War of the Whiskey Fungus Ends With Planning Board Denying Distillery’s Expansion Plans Following Months of Complaints From Outraged Residents

A distillery in York, Maine, was denied its proposal to expand its facilities by the town’s planning board. (Photo: AP Photo/John Amis)

It appears the war of the whiskey fungus may be over in the town of York, Maine. On Friday, local news outlet WMTW reported that the York Planning Board had rejected the expansion proposal from the Wiggly Bridge Distillery, leaving the owners contemplating their next move.

On Sept. 28, the Planning Board denied the distillery its expansion by a 4:1 public vote.

Wiggly Bridge Distillery founder David Woods shared his thoughts on the decision to Seacoastonline and expressed that he was disappointed with the results.

“I love the town because I’m from York,” Woods admitted to the outlet. “But I don’t like the lack of support of the business community.”

The distillery owner informed Seacoastonline that he planned on watching the recording of the meeting where his request was denied and would contemplate the next steps.

He previously expressed that he would not be opposed to taking legal action and even claimed he would take the case to the Maine Supreme Court if need be.

“There’s a lot of options out there that we need to explore. Appeals court, new piece of property, or I get so fed up with this town that I say, ‘Let me sell everything and move down to Montserrat,'” Woods concluded.

The conflict began in August when the Wiggly Bridge Distillery reached out to the city Planning Board to approve an expansion project that would involve the construction of a new barrel house. Residents pushed back and claimed the distillery was responsible for an outbreak of the Baudoinia whiskey fungus.

Residents hired a professor at the University of Maine at Machias to implement a study tracking the source of the Baudoinia outbreak. The study concluded that the distillery was indeed responsible.

The distillery’s founders, a father and son both named David Woods, pushed back at residents and challenged the findings, citing flaws in the study. The duo hired an engineering planner, Alex Maxwell to dispute the claims.

“Our biggest argument is there really wasn’t a controlled progression analysis done to account for other potential contributing factors to the carbonaceous feedstock to grow the fungus,” Maxwell said.

Outraged residents took to posting signs along roadways, declaring portions of York a “Whiskey Fungus Zone” just days before the Planning Board made its decision.

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