Sazerac reportedly buys into Garrard County Distilling
Kentucky-based Garrard County Distilling Co, which entered receivership last year, has sold its multi-million-dollar debt to a company allegedly linked to Sazerac.
Garrard County Distilling announced in January 2024 that it had started production as the largest independently owned distillery in Kentucky.
However, in April 2025, the business was placed into receivership after Truist Bank took Garrard County to court for a debt that totalled approximately US$26 million.
The latest development in the case saw a company called Tom Collins Distilling enter into an agreement to purchase all of Truist Bank’s loan to Garrard County Distilling on 6 March 2026. The court motion did not disclose the total of the debt purchased by Tom Collins Distilling.
Tom Collins Distilling is listed at the same address as Sazerac’s corporate headquarters, located in Linn Station Road, Louisville.
It was also directed to the attention of Joshua Lembrich, who is thought to be Sazerac’s vice-president of M&A (mergers and acquisitions) and FP&A (financial planning and analysis).
Buffalo Trace owner Sazerac has not confirmed the affiliation and said in a statement: “As a privately-owned company, we decline to comment.”
The US spirits firm has a significant presence in Kentucky. Sazerac’s operations in the state include Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Glenmore Distillery in Owensboro, and Barton 1792 Distillery in Bardstown.
Failure to pay debts
Garrard County Distilling’s financial problems went public when Truist Bank filed an emergency motion for the appointment of a receiver in April 2025, which was granted.
At the time, Truist Bank claimed in the legal filing that the company’s “poor performance” was backed by its failure to meet the minimum year-to-date consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), and its inability to pay taxes and other dues owed to contractors, which led to million-dollar liens placed on the property.
In addition, Truist alleged that Garrard County Distilling’s operations had entirely stopped, meaning that the value of its assets is “unquestionably and rapidly diminishing” and would cause “direct and equivocal harm” to Truist.
Garrard County Distilling was launched on a US$250m campus capable of producing 8.5m proof gallons or 150,000 barrels of whiskey a year. Its opening also marked the first commercial distillery in Garrard County since the 1800s.
The distillery’s parent company, Staghorn, was founded in 2018 by Ray Franklin. He left the business in November 2024 to join digital barrel exchange platform Spirits Capital.
Garrard County Distilling had also appointed Lisa Wicker from Kentucky whiskey maker Widow Jane as its master distiller in February 2024. She also departed the debt-ridden distillery, joining another Kentucky producer, Whiskey Thief Distilling Co, last year.
Franklin, through his new spirits company Blackstar, saved New York’s Black Button Distilling from bankruptcy in September last year. It was said at the time that all nine full-time employees at the company had been maintained. However two months later the company made “necessary” job cuts.
Blackstar was co-founded by Kris Comstock, who spent nearly two decades at Sazerac, most recently as vice-president of marketing for premium whiskey. He left the US spirits firm in January 2021 after 18 years, according to his LinkedIn page.
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