Bill & Carol Foley and their daughter Courtney run the Foley Family operations.  Bill is a WestPoint graduate who started Fidelity Investments.  Years ago, he fell in love with Chardonnay and started their wine investments.  Currently, this includes 8 wineries in Sonoma, 3 in Napa, 5 on the Central Coast of California and 2 in the Pacific Northwest.  They also own Foley Entertainment Group which owns, among other entities, the Vegas Golden Knights.  They live in Nevada (closer to Las Vegas).  Their motto is BHAG - Big Hairy Audacious Goals.  When the family invests, they invest in the land, the building and the community.

 

The name of the distillery is "at the heart of what the Foleys want to bring - a community place".  The Foley Family purchased the Distillery property, inventory and existing distillery license from Chris Bently in 2023 after he closed it in 2022.  They did not purchase the property where the grain and corn are grown, but that purchase is on the table.  They do have a 5-year contract to purchase the corn grown on the property - continuing with their "locally sourced" philosophy (and Nevada state requirement).  

 

The soft opening occurred in August with a manageable 85 attendees.  The hard opening was far beyond expectations with over 700 attending.  The confirmed attendance for the hard opening went from 300 to nearly 700 over the Labor Day weekend - just one week before the launch.  Elaine reached out to the community for extra help (staff, food, floral, etc.) and was so impressed with the local community support.

 

Education and Good Service are Elaine's key philosophies to operations at the Distillery. They are open from 2-8pm Thursday - Sunday.   Currently, the first floor is the retail space (wine, spirits, merchandise) and the location to sign up for the tour and/or tasting.  At this point, the largest group for a tour is 12 and tours are at 2pm, 4pm and 6pm.  They are working on expanding the number of tours.  Tours cost $10 and tastings are $20.   The second floor is the location of the Heritage Bar, in keeping with the tradition of the past owner and creator (Bently Heritage Estate Distillery).  Reservations are suggested as only 30% of the space is reserved for walk-ins.  The third floor, the Society Space, is for wine tastings currently and eventually beer.

 

The first cook on the copper stills since the distillery was closed occurred last Thursday.  The Bentley distiller, Johnny Jeffries has been employed through the closing and new ownership.  A new distiller is on board as well.  In addition to the Bourbon, Rye and Single Malt Whiskeys, they will also offer Gin and Vodka.  There is currently no food service, and they are actively hiring tour guides and beverage servers.  They kept 12 employees on the production side as well as 2 other employees.

 

For more information on Foley Family Wines, check out this LINK {input www.foleyfamilywines.com}

 

 

 

Elaine is the Pacific Northwest Director of Guest Services for Foley Family Wines.  Elaine moved to the Carson Valley on July 4th of this year from Oregon.  She grew up in Sacramento and attended Chico State.  Ownership of several restaurants kept her busy after graduation.  She then started at Foley Family Wines and oversaw the Oregon and Washington operations until she moved to our area in 2023.  She appreciates how welcoming everyone has been.