Four years ago, whiskey journalist Adam “Apolon” Polonski and his partner Nora arrived in Vermont having just completed an eight-month road trip across the country. The couple visited more than 70 distilleries, 20 national parks and countless sights and experiences. It was then time to get down to business. While they sough investors for a whiskey bottling business, Apolon earned a one-year Sustainable Business MBA (SI-MBA) at the Grossman School of Business. Like all SI-MBA students, he was committed to making business be a force for good.
Launching Lost Lantern
Apolon and Nora officially launched Lost Lantern Whiskey in 2020. They entered the LaunchVT Pitch Competition and won the Audience Award for their unique idea. Lost Lantern is an independent bottler built on Scottish tradition but focused on American whiskey. Their vision was to bring the traditional model of the Scotch independent bottler to the world of American whiskey, and into the 21st century.
Accumulating Accolades
Lost Lantern Whiskey released more than 40 whiskeys from two dozen distilleries while racking up the accolades. Lost Lantern was featured in prominent media outlets including The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Forbes, and Seven Days, along with reviews from Wine Enthusiast, Breaking Bourbon, and others. The company also won Double Golds and Best of Class medals from the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the John Barleycorn Awards, and the World Whiskies Awards.
This past February, Lost Lantern Whiskey was named the 2023 U.S. Independent Bottler of the Year at the Icons of Whisky Awards in Kentucky, organized by Whisky Magazine—the most prestigious Scotch whisky magazine, with a world-class array of judges behind them. This translated to them becoming a finalist for the global award, competing against the best independent bottlers in Scotland, Ireland, and the rest of the world.
At the Icons of Whisky Awards Gala in London on March 30, 2023, Lost Lantern Whisky was officially named the 2023 Independent Bottler of the Year for the entire world. Nora, cofounder and general manager, made the trek to London to accept the award in-person, with luminaries from all across the whiskey world looking on.
Sustainability Focus
Lost Lantern is still a young company, but Apolon and Nora's long-term vision is to make their venture a beacon and laboratory of ideas for sustainability in the whiskey world. "Whiskey is a business that's fundamentally rooted in agriculture, dependent on clean water, and heavily affected by local climate. The distilleries we work with embrace this, and many seek to use their business as a force for change," Apolon told GSB News.
"We find even if one distillery has developed a new way to conserve water, reduce waste, support local regenerative agriculture, or has developed other innovations in sustainability, hundreds of other distilleries across the country are still struggling with those same problems without realizing that real, workable solutions are out there. We want Lost Lantern to eventually become a showcase for many of these innovations and use them as a way to bring distilleries together so they can learn from each other and begin to transform the whiskey industry."
Industry Forward
Apolon cites distilleries that have made strides on the sustainability front, like Copperworks in Seattle, which has created a closed loop water system that reduce its water usage by over 90%; Frey Ranch, an estate distillery in Nevada that employs regenerative agricultural practices on a century-old family farm; Westland in Seattle, which subsidizes research into creating barley varieties adapted for the Pacific Northwest and pays local farmers far above commodity market rates to grow for them; and Nc'Nean, a distillery in Scotland that is certified zero waste, zero net carbon, organic, and is a Certified B Corp.
"We are still in our early days, but we are very excited to help distilleries all over the country push the boundaries of what a green business can be," added Apolon, who earlier this year wrote an article for magazine on how distilleries can transform and dramatically reduce their water usage.
Congratulations, Apolon and Nora, on your recent achievement!