RNDC Bankruptcy: Chapter 11 Filing, Whiskey Distributor

MGP's second-quarter fiscal 2026 results, released July 31, showed Distilling Solutions — the bulk whiskey supply business that built the company — falling 42% to $29.2 million, while overall company sales dropped 15% and adjusted EBITDA fell 23% to $27.6 million (MGP Ingredients Q2 earnings release, July 31, 2026) [3].

Inside the weaker Branded Spirits segment, which held nearly flat at $59.6 million, Penelope Bourbon kept climbing — up 13% for the quarter after a 92% surge in 2025 that carried it to 133,000 cases [3].

CEO Julie Francis said the results reflect "continued momentum in our premium-plus portfolio... even as we continue to navigate a challenging industry backdrop," a fairly direct admission that one growing brand is now doing more work than the segment average suggests [3].

The gap between Penelope's growth rate and the Distilling Solutions decline is the clearest data point yet that the bulk-whiskey glut driving down contract-distilling demand hasn't touched the premium branded shelf in the same way.

Garrison Brothers Distillery opened its first-ever pre-sale on July 27, offering Hye Rye Bourbon Whiskey at $99.99 a bottle, with the window running through August 10 on the distillery's own site (Garrison Brothers pre-sale announcement, July 27, 2026) [4].

The structure is unusual even by allocated-bourbon standards: every bottle must be collected in person at the Hye, Texas distillery in October 2028, shipping isn't an option under any circumstance, and buyers are capped at four bottles each with all sales final [4].

The whiskey is built from a 52% corn, 37% organic rye, 11% malted barley mash bill and will bottle at 98 proof (49% ABV) — a return engagement for a recipe that first debuted in December 2020, so this isn't a blind bet on an unproven expression [4].

Locking in today's price against more than two years of future barrel aging, market shifts, and inflation is a real bet on both sides of the transaction.

Old Elk Distillery, acquired by Ohio's Middle West Spirits in May 2025, released its first major collection under new ownership on July 28: a 10-Year Straight Bourbon, a 10-Year Straight Wheat Whiskey, and a 10-Year Wheated Bourbon, each priced at $69.99 and shipped nationwide (Old Elk release specifications, July 29, 2026) [5].

The Straight Bourbon runs 51% corn, 34% malted barley, and 15% rye at 52.5% ABV; the Wheated Bourbon swaps in 46% wheat at the same 52.5% ABV; the Straight Wheat Whiskey is nearly all wheat at 96%, bottled at 51.5% ABV [5].

Old Elk's chief commercial officer, Luis Gonzalez, framed the simultaneous release as a statement of intent for the brand's post-acquisition direction, tying the trio's shared age and price point to a deliberate invitation for drinkers to compare mash bill families side by side rather than treat any one bottle as the flagship [5].

One camp argues this is a genuine shock to the distribution layer — a wholesaler moving billions in product winding down operations means real disruption in whichever states it served exclusively, regardless of the carve-outs.

The other camp points to the extensive list of excluded territories — Georgia, New Mexico, and joint ventures across six additional states — as evidence the practical damage will be narrow and regional, not a national bottleneck.

RNDC's July 26 Chapter 11 filing lists between $1 billion and $10 billion in liabilities against more than 100,000 creditors, with National Distributing Company (Georgia, New Mexico) and joint ventures in New York, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Kentucky excluded from the filing; only the Alaska joint venture is included, and existing lenders have committed financing to keep remaining operations running through the process (RNDC Chapter 11 filing, July 26, 2026) [9].

The carve-out list does most of the work here — RNDC structured its recent divestitures specifically to insulate its largest and most contested territories before this filing became public, which suggests the wind-down was planned rather than sudden.

The states left inside the filing will see real short-term shelf disruption as buyers are sought for remaining operations, but the three-tier system's redundancy (multiple distributors per state in most markets) means this reads as a company failure more than a systemic one — for now.

One camp reads MGP's Q2 numbers as proof the company successfully pivoted from bulk supplier to brand owner just in time — Penelope's sustained double-digit growth after a 92% 2025 surge looks like a genuine second business, not a fluke.

The skeptical camp notes overall Branded Spirits sales were still down 1%, and a 42% drop in Distilling Solutions — MGP's historic core — is a company-wide problem that one growing brand can't offset on its own.

