California's Foley Family Becomes the Latest Vintner to Try Its Hand at Whiskey Making

California vintner and entrepreneur Bill Foley has now added distilling to his long list of business interests, as last week came news of his deal to acquire the shuttered Bently Heritage Estate Distillery in Minden, Nevada. The property had been on the market since March of last year.

Minden, population 3,000, is located about 20 miles from Lake Tahoe in the far western part of the state, near the California line. The distillery is housed inside the old Minden Flour Mill, which was built in 1906 and purchased by the Bently family in 1969. Christopher Bently, who represented the current generation of ownership prior to the Foley deal, remembers playing in the abandoned mill as a boy.

The distillery itself, however, has been operational only since 2019. After a visit to Scotland, Bently and his wife Camille became inspired by the idea of creating an estate-driven single malt, with all grains grown at the property. Other whiskeys would also be in the mix, in addition to an artisanal vodka and gin, with no expense spared to create a state-of-the-art facility. But last March the operation was shuttered after its short-lived run, and the property was put on the market.

In addition to the distillery, the acquisition includes a malting facility, two rickhouses, a nearby 2,500-acre ranch on which the former distillers grew their grain, and all whiskey inventory. The still unreleased whiskey produced under Bently’s ownership will be bottled and released by Foley once aging is complete. The plan is to reopen the distillery and an adjacent tasting room by year-end.

For Foley, the artisanal, estate-grown aspect of the Bently operation had natural appeal to this family of winemakers. “Being able to showcase terroir and tell the story of the land is something that’s important to my family,” notes Courtney Foley, second-generation vintner and daughter of proprietor Bill Foley “We look forward to carrying it on in our spirits story.”

The deal also adds yet another asset to the Foley Family’s growing portfolio of Nevada business holdings. The most high-profile of those is the National Hockey League franchise Vegas Golden Knights, a team that’s currently in the NHL’s Stanley Cup final, playing for the championship against the Florida Panthers. Judging by the look of this latest Nevada deal, It looks like Foley might have another winner on his hands.