Ellijay distillery proposes national brandy and rum trail

How does American rum and brandy on like a whole trail sound here in North Georgia? Because that's the proposal that's being floated around by a spot up in Ellijay. So Art Chris Rosenthal is joining us to talk more about this. I got to tell you, we're all ears. We're pretty fascinated here in the studio about this. So what's the deal? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. In North Georgia and across the country, you know, we've all heard of a certain liquor and alcohol being associated with certain parts of the country or parts of the world champagne in France or uh or or bourbon in Kentucky but uh new proposal here to have American brandy American rum as a designation here in the United States and connecting distilleries across the United States in that trail that we speak of and hear more about it woman leading the charge here Caroline she is at the House of Applejack up here in uh uh in Ellijay here and uh tell me first of all I mean, a lot of people don't realize there's a deep history in the United States for American brandy and American rum. Yes, it is. So, I have also made a complete webinar about it, not to forget to say it. So, American brandy and rum date back to the 17th century. So, the first brandy making commercially in North America was 1634 in Fort Orange. So, that's today New York. And the rum making goes back to 1648. That was in Salem, Massachusetts by Emanuel Downing. So this is a very deep, long history of making these products, which is a little bit forgotten, and that's what we want to change. And you want to change that with this proposal and this vision you have for this trail and this way to connect it across the U.S. Tell me about your vision here. Yeah, so the idea is to designate American Brandy and Rum the same way that rum was designated in 1964. And by doing so, we want to build also potentially the longest distillery trail in the world, the American Brandy and Rum Trail. So connecting all over the nation, over all states, American distillers, but also American farms, American historic sites, so that this is kind of a living history trail about these products. Yeah, and this is something you've already started. You've already started to talk to some politicians. You've been up to the hill to talk about this a little bit. And, you know, really quick, we've got about 30 seconds or so left, but this could be a huge economic boom. There's some big numbers here. Yes, so we do have right now a trade gap of roughly $887 million, meaning more than $1 billion we are importing on brandies and rums, but we're just exporting $125 million. So it's not reinventing a market case. The market case is actually already there. if american distillers actually connect together and build this trail consumers would understand we already produce amazing qualities we just need to market it so it's about recognition not only in the state of georgia but in all states absolutely and that trail could very soon be starting here in in georgia she's like like she said we've already she's already gone and spoke with some of the industry folks and been to the hill in Capitol Hill to talk a little bit about this and introduce this new idea. And we'll see. Maybe we'll have this American brandy and rum trail with this stop right here in Georgia. Would make sense to have it here. So we'll see what happens with that. Chris, thank you so much.