MGP's Q2 FY2026 results show Branded Spirits sales of $59.6 million (down 1% overall), Distilling Solutions down 42% to $29.2 million, total company sales down 15%, and adjusted EBITDA down 23% to $27.6 million; Penelope grew 13% for the quarter after reaching 133,000 cases in 2025, a 92% year-over-year gain (MGP Ingredients Q2 earnings release, July 31, 2026) [6].

The math favors the skeptics on scale but the optimists on direction.

Penelope's growth is real and durable-looking across two consecutive periods, not a one-quarter blip, but it remains far too small to offset a 42% collapse in the segment that built MGP's business — this is a company genuinely reshaping itself around branded spirits, not yet a company that has finished the transition.

One camp treats Chevalier Casks' launch as hard confirmation that surplus aging inventory has become a widespread enough problem to support a dedicated online exchange — distilleries wouldn't need a formal marketplace if warehouses weren't genuinely overfull.

The other camp points out that bulk barrel trading between distilleries and bottlers has existed informally for decades, and a slicker interface with anonymized listings doesn't necessarily mean the underlying volume of surplus barrels is larger than before.

Chevalier Casks launched August 1, 2026 out of Midway, Kentucky, founded by Coby Adkins, Ben Franzini, and Sam Rock; the platform offers Buy Now listings, direct offers, negotiated sales, and timed auctions, and it temporarily takes title to inventory to preserve buyer-seller anonymity while handling bonded warehouse transfers and regulatory compliance (Chevalier Casks launch announcement, August 1, 2026) [8].

Both things can be true — informal bulk trading has always existed, but the decision to build dedicated auction infrastructure with anonymity protections and warehouse-transfer handling is itself a bet that transaction volume is about to increase meaningfully.

A new exchange doesn't create a glut, but launching one right now, in the same week as MGP's 42% Distilling Solutions decline, is a reasonable signal that the market for moving aging barrels off someone else's balance sheet is getting busier, not quieter.

July 27 through August 10, 2026; pickup required in Hye, Texas in October 2028

Garrison Brothers' first-ever pre-sale locks in today's price against roughly two years of aging and market movement, and the mash bill is a return engagement for an expression that already has a track record from its December 2020 debut (Garrison Brothers pre-sale announcement, July 27, 2026) [16].

Ohio Department of Commerce "Exploration Commerce" booth, Bricker Marketplace building, Ohio State Fair, Columbus

This is the last day to enter Ohio Liquor's annual fairgrounds lottery for a chance to buy Buffalo Trace's Stagg Single Barrel Bourbon, a free-entry mechanism that requires nothing more than a fairgrounds visit before the window closes tonight (Ohio State Fair bottle lottery structure, accessed August 2026) [17].

On sale now, since August 1, 2026, while supplies last (approximately 100 bottles)

A cask-strength single barrel drawn from Warehouse 2 and sold only at the Huber family's Indiana distillery for its 25th anniversary — no lottery, no allocation letter, just a drive to Borden (Starlight Distillery 25th-anniversary announcement, August 1, 2026) [18].

Stranahan's distillery, Denver, Colorado; retail expanding to California, Texas, Florida; nationwide shipping where legal

Colorado's first Bottled-in-Bond release, timed to Colorado Day and distilled entirely within a single 2015 season, remains available through the distillery's own site as it expands into new states this month (Stranahan's Bottled-in-Bond launch, August 1, 2026) [19].

With a little over a month left before Labor Day, the 150 winners of this lottery are on the clock to actually complete their purchase in person or forfeit the bottle entirely, making this the week to act if you're holding a winning ticket (13th Colony lottery redemption structure, accessed July 2026) [20].

Bib & Tucker released its first Bottled-in-Bond bourbon this window, an 8-year-old Tennessee high-rye distilled at Tennessee Distilling Group in Columbia, Tennessee (DSP-TN-21029) from a spring 2018 distillation run (Bib & Tucker BiB release announcement, August 1, 2026) [21].

The whiskey clears the Bottled-in-Bond Act's four-year minimum by a full four years and lands at the mandated 100 proof, priced at $64.99 for a 750mL bottle [21].

Bib & Tucker charcoal-mellows the whiskey through the Lincoln County Process and applies only minimal non-chill filtration before bottling in new American oak-finished packaging [21].

The release already carries third-party validation: a gold medal and 92-point score at the 2026 San Francisco World Spirits Competition (Bib & Tucker BiB release announcement, August 1, 2026) [21]. National distribution begins in September to coincide with National Bourbon Month, with the bottle also listed on ReserveBar.com [21].

