Spirits

Spirits Overview

Located in the heart of bourbon country, Estes Public Relations knows a thing or two about making your product stand out to consumers. As seasoned storytellers, we pride ourselves on delivering the most effective publicity for your brand. Raise a glass and let us show you what we can do.

Services

Experience

Jamie Estes and her team of PR specialists have an outstanding record in the PR spirit sector, successfully implementing dozens of media relations campaigns focused on brand awareness and business growth for some of the most renowned liquor brands in the world.

Clients Past + Present:

New Riff Distilling

When New Riff launched in 2014, founder Ken Lewis had a vision to create one of the great small, independently owned distilleries in the world. He wanted to create a “new riff” on an old tradition — that is, staying true to the rigorous standards of bottled-in-bond bourbon made with traditional sour mash methods while innovating what went into (and came out of) the still. The company focuses on bourbon, rye and gin at its distillery in Newport, Ky.

Estes Public Relations has worked alongside New Riff since 2020 to build brand awareness, promote 15 new products (as of April 2024), highlight distillery innovation, share news of distillery expansion and renovations, and celebrate the founder’s retirement and succession plan.

Nationally, EPR focuses on placements that highlight New Riff’s products and the distillery’s passion for innovative mashbills. That includes telling the brand story and highlighting specific products in reviews, buying guides and cocktails. In the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky media market, EPR targets media outlets to provide information about new product releases and upcoming events at the distillery. The local market is also particularly interested in personnel announcements and news about distillery expansions and renovations.

Each year, EPR has generated hundreds of media mentions for New Riff across a variety of outlets and target audiences. In 2023, EPR’s strategic media relations plan included six product launches — spring and fall limited High Note duo releases, Silver Grove bourbon, and the inaugural Sour Mash Single Malt — each of which included a press release distributed to a targeted media list; a curated list of media to receive samples; coordination of additional interviews, information and photos; and monitoring of placements across print, digital, broadcast, podcasts, social media and more. New Riff’s new products garnered 75 media mentions including in Men’s Journal, UPROXX, Paste and Whisky Magazine.

Additionally in 2023, EPR worked with New Riff to place an embargoed story with American Whiskey Magazine announcing founder Ken Lewis’ retirement and the leadership team succeeding him. American Whiskey Magazine had an exclusive on the news, which was announced publicly after the story went live online and in print. Following the announcement, EPR worked on additional story placements around the leadership transition throughout the year including with Cincinnati Business Courier, The Spirits Business, Craft Spirits Magazine (digital and podcast) and Beverage Dynamics.

And, 2023 and into 2024 saw the first major renovation to New Riff’s public-facing spaces, including an all-new gift shop and welcome center and a complete overhaul of the distillery’s third floor to create a modern tasting and cocktail bar, The Aquifer. EPR helped share these announcements and coordinated media visits to the new spaces, yielding placements with Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati Business Courier, BevNET, Whiskey Raiders, LinkNKY and on Fred Minnick’s site.

Whiskey House of Kentucky

With nearly a decade-long relationship of partnering on prolific, award-winning Kentucky bourbon projects, Whiskey House of Kentucky CEO and co-founder David Mandell retained Estes Public Relations’ services again in 2023 to generate local, regional and national media coverage around the initial pre-opening announcement of Whiskey House, and its significant economic growth impact over the next four years.

Located on an impressive 176-acre campus in Elizabethtown, Whiskey House was founded in 2022 by David Mandell, John Hargrove and Daniel Linde, and officially commenced operations on July 1, 2024. As the first distillery designed from the ground up to focus solely on large-scale, flexible, contract whiskey production, Whiskey House has no brands of its own and a campus closed to the public.

Estes Public Relations developed and launched a pre-opening campaign that included a press release announcement, targeted media pitching and an exclusive first look feature in Forbes. Estes Public Relations coordinated and secured an in-person media visit from Forbes, facilitated travel and hotel accommodations, and provided additional information needed to secure the exclusive.

Estes Public Relations also planned and executed a press launch event that included developing the event run of show; creating and distributing targeted invitations; coordinating media interviews with the executive team and providing on-site support to facilitate all logistics before, during and after the event.

More than 150 people attended the ceremony, including customers, community members, government and tourism officials, and local, regional and national spirits and business media. Attendees had the opportunity to meet the Whiskey House team and learn more about the new, state-of-the-art distillery and its plans for growth. In addition to the exclusive first look in Forbes, Estes Public Relations also secured relevant local, regional and national coverage across print, broadcast and digital platforms including The News Enterprise, Lexington Herald-Leader, Louisville Business First, WHAS, WDRB, WLKY, Whisky Advocate, Shanken News Daily and others, as well additional coverage in several notable industry podcasts, blogs and social media channels.

Estes Public Relations continued to secure additional placements following the event, including a follow-up exclusive in Forbes once the distillery commenced operations on July 1, 2024. Estes Public Relations coordinated and secured another in-person media visit from Forbes, facilitated travel and hotel accommodations and provided additional information needed to secure the follow-up feature.

Copper & Kings Distillery

In 2014, Copper & Kings opened a distillery in Louisville’s Butchertown neighborhood — in the heart of Bourbon Country. But they weren’t making bourbon. Copper & Kings launched a new market segment with its line of American Brandies, later adding gin, absinthe, liqueurs and condiments.

From 2014 to 2019, Estes Public Relations worked alongside Copper & Kings as an extension of their company to build brand awareness; promote more than 15 new products; support expansion into new markets; encourage locals & visitors to tour the distillery and award-winning upstairs bar, ALEX&NDER; and promote countless local, regional and national sponsorships, campaigns and events.

One of EPR’s biggest PR tactics to grow Copper & Kings was through earned media placements in both national and local media — not just in Louisville but in all of Copper & Kings’ 36 markets. EPR focused on placements for new products, local and regional events, as well as promoting the distillery as a tourism destination, and upstairs bar, ALEX&NDER as a must-visit hotspot. EPR also leveraged opportunities for key team members to be expert resources for trends and industry profile pieces.

EPR secured more than 300 earned media mentions for Copper & Kings, including prominent national placements in: MSN.com, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, FoodNetwork.com, Thrillist, Esquire, Fortune, The Daily Beast, UPROXX and more. The robust media relations campaign helped the distillery’s overall growth, which led to Constellation Brands Ventures acquiring the brand in 2020 after being a minority stakeholder for several years