Award-Winning Vodka and Whiskey Distillery Files for Bankruptcy After 19 Years in Business

(Photo: Legends Distillery/Facebook)

The Legends Distillery in Cumming, Georgia, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following nearly 20 years in business. It’s the latest in a string of closures and cutbacks sweeping the American alcohol market amid trade tensions and industry headwinds.

Legends Distillery owner Spirits of the USA filed to reorganize its assets at the end of last week, according to publicly available documents. The distiller listed $500,000 to $1 million in assets and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities. Its largest unsecured creditors are Avron Properties and Chase Credit Cards, to which it owes $127,000 and $95,000, respectively.

Spirits USA was founded in 2007 by industry veterans Michael Gerard, Kenny May and Jonny Allen, per the company’s LinkedIn page. The business was conceived around its patented Quantum Purity process, which purports to create smoother spirits by removing at least 50% of the natural impurities in alcohol after distillation. According to the brand, its technology reduces methanol, butanol and ethyl acetates to never-before-seen lows — a distinction it eagerly celebrated when it trademarked the phrase “#TakeBackTheMorning.”

The company opened its 20,000 square-foot Legends Distillery and an accompanying 5,000-square-foot tasting room and gift shop in March 2020, days before the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic. In the following years, the brand earned a reputation for its range of bourbons, vodkas and gins, sold primarily through liquor stores in Georgia and Tennessee.

“To my fellow Georgians, thank you for helping us survive as we opened up 3 days before Covid hit our shores and the story is and was something out of science fiction, but you experienced it yourselves and the main point is thank you,” Gerard wrote in 2022.

He continued: “All I can ask is give us a try and see why Georgia’s Legends Distillery is beating the best and by doing so help us battle the multinational’s that control our industry.”

Legends Distillery has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, not Chapter 7, indicating that the brand would like to restructure its assets and continue operations. However, the company has not made a public statement about its intentions. The Spirits USA website currently redirects to an error page, and the Legends Distillery Facebook profile was last updated in early April.

Online retailer Beverage World of Cumming still has several of the distillery’s products on sale, including its Highway 19 Gin, Single Barrel Bourbon, 80 Vodka and Rattlesnake Tequila, the latter of which was presumably distilled in Mexico and whitelabeled by Legends.