappointing to both us and the farmer who had put so much work into the crop, especially considering it was all beyond our control.

2023 also brought with it much mandatory learning in the fields of electrical, plumbing,  engineering, and biochemistry as every single piece of major equipment in production failed in some way, repeatedly. Some problems were small, some were tear-inducing, most were ill-timed flukes. In addition to these larger matters, were the everyday complications of soaring inflation, supply chain interruption, and copious changes to the law. The mental whiplash from these cannot be understated.

Despite a shitstorm of challenges, 2023 wasn’t all doom and gloom. Early on, we celebrated becoming B corp certified, something that Nick had spent a lot of time and energy on, and something that we both feel extremely proud of. This certification acts as a sort of third-party moderator to make sure that we are meeting our promises to the community, staff, and environment. We also built a new rickhouse! Very exciting and also extremely essential to the continuation of our business (the old barrel storage area is completely stuffed). A good portion of this project was funded by a generous grant from MDARD in exchange for us to continue to use local grain and provide quality local jobs to support the Michigan economy. Less flashy but equally important, we also managed to retain and continue to professionally grow some really excellent employees. This is something we feel a lot of pride in, knowing that the greater labor market was quite grim. 2023 also brought several successful product releases including the Vespera Mel, and Hiems, while also allowing for the development of a new barrel gin and an herbal liqueur for 2024.

All in all, this blog I suppose has several purposes. A time capsule, because more than a decade into this journey I already feel as if I am forgetting so much. A cautionary tale, because it doesn’t matter how prepared, how informed, or how old your business is; something can always come out of left field and swipe you off your feet. The trick is to just keep going. An apology, if Nick and I look a little bedraggled, if our smile doesn’t quite reach our eyes, if we have seemed distracted or not as friendly as normal, please know it’s not you, we are just a little worn down at the moment. It’s been a wild few years, but if there is anything I have learned in all of this, it’s that everything is temporary, including hardship, and hardship can in fact be a gift, because its reward is wisdom.