Suntory-owned Old Overholt cleared its fourth annual Extra Aged Cask Strength release, an 11-year-old unfiltered rye distilled and barreled in spring 2014 (Old Overholt Extra Aged Cask Strength release, July 31, 2026) [22].

The whiskey aged across three separate warehouses at the Clermont, Kentucky campus before bottling at 125.6 proof, and arrives in limited quantities at $109.99 for a 750mL bottle [22].

This marks the fourth consecutive year the brand — which dates to 1810 — has issued a cask-strength extra-aged expression, establishing the release as an annual fixture rather than a one-off [22].

Peoria, Illinois-based BLACK BAND Distillery cleared labels on three whiskeys as part of a new exclusive sales partnership with Pound & Penny Spirits, the brand-incubator platform launched by Virginia Distillery Co. earlier in 2026 (Pound & Penny/BLACK BAND partnership announcement, July 31, 2026) [23].

The core BLACK BAND Bourbon is built from a 64% corn, 29% rye, 7% malted barley mash bill at 46% ABV, priced at $49.99 SRP [23].

A Four Grain Bourbon lists at $54.99 SRP, and a 100% rye-mash Straight Rye — also $54.99 SRP — is bottled at 50% ABV [23].

All three labels carry USDA Organic and OU Kosher certification, and the lineup has already collected Double Gold and Gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition plus two 2026 ASCOT Best in Category awards [23].

BLACK BAND, founded by Chris Ober, opened in 2021 as Peoria's first craft distillery since Prohibition [23]. Pound & Penny will now handle sales strategy, distributor development, national accounts, and marketing for the full BLACK BAND portfolio, including its liqueur line [23].

The Four Grain Bourbon entry in BLACK BAND's newly expanded lineup — priced at $54.99 SRP — was named in the same July 31 announcement as the brand's core bourbon and rye but without a confirmed retail rollout map beyond the partnership disclosure itself (Pound & Penny/BLACK BAND partnership announcement, July 31, 2026) [23]. Distribution timing and initial state markets have not yet been specified.

Kentucky-based brokerage Chevalier Casks went live August 1, 2026 with an online exchange for distilleries, brand owners, and bottlers to buy and sell whiskey barrels, bulk spirits, and cooperage (Chevalier Casks launch announcement, August 1, 2026) [24].

Headquartered in Midway, Kentucky, and founded by Coby Adkins, Ben Franzini, and Sam Rock — also co-founder and first distiller of Bluegrass Distillers — the platform supports Buy Now listings, direct offers, negotiated sales, and timed auction-style Timed Sales [24].

Chevalier temporarily takes title to inventory during transactions to preserve buyer-seller anonymity, and handles ownership verification, bonded warehouse transfers, contracts, payment, and regulatory compliance [24].

Ohio Liquor's State Fair bottle lottery for Buffalo Trace's Stagg Single Barrel Bourbon closes entries today, August 3, with winners announced August 8 (Ohio State Fair bottle lottery structure, accessed August 1, 2026) [25].

Stagg Single Barrel bottles won through state lotteries are purchased at standard OHLQ pricing rather than secondary rates, which is precisely what makes the lottery mechanism valuable against a secondary market where Stagg-family releases routinely trade at multiples of shelf price.

Because this specific single-barrel lottery pool has no realized secondary sales yet — the bottles haven't been distributed to winners — there is no audit-ready realized price or floor-erosion calculation to run this window.

The entry is included here as a market-structure marker: it is the access point that determines whether a buyer pays state-set retail or eventual secondary premium for a Stagg-family bottle.

The VAREP Central Kentucky Chapter's veterans' charity raffle, run with Elizabethtown nonprofit Give 270, is offering Buffalo Trace's Double Eagle Very Rare 20 Year as its grand prize, alongside bonus prizes including a bottle of Eagle Rare BTAC 17 Year, two bottles of Eagle Rare 12 Year, and six bottles of Eagle Rare 10 Year (VAREP Central Kentucky raffle announcement, accessed August 1, 2026) [26].

Only 500 tickets are being sold at $100 each through bourbonraffles.org, with no purchase limit per person, and the live drawing is set for August 26 [26].

Double Eagle Very Rare rarely appears in secondary channels at all — Buffalo Trace has released it in extremely small numbers as a top-tier collector item packaged in a silver box with crystal decanter and sculpted eagle glasswork.

