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BY KYLE SWARTZ

Dixon Dedman has quickly established a reputation for growing brands and blending whiskey .

With sourced product , he and a team revitalized his family ’ s pre-Prohibition whiskey brand , Kentucky Owl , in 2014 . That company sold to Stoli Group three years later ; Dedman departed in 2021 . While consulting in the industry , he remained interested in creating another whiskey brand . Opportunity arose , and Dedman launched 2XO last year through Prestige Beverage Group .

Success has swiftly followed the launch of both brands . Why ? We recently spoke with Dedman , tracing his career through operating his family ’ s historic Beaumont Inn , to entering the spirits industry and building a reputation in sourcing and blending .

Beverage Dynamics : Tell us about founding Kentucky Owl . Dixon Dedman : I grew up the hospitality business . I ’ m the fifth generation to do hospitality . It ’ s a people business . I love people , and I love the history and tradition in hospitality . Our family ’ s history includes Kentucky Owl . We still own the property . My grandfather used to say that when he won the lottery , one of the things he would do would is get back into bourbon . It was our family dream .

I ’ m into bourbon . I ’ m a huge collector . I was doing tastings at the inn , talking about profiles and flavors . I thought that bourbon could be a fun thing to do on the side . I had no plan , no idea that it could turn into something .

I connected with an old friend , Mark Carter . He had just purchased a stake in a winery . I knew that I could source and develop a whiskey , but there ’ s so many more challenges than that than people realize — the TTB , taxes , getting to a distributor . Mark said he could help with all that . He had already been bottling private label wines for people .

So we created the brand . And there was a little bit of ‘ right place , right time ’. People gravitated towards this small story of someone wanting to do something cool . We weren ’ t some big machine .

We had opportunities with big , global companies that wanted to come in . But we didn ’ t want to be another feather in a big company ’ s cap . Stoli back then was still a relatively smaller company . They said , ‘ We want to grow Kentucky Owl using your vision , your dream ’. For a long time , that dream came true . I learned so much . But then the whole nature of that organization changed . It became a global organization . It started taking away from my ability to drive the brand . I have to be able to sleep at night . I have to be proud of what direction I ’ m going in . It was the hardest decision that I ever made , having to walk away from that .

BD : What led to 2XO ? DD : I did not want to say goodbye to this business . It ’ s incredible : You get to create something that people gravitate towards and make a part of their special moments .

2XO means two times oak . We built the program around exposing the whiskey to oak in a number of ways . I wanted to

4 Beverage Dynamics • May 2023 www . beveragedynamics . com