Distiller at shuttered KY distillery: I was fired 11 days after hiring announced
The former master distiller at the financially troubled Garrard County Distilling Co. said Tuesday she was fired before she really got started.
Lisa Wicker, who had been announced as master distiller in a Feb. 13, 2024, news release, was ousted because of “a difference in philosophies on how to run a distillery,” she said in an interview with the Herald-Leader.
“I was fired Feb. 24, eight business days after they sent out the press release saying I was hired,” Wicker said.
“They did not understand the function of a master distiller, the market, the importance of authenticity and transparency,” Wicker said of the distillery’s failure. “It could have been successful, there was so much potential, it’s a shame, such talent. The production and maintenance team were the best at what they do and the best kind of people.”
Company CEO Shashi Reddy has not responded to requests for comment. He also co-founded Case-Mate, a mobile accessories company with wife Lucky, and lives in Atlanta where he collects cars and watches.
Court takes over Garrard County Distilling
Reportedly a $250 million facility on 200 acres, Garrard County Distilling opened in January 2024. Garrard had released a few bottles under the label All Nations with bourbon and rye whiskey allegedly sourced from Wilderness Trail Distillery and had begun filling a rickhouse with thousands of barrels of new spirits.
As of April 11, 2025, the distillery has been taken over by a receiver appointed by a Garrard County Circuit Court judge to figure out if it can be salvaged or must be sold.
According to lawsuits filed in Garrard County Circuit Court, parent company GBRE owes at least $28 million, including $26 million to Truist Bank.
According to a filing by the bank, Truist believes the value of the assets of Garrard Distilling is now less than the amount they are owed.
Truist secured from Reddy consent to ask the court to take over Garrard County Distilling and appoint a receiver, who can file bankruptcy or pursue other options. The receiver will establish a budget for preserving the business assets and a deadline for presenting a recommendation on the future of the distillery.
Who owns the barrels of bourbon, whiskey
It’s unclear who owns the barrels of whiskey aging on site. Many were allegedly produced or stored for outside investment companies. Some may have been made to fulfill distilling contracts.
According to Truist loan documents filed with the suit, the distillery had an agreement with Blue Run Spirits, which was purchased by Molson Coors in August 2023, to produce liquid inventory and to store barrels of whiskey produced elsewhere.
But a spokesman for Blue Run said that while before the purchase by Coors, Blue Run may have had an agreement with Garrard Distilling, but that Garrard never actually stored anything there or distilled for the label.
Garrard County Distilling also told the bank it was storing finished spirits for a company called CWI Ventures, doing business as Victory Spirits Development, an Atlanta bulk spirits investment company. And separately for Seelbachs Spirits, according to the court documents.
And the company told the bank they had a contract to fill barrels for Brindiamo Group, a whiskey broker that, according to its web site, is the “leading partner for brands and distilleries seeking to place or secure premium whiskey.”
The distillery has been sitting idle at least since mid-March, with workers furloughed and no distilling taking place. The phone at Garrard Distilling is disconnected. Parent company Staghorn in Atlanta, founded by Ray Franklin, did not respond to requests for comment.
Franklin also has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Wicker recruited to Garrard Distilling
A bourbon industry veteran, Wicker began working with Garrard Distilling in October 2023, recruited by Franklin, a spirits entrepreneur who had teamed with Reddy and dozens of investors to build the distillery in Lancaster.
Wicker had been working at Alltech’s Lexington Brewing & Distilling Co. in Lexington, but she said it hadn’t been a great fit and she left in June 2023 after just under a year.
Franklin was offering a salary she considered top dollar to Wicker, who has an extensive background in the bourbon industry, working at Limestone Branch, Starlight Distillery in Indiana, Preservation Distillery and most notably Widow Jane in New York.
Franklin had already hired a top-notch team from Wild Turkey, Jim Beam, Four Roses and other well-known Kentucky distilleries, as well as MGP in Indiana, she said, to come to the previously dry Garrard County to kick start a bold new venture.
And, best of all, Franklin told her that the distillery already had enough contracts for its whiskey to fill barrels for the next 4 1/2 years, Wicker said.
But Wicker said things felt off at Garrard Distilling almost from the beginning, “The culture just wasn’t normal distillery culture.”
But the executive team didn’t seem interested in hearing her concerns about how Garrard Distilling was being run, she said.
What Truist Bank filings show about Garrard Distilling
The turmoil began before the place ever filled its first barrel in January 2024.
According to documents filed in the lawsuit, the distillery lost at least one major investor, and the chief executive officer before the distillery was operational.
In October 2022, Truist Bank agreed to give distillery parent company GBRE a $5 million line of credit and a $20 million loan, according to court records.
But within six months, the original CEO listed on loan paperwork, Matthew Merrick Shirah, had resigned with a $1.8 million settlement.
According to the same document, chief financial officer Wade Honeycutt also had resigned as chief financial officer. He apparently remained involved with the company but not as CFO. He’s also listed as an investor.
And Trailer Park Holdings, which had originally invested the equivalent of more than $1.5 million, had divested itself of its 3% interest in venture, according to court records.
Trailer Park Holdings had contributed 400 barrels of spirits from another undisclosed distillery to the company in exchange for an interest and received 390 barrels back, along with the purchase price for 10 barrels that had been sold, according to the amended loan agreement.
Each of these events was enough to put GBRE’s loan in default because Garrard Distilling apparently did not immediately notify the bank, according to the July 2023 document in court records.
But Truist agreed to grant a waiver and to revise the loan documents with Reddy listed as chairman of All Nations Investors, and Franklin listed as president of All Nations Investors.
All Nations, along with GBRE, also known as Green Bomber, comprised about 180 investors who put in a combined $50 million into the distillery, according to the court documents. Eleven investors put in $1 million or more; many put in hundreds of thousands.
It isn’t clear how much Reddy put in. The Reddy Family Trust invested $1 million, according to the loan documents.
About 30 investors, including Franklin, appear to have put money in both All Nations and Green Bomber, according to the court filing.
By November 2024, Franklin had left Garrard County Distilling to join Spirits Capital, a barrel brokerage, as chief revenue officer, overseeing the operation of their Distilled Barrels Financial Exchange site. He said at that time he remained an investor in Staghorn and hoped to help Garrard County Distilling find buyers for its barrels of newly made whiskey.
“I did all the things I set out to do with Staghorn,” Franklin told The Spirits Business last fall.
Other lawsuit, liens filed
The distillery was already facing one lawsuit from contractors Doss & Horky, who also filed a nearly $2.2 million lien against Garrard Distilling in July 2024.
The contractors alleged they had not been paid for labor and materials and that there were at least three other liens filed against the property.
This story was originally published April 23, 2025 at 10:18 AM.