A $100 entry fee against a prize this scarce compresses the effective floor-to-entry ratio well below what secondary buyers typically pay for comparable Buffalo Trace ultra-premium releases, though the raffle's odds — a maximum of 500 entries against one grand prize — mean the effective expected value differs sharply from a guaranteed purchase.

The 13th Colony Double Oaked Single Barrel Bourbon at the center of this window's active lottery redemption — an 11-year-old bottled at 141.6 proof — is described by the distillery as only the second time this single-barrel offering has ever been made available (13th Colony lottery redemption structure, accessed August 1, 2026) [27].

With 150 winners still working through a purchase window that runs to September 5, no realized secondary sales exist yet to audit, and no peak-price comparison can be calculated responsibly.

The entry is flagged here rather than fully graded because a genuinely scarce, high-proof single barrel with only one prior release for comparison is exactly the kind of bottle likely to generate secondary activity once winners begin claiming and, in some cases, reselling bottles after the September 5 deadline passes.

Republic National Distributing Company filed a voluntary Chapter 11 petition on July 26, 2026 in the U.S.

Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, listing liabilities between $1 billion and $10 billion against more than 100,000 creditors (RNDC Chapter 11 filing, July 26, 2026) [28].

RNDC is one of the two largest wine-and-spirits distributors in the country, and the filing initiates an orderly wind-down of its remaining operations rather than a reorganization aimed at continuing as a going concern (RNDC Chapter 11 filing, July 26, 2026) [28].

The wind-down scope matters more than the headline number.

National Distributing Company's Georgia and New Mexico operations, along with joint ventures spanning New York, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky, are explicitly excluded from the filing; only the Alaska joint venture is included in the Chapter 11 estate (RNDC Chapter 11 filing, July 26, 2026) [29].

That carve-out protects the Kentucky distribution joint venture — the pipeline that moves a meaningful share of allocated bourbon into that state's retail network — from the immediate legal exposure, though the parent company's collapse still reshapes the counterparty landscape around it.

Proximo Spirits is the largest unsecured creditor at $94 million, with Delicato Family Wines second at $14 million (RNDC Chapter 11 filing, July 26, 2026) [28].

RNDC says a financing commitment from existing lenders will fund operations through the bankruptcy process, and the company points to prior divestitures — 2024 revenue exceeded $11 billion before those sales — as having preserved more than 5,000 jobs already (RNDC Chapter 11 filing, July 26, 2026) [29].

MGP Ingredients reported second-quarter fiscal 2026 results on July 31, showing its Branded Spirits segment down just 1% year-over-year to $59.6 million, while its Distilling Solutions segment — the bulk-whiskey and contract-distilling business that built the company — fell 42% to $29.2 million (MGP Ingredients Q2 earnings release, July 31, 2026) [30].

Overall company sales declined 15%, and adjusted EBITDA dropped to $27.6 million (MGP Ingredients Q2 earnings release, July 31, 2026) [30].

Inside the Branded Spirits number, the split is stark. Premium-plus brands grew 5% in sales, led by Penelope Bourbon's 13% quarterly gain, which follows a 92% full-year 2025 increase to 133,000 cases (MGP Ingredients Q2 earnings release, July 31, 2026) [30].

CEO Julie Francis characterized the results as reflecting "continued momentum in our premium-plus portfolio ... even as we continue to navigate a challenging industry backdrop" (MGP Ingredients Q2 earnings release, July 31, 2026) [30].

Chevalier Casks, a Kentucky-based brokerage headquartered in Midway, launched an online exchange on August 1, 2026 that lets distilleries, brand owners, and bottlers buy and sell whiskey barrels, bulk spirits, and cooperage through fixed listings, direct offers, negotiated sales, and timed auctions (Chevalier Casks launch announcement, August 1, 2026) [31].

The platform was founded by Coby Adkins, Ben Franzini, and Sam Rock, the latter also a co-founder and former distiller at Bluegrass Distillers (Chevalier Casks launch announcement, August 1, 2026) [31].

The mechanics are built around anonymity and compliance: Chevalier temporarily takes title to inventory during transactions to keep buyers and sellers from identifying one another, and it handles ownership verification, bonded warehouse transfers, contracts, payment, and regulatory compliance directly (Chevalier Casks launch announcement, August 1, 2026) [31].

The company also connects clients to financing, bonded warehousing, bottling, packaging, and logistics partners — positioning itself as infrastructure for the industry's current supply overhang rather than a one-off marketplace (Chevalier Casks launch announcement, August 1, 2026) [31].

