There is a modest building in Vergennes, Vermont, where two people are trying to change the way America thinks about whiskey. Not by distilling it themselves, but by driving across the country, tasting thousands of barrels, and picking out the ones they believe deserve more attention. That is the short version of what Lost Lantern does. The longer version involves a million-dollar investment, a growing team, a pile of awards, and a 2026 roadmap that suggests this small operation is just getting warmed up.
Lost Lantern is what the spirits world calls an independent bottler. Co-founders Adam Polonski and Nora Ganley-Roper do not make whiskey. Instead, they source it from distilleries all over the United States, select individual casks or create blends, and release them under the Lost Lantern label with full transparency about where every drop came from. It is a model that has deep roots in Scotch whisky culture but remains relatively uncommon on this side of the Atlantic. Polonski and Ganley-Roper have made it their mission to prove it belongs here too.
That mission got a serious financial boost in 2025 when the company closed a one-million-dollar seed round led by FreshTracks Capital, a venture capital firm based in Vermont. The money is earmarked for expanded sales and marketing efforts and is helping lay the groundwork for what the company describes as a major new release coming in 2026. For a brand that started as a passion project built on deep whiskey knowledge, outside investment at that level signals a shift from scrappy upstart to legitimate growth-stage business.
Part of that growth has meant adding people. Lost Lantern brought on Robin Cornell as Operations Manager and Emily Trostel as Marketing and Vermont Sales Manager during the year. Cornell came out of Vermont's startup scene and now works alongside Ganley-Roper to handle the nuts and bolts of running the business day to day. Trostel arrived after spending close to a decade in marketing and communications in the global tourism industry. Her focus at Lost Lantern is on brand building, keeping customers engaged, and pushing deeper into the company's home state market.
That home state push is worth noting. Despite being based in Vermont since its founding, Lost Lantern had not previously sold several of its whiskies locally. That changed in 2025 when a number of its releases hit shelves in Vermont for the first time. It is a move that ties the brand more closely to the community where it operates, even as its national footprint continues to expand.
Nationally, the tasting room in Vergennes has become something of a destination. Open for just over two years now, the space has consistently outperformed the company's own expectations. Visitors can taste through Lost Lantern's lineup, learn about the distilleries behind each bottle, and walk away with releases that are often difficult to find anywhere else. For whiskey enthusiasts willing to make the trip, it has become a worthwhile stop.
Online sales held strong throughout 2025 as well. The ecommerce side of the business was buoyed by private barrel offerings, general consumer demand, and partnerships with established online retailers. Private barrel interest in particular saw a notable jump, with both trade buyers and individual collectors showing increased appetite for exclusive, hand-selected casks.
One of the bigger moves Lost Lantern made during the year was launching its Discovery Club. The concept is straightforward but appealing: members receive curated selections of whiskey that spotlight distilleries they might never have encountered on their own. It is a direct extension of the company's founding philosophy, which has always been about shining a light on lesser-known producers doing exceptional work.
The response was strong. Among the distilleries featured in the Discovery Club's first year were Baltimore Spirits Co. out of Maryland, Backwards Distilling in Wyoming, Oak and Grist in North Carolina, and New Holland Brewing and Distilling in Michigan. For whiskey drinkers who have grown tired of reaching for the same familiar names, the club offers a guided path into unfamiliar territory without the guesswork.
"2025 marked a very exciting year for Lost Lantern, even as the spirits industry faced some new challenges," Polonski and Ganley-Roper said in a news release. "We were particularly pleased by the great response to the Lost Lantern Discovery Club, launched last spring, which doubles down on our mission of helping whiskey lovers discover great distilleries they might otherwise not. And as we look back on the year, it was a tremendous honor to be named to Food & Wine's inaugural list of Drinks Visionaries — a true validation of our vision for American whiskey. We have very big plans for 2026, and we're excited to continue to share our enthusiasm and excitement about the ever-broadening world of American whiskey."
That Food & Wine recognition deserves a closer look, because it was not a small thing. The magazine's inaugural Drinks Visionaries list was designed to honor people reshaping beverage culture in the United States. The selection process involved hundreds of nominations reviewed by a panel made up of bartenders, winemakers, brewers, and hospitality professionals. Only twelve people made the final cut. Polonski and Ganley-Roper were among them. For a two-person founding team running an independent bottling company out of a small Vermont town, landing on that list alongside some of the biggest names in the drinks world was a serious stamp of credibility.
And that was far from the only recognition the company and its founders received. The Lost Lantern Tasting Room earned a spot on the Imbibe 75, a respected annual list that highlights the most inspiring people and places influencing drinking culture. Polonski and Ganley-Roper were both named to Beverage Information Group's 40 Under Forty list. Ganley-Roper received additional honors on the same publication's Women in Beverage list. Polonski, meanwhile, was recognized as a VermontBiz Rising Star for his contributions to the state's economy and broader community.
The whiskey itself picked up plenty of praise too, with Lost Lantern's rye offerings standing out in particular. Lost Lantern Opulent Orchard New York Distilling Co. Rye Whiskey landed on Maxim's list of the Best American Rye Whiskeys of 2025. Farmers' Fields Rye, an estate-grown rye blend, was included on Breaking Bourbon's Best Rye Whiskeys of 2025. And Far-Flung Rye II, the company's flagship multi-distillery rye blend, earned a spot on VinePair's 50 Best Spirits of 2025. That same whiskey was also singled out as the Best Rye in a separate roundup of the Best Whiskeys to Drink in 2026.
For anyone paying attention to the American whiskey landscape over the past few years, the rye category has been gaining serious ground. Bourbon still dominates the conversation, but rye has carved out a dedicated following among drinkers who appreciate its spicier, more complex character. Lost Lantern's strong showing in the