The Story of Pure Class Vodka
– [Peggy] Welcome to Hendricks’ Family Distillery. Hendricks Family Distillery consists of my husband, James, myself, Peggy, our oldest son Zac, and our youngest son, Karl. Karl has been in the distillation business for about 15 years. He told us one time, Ma I want a family meeting with you, Pa and Zac. And basically, his idea was he thought between the talents of us four that we would be able to design, build and run a distillery. The boys could see the vision, so we took a vote, and the Hendricks’ Family Distillery was born. There’s a lot of craft distilleries in the state of Wisconsin. Their goal is for their whiskey and brandy and other products. Where, we just wanted to concentrate on vodka. We just want to make the best vodka there is.
– [Karl] We think that one thing that gives us an edge is that we have all this ability in-house to design and build. Zach’s ability to basically weld and do everything as far as the process ends and needs for the equipment for the distillation, and my father’s for building the building. Everything in here as far as the water quality to the still designs, everything in here is to try to make the highest quality vodka possible.
– [Peggy] Our first year, in 2014 we received three silver medals, we received a gold medal. Really, my most prized metal was a bronze medal. The bronze medal came from San Francisco, and this was our very first year. San Francisco is the toughest competitions in the world, and we received a bronze medal. If you’re starting out a business, ya know, it better be something that you feel in your heart and soul that you really love, because it is a lot of work. There’s a lot of pride that goes with it. You look at your finished product and where we’re leading in the future. I have so much pride for my husband for what he does in here, and for my boys. How many mothers get to say they run a business with their sons and their husband? We are just so blessed that we are a family operation. When you are a small business, you are working on a shoestring. We have no investors, this is strictly ourselves. Someone who would understand what we’re doing, the town has Fortifi Bank. So, I thought well I’m gonna go over and talk to them. And they’ve just been wonderful. We switched everything over there, and all I gotta do is pick up the phone and Fortifi has been just wonderful.
