A drink with… Lisa Roper Wicker, Whiskey Thief Distilling Co
Three years after leaving Kentucky whiskey producer Widow Jane, and a few false starts later, the self-proclaimed itinerant distiller has found her new home.
*This interview was originally published in the August 2025 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
You left Widow Jane in November 2022 and landed at Lyons Brewing and Distilling, then Garrard County Distilling – but neither place stuck. What was that period like for you?
For a minute I was thinking: “Maybe the universe is telling me I’m not supposed to be in the industry anymore.” One night in January, I woke up and thought: “I want to start over.” My career has been such a whirlwind but I’ve always loved the hands-on part. There are days where I’m like: “Gosh, I wish I could just go make some whiskey today.” I thought about it for a few days. What would I do if I left the industry? What am I supposed to be doing if it’s not this? And then I woke up another day, like: “No, this is it.” And then I met [Whisky Thief owner] Walter [Zausch].
In June, you were announced as the director of distilling. What have the early days been like?
I’m certainly not starting over, but I’m hands-on, and I’m enjoying that. We’re so small, we’re distilling 24 hours a day, and I’ve already had the opportunity to get myself dirty. I absolutely love it. It’s feeding what I need in sharing my experience. It’s feeding my basic distilling needs. I’ve learned I truly love this industry, and I’ve always said that and felt it. When things weren’t going well, I still loved it.
Was there any hesitation to commit yourself full time again?
My word was ‘skittish’. I had several projects, so I didn’t go out looking for something. I settled into consulting, and that’s always fun to do, because I get to see what other people are doing, and how they’ve approached it. The downturn is giving some people an opportunity to take care of things that they hadn’t taken care of because the business was so crazy for so long. So now they’re going back and reevaluating. At Widow Jane, I started as a consultant and worked my way into a full-time position. This company, the same thing happened, but before I started it became a permanent position, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I have to be careful about making comparisons to Widow Jane, but it is virtually the same size as when I started there. So we’ve got all the runway.
What have you learned about the industry these past three years?
The industry is resilient. We open up the news and it’s doom and gloom, but there was also 3% growth in the US last year.
The industry needed to have this course correction. My attorney labelled them Bourbon carpet baggers – the people that saw dollars, and started “flipping Beanie Babies”, and saw quick cash in it. This is going to weed out everyone that isn’t absolutely dedicated. I love this business, but I don’t hate seeing that part of it at all. The industry will survive. It always has. It survived Prohibition, right?
You like to go fishing when you’re not working or with family. What is your go-to whiskey in that setting?
Oh my gosh, you’re going to laugh. I have a bottle stashed with a friend and it’s [Jim Beam] Old Tub. It depends on what kind of mood I’m in. I have this friend’s shelf in Bardstown. So I’ll pull something off of it, maybe something from Bardstown distillery, Wilderness Trail, or Milam & Greene. I’ve got Michter’s. I’ve got some Boondocks. That shelf is only for people whose phone numbers I have in my phone. So I’ve taken a mixture of those types of things. Last time I took three bottles of Whiskey Thief. These guys that I’m fishing with, they’re all going to come on a field trip out to the distillery together. I’m looking forward to that, although they probably don’t need to tell a bunch of stories in front of my employees.
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