Chip Tate, Founder of Balcones Distilling, is Tapped to Lead Spirits Expansion at Foley Family Wines

Chip Tate, who founded Texas whiskey maker Balcones Distilling in 2008 and departed in 2014 after an acrimonious dispute with his investors, has been named master distiller for innovation at Foley Family Wines, the California-based wine company that has recently moved into spirits.

Tate took the craft whiskey world by storm as the creative force behind Waco, Texas-based Balcones, initially with Baby Blue in 2010, which is made from a mashbill of roasted blue corn, and later with Texas single malts, bourbons, ryes, and other styles. Jared Himstedt, a friend from Tate’s brewing days who’s been at Balcones from the beginning, became master distiller after Tate’s departure and still has that role today.

Tate went on to found Tate & Co. Distillery, just down the road from Balcones in Waco, gaining a distillery license in 2017 and opening in 2018. Tate & Co. is both a distillery and a copperworks, with Tate and his team building stills and equipment with the aim of producing whiskeys for its own labels and for other distillers.

Foley Family Wines is owned by entrepreneur Bill Foley, who made his fortune in the real estate and financial services industries. The company’s entry into distilling began this past spring when it acquired the shuttered Bently Heritage Estate Distillery in Minden, Nevada, which has since been renamed Minden Mill Distilling. In September, it reintroduced Charles Goodnight bourbon ($80), named for a legendary Texas cattle driver who’s also Bill Foley’s great-great uncle. It’s a robust, high-rye Texas bourbon with an ABV of 57.5% and a mashbill of 60% Texas-grown yellow #2 corn, 36% unmalted rye, and 4% barley. Charles Goodnight scored 94 points in Whisky Advocate’s Winter 2023 Buying Guide.

Tate’s new role at Foley Family Wines will be a full-time commitment, leaving Tate & Co. to be managed by investors. He’ll be working with Foley on existing projects, including Charles Goodnight, but he’ll also have free rein to create new and interesting spirits, working with other Foley distillers and potentially with craft distillers from around the U.S. and elsewhere.

With the exception of giants like Gallo and Constellation, California winemakers’ ventures into spirits are at a very early stage. But considering Foley’s trajectory in the wine business, he’s a player well worth watching. He started in the wine business in 1996 when he and his wife Carol bought a vineyard in Santa Barbara as a weekend hobby. Today he owns more than 20 wineries in California and around the world, including Oregon, Washington, and New Zealand, with a portfolio that includes famous names like Chateau St. Jean, Chalone, Ferrari-Carano, Sebastiani, and Chalk Hill, among others.