Pound & Penny Spirits, the brand-incubator sales platform Virginia Distillery Co. launched earlier in 2026, named Peoria, Illinois-based BLACK BAND Distillery as its exclusive bourbon-category partner on July 31, 2026 (Pound & Penny partnership announcement, July 31, 2026) [32].

Pound & Penny will manage sales strategy, distributor development, national accounts, and marketing for BLACK BAND's bourbon, rye, and liqueur lineup (Pound & Penny partnership announcement, July 31, 2026) [32].

BLACK BAND, founded by Chris Ober and opened in 2021 as Peoria's first craft distillery since Prohibition, produces a $49.99 bourbon (64% corn, 29% rye, 7% malted barley, 46% ABV), a $54.99 four-grain bourbon, and a $54.99 straight rye at 50% ABV; all three lines are USDA Organic and OU Kosher certified and have won Double Gold and Gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition (Pound & Penny partnership announcement, July 31, 2026) [32].

Pound & Penny's existing portfolio otherwise centers on Cierto Tequila, and the platform says it is actively seeking additional bourbon, gin, rum, and international whiskey brands (Pound & Penny partnership announcement, July 31, 2026) [32].

Brown-Forman's board rejected a renewed acquisition approach from Sazerac Company on July 26, 2026, calling the bid "not actionable" (Reuters, July 26, 2026) [33].

Sazerac's July 24 letter restated the identical $32-per-share, roughly $15 billion all-cash structure the board had already rejected in May, rather than presenting a revised figure (Reuters, July 26, 2026) [33].

The board's position rests on the Brown family's controlling Class A shares, held through Wolf Pen Branch LP, which give the family unilateral authority over any sale regardless of the price offered to other shareholders (Reuters, July 26, 2026) [33].

This follows Brown-Forman's own decision on April 28, 2026 to end separate "merger of equals" discussions with Pernod Ricard.

BLACK BAND Distillery, founded by Chris Ober in Peoria, Illinois in 2021 as the city's first craft distillery since Prohibition, signed on July 31, 2026 as the exclusive bourbon-category partner for Virginia Distillery Co.'s Pound & Penny sales platform (Pound & Penny partnership announcement, July 31, 2026) [32].

The distillery's lineup — a $49.99 core bourbon, a $54.99 four-grain bourbon, and a $54.99 straight rye — is USDA Organic and OU Kosher certified, with Double Gold and Gold medals from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and two 2026 ASCOT Best in Category awards (Pound & Penny partnership announcement, July 31, 2026) [32].

For a distillery that opened five years ago in a market with no recent craft-spirits history, national sales infrastructure from an established Virginia producer is a meaningful jump in reach without BLACK BAND having to build its own distributor network from scratch.

Still Austin Whiskey Co. unveiled plans for the Still Austin Quarter, a 15,000-square-foot hospitality venue at 4211 Willow Springs Road in South Austin, set to open in September 2026 (Still Austin Quarter announcement, accessed August 1, 2026) [34].

The space combines an atrium, a "Vinyl Lounge," a live-music room engineered by acoustician Steven Durr, and private event space, with capacity for roughly 500 guests across indoor and outdoor seating (Still Austin Quarter announcement, accessed August 1, 2026) [34].

The beverage program centers on Still Austin's own spirits alongside house-made aperitifs, amaros, and herbal liqueurs.

Bib & Tucker released its first Bottled-in-Bond bourbon, an 8-year-old Tennessee high-rye distilled at Tennessee Distilling Group in Columbia, Tennessee (DSP-TN-21029) in spring 2018 (Bib & Tucker BiB release specifications, accessed August 1, 2026) [35].

At 100 proof and $64.99 for a 750mL bottle, the whiskey is charcoal-mellowed via the Lincoln County Process and aged twice the four-year minimum the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 requires (Bib & Tucker BiB release specifications, accessed August 1, 2026) [35].

It won a gold medal and scored 92 points at the 2026 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, and national rollout begins in September to coincide with National Bourbon Month, alongside sales through ReserveBar.com (Bib & Tucker BiB release specifications, accessed August 1, 2026) [35].

Three distinct regional moves this window — Illinois craft distribution, Texas hospitality expansion, Tennessee regulatory credentialing — point to the same underlying pressure: smaller producers building alternate revenue and access paths (sales partnerships, destination venues, federal transparency labels) precisely as the traditional wholesale layer is contracting.