A community business
Jackson Purchase Distillery is a good neighbor
SEVEN YEARS AGO, longtime friends Lloyd Jones and David Salmon drove by a distillery they thought had never made a drop of bourbon, though it was equipped with a 34-foot, 24-inch all copper Vendome still.
The distillery owner was Ray Jamieson, who had intended to use it as a hobby. Jones and Salmon bought the distillery and officially took possession of it on April 1, 2021.
Within 103 days, Jackson Purchase Distillery started distilling bourbon. By August, they were putting it in barrels.
“It’s just one of these magical things that happens, and how lucky can it be that the bourbon boom is going on, and you’ve got a distillery there that’s got a capacity for basically 20,000 barrels of production,” Jones, the CEO and president, says. Salmon is the company’s chief operating officer.
Jackson Purchase Distillery, served by Gibson Electric, is in Hickman, where the aging process of whiskey is unique. Jones says the climate in Western Kentucky is wetter and more humid, allowing whiskey to age more rapidly.
In addition, the area sits atop one of the world’s largest water aquifers, Jones says.
“We’re an agricultural business; everything we do is related to farming,” he says. “We fortunately have a good group of people down in Fulton County.”
“Strong local businesses are vital to the communities we call home,” says Charles Phillips, Gibson Electric and Gibson Connect president and CEO. “We’re grateful for the investment Jackson Purchase Distillery has made in Western Kentucky and pleased to provide the electric, internet and phone services that help support their operation.”
Jackson Purchase Distillery Master Distiller Craig Beam, a seventh-generation distiller of 40 years and kin to Jim Beam, says almost all the grain, corn, wheat and rye are purchased from local farmers, which, after use, goes right back into the farming industry as cattle feed.
Head Distiller Terry Ballard says the distillery tries hard to support the community of Hickman, bringing in money to local convenience stores through trucking, employees going to get lunch and farmers having an extra buyer for their crops. Jones, a native of Hickman, knew how much the community needed an industry like JPD, Ballard says.
“We back this community 100%, as much as they back us,” Ballard says. “We are one of the biggest employers in the county.”
