I didn't plan any of this.

Late summer of 2023, I was still finding my footing with the tasting business. I didn't have a huge social media following, but I posted consistently — what I was drinking, reviews, what I was learning. That built a small presence around South Carolina. While I was on a barrel pick at High Wire Distilling, I was finally able to meet Scott Blackwell and Ann Marshall, the owners, and Alexander Helms, who was the head distiller at the time.

That day, Scott and Ann asked me about hosting tastings for retail events. Two or three weeks later I was back at the distillery for their ten-year anniversary event, and they introduced me to their national sales manager, Jay Liddell, who taught me a lot — I still call him or send him a message when I need advice.

Scott, Ann, and Alexander have played a pivotal part in my growth in the industry. Ann laid the foundation and helped to set the standards that I run my own tasting company by. She is a guiding hand that keeps the compass positioned on the brand they have built. Scott and Alexander are always willing to answer whatever I throw at them, and with my bourbon nerd mindset, that can be a lot. They will dig through spreadsheets to track down a barrel type or a farm location from a single barrel or batch number — no question too small to satisfy my constant thirst for knowledge around our beautiful Jimmy Red corn.

High Wire was the first distillery that gave me a chance — even though I didn't have any formal industry experience at that point. That meant a lot.

After that, I started consulting for a new NDP out of South Carolina — Alvin Langston. They had been on shelves for about six months at that point, with their Contrary Cow Dark Chocolate Whiskey as the main product. They wanted to do more single barrel business, and I came in to help make that happen.

What started as a five-week consulting engagement has grown into an ongoing relationship. I've completed several single barrel picks with them, launched the Poppie Collection — a series built in collaboration with Clemson women's basketball coach Shawn Poppie — and launched my own Vault Collection through them as well.

From there, I picked up a contract with Broad Branch Distillery for retail and sales support. Anna Windham and Natalie Spinosa were my biggest support through that stretch — their encouragement and belief in me gave me the strength to keep pushing toward building something of my own. This was the moment things shifted, not just in the volume of work, but in what it represented. Brands were reaching out. The reputation I had been quietly building was starting to open doors I hadn't knocked on. Bourbon at Tiffany's was becoming exactly what I had hoped it could be.