Wendy Tilton of Wild Hare Distillery Solves People’s Problems
Distilling solved a problem and Wild Hare Distilling co-owner Wendy Tilton lives to find solutions. It wasn’t even her problem she was solving in the beginning but that’s who she is. “That's what my whole life is about,” she admits.
In helping a friend learn to distill whiskey, she discovered something that awoke a passion in her she’d left behind long ago.
Wendy’s scientific background paired with a desire to constantly learn led her to become a distiller professionally. Even after a long career in real estate, she found another occupation to pursue. And it actually took her back to her roots as a scientist in a lab.
A Friend’s Dilemma
A friend of Wendy’s retired young. He quickly grew bored of the typical retired life. During a summer visit to Pennsylvania, where the two of them had houses, he seemed a bit down.
Immediately Wendy wanted to lift him up. She asked him what he wanted to do next. And he went over the things on his bucket list. That list was long and included a lot of activities that didn’t necessarily interest Wendy. But one item on that list caught her attention: making whiskey.
“I thought I can figure that out, that's not a problem,” Wendy says. “So I just looked at him and said, well, I can help you do that,”
A Background in Solutions
Simple distillation was something Wendy was familiar with already. In fact, she’d studied microbiology during her undergraduate years in college. “I worked in a laboratory in the Markey Cancer Center at the University of Kentucky,” she notes. Her days were spent growing bacteria and yeast in the lab.
Ultimately, Wendy left science behind. Spending hours hunched over Petri dishes just wasn’t her thing after all.
“I realized that, alienated into the cold space in a laboratory all day, learning more and more about a narrow topic or, you know, learning more and more about less and less as I would often say,” she explained. “I didn't think that that was going to be a fit for me for the rest of my life.”
So she finished her degree and returned to real estate, a job that had paid her college tuition in the first place. She admits, “I always remained very interested in Health Sciences and things related to it as a result.”
Her real estate career brought her back to higher education after a time. After earning her Masters degree in investment and development from NYU, she discovered she liked teaching. It took her a while to get the hang of it but she stuck to it. “I’m the junkie that loves to go to school,” she divulged.
“I really made it my mission to better understand how adults learned and how to help them get to a better place of practice,” she continued. “Not just changing the way they thought, but changing the way they practiced.”
It really makes sense now that when her friend revealed that he wanted to learn to distill whiskey, Wendy jumped at the chance to help him figure it out. Together the two of them crafted batches of whiskey — enough that Wendy had plenty left over.
Continuing to Figure It Out
The new hobby reignited Wendy’s drive to learn new things. She dug into the practice and learned everything she could about distilling and everything that goes into it.
“I've gotten into now barrel chemistry that I began investigating so I can understand it better,” She notes. “I got into yeast when we first started — talking to everybody I could about it. And why would select one yeast over another yeast?”
However, she reached a point where she thought she’d put it all aside. After a few changes in her life, Wendy and her husband, Jim Matz, moved out west to Arizona. The move required her to bring an awful lot of home-distilled whiskey with her but she wasn’t feeling the itch to continue distilling at that point.
Once settled, Jim grew curious about the distillation process. It piqued his interest because moonshining has an infamous aura to it. “It's illegal when you moonshine,” Wendy confesses. “I think people find that activity exciting.”
With a new student to guide through the world of distillation, Wendy got right back into it. The two started distilling spirits together. She sparked an interest in Jim as well as he realized what distilling really entailed.
“He did not realize that it wasn't a backwoods type of [operation] to distill, but in fact there was a lot of precision to it,” she explained. “And as he started to see that he was fascinated with the details of the process.”
Resolving to Open a Distillery
An entrepreneur, Jim ran his own company for 17 years. “He thought it was a good idea to open up a distillery,” says Wendy.
Jim was excited about the prospect of starting this new business. For Wendy, the decision required a bit of reflection. Like everything else in her life, she approaches with the mindset of figuring out the challenge ahead.
“I tend to be more of the problem solver,” says Wendy. “OK, we need to do these things we need to manage this process.”
Eventually Jim and Wendy arrived at the same conclusion: open a distillery in Tempe, Arizona. And Wild Hare Distillery came to fruition, focusing on a line of agave spirits alongside vodkas and whiskeys.
“We want a unique product that's an agave spirit unique to the southwest,” Wendy shares, describing the spirits she and Jim aim to craft together.
Obstacles of Owning a Distillery
Operating a distillery comes with its challenges. As a problem solver by nature, Wendy strives to understand every aspect of the business. “I'm feeling very challenged with market penetration and marketing in general,” she says. “I mean marketing is probably my biggest hurdle.”
Other areas Wendy struggles with include funding growth initiatives and finding staff as the business continues to grow.
On the other hand, the opportunity to figure out spirits behind the scenes gives Wendy something to get excited about.
“I love the science; I love playing with things to see what the outcomes will look like, how people will feel about the outcome of something,” Wendy reflects. “I like figuring out what that proportion should be, what that outcome is going to look like and taste like, and then how customers are going to receive it when they taste it.”
Wendy brings a lot of talent and expertise to her role as a distillery owner and distiller. But she still runs into occasional misogyny in the industry.
Challenges for Women in Distilling
Even as she heads the business, an equal partner to Jim at the distillery, Wendy has noticed that often men who visit avoid asking her questions.
“Interestingly enough, I will find that men cannot look at me or interact with me,” Wendy observes. “I can't tell you how many times Jim will even say to a gentleman in our distillery, ‘Wendy can answer that question for you; she's the expert in that area’ and they will continue to look at Jim.”
The same thing happens over and over again. Even at large events, Wendy recognizes the same look. Men always defer to other men whether they know what they’re talking about or not. “That’s probably one of the most frustrating aspects,” Wendy tells us.
Looking forward, Wendy sees the playing field leveling out for women in the industry. “I'm reading every week about a woman in the distilling world, either as the head distiller at a large distillery in Kentucky, or a woman-owned business or another group that's underserved in our country that is now opening a distillery … it's great to see that happening.”
As far as Wendy is concerned, there is still a problem throughout male-dominated industries. “In the sciences, mathematics and engineering, when we look at that in even schools, we have a very low rate of females who participate.”
The solution? It’s clear to Wendy after a lot of reflection: support young women in the sciences and it will help propel more women into the distilling industry, as well as many other science-based industries.
To those women entering male-dominated industries, Wendy suggests maintaining confidence even in the face of failure. “Be excited about some aspect of what you're doing and don't let people tell you you can't do it,” she says. “You can just figure out how you can do it, if it's that important to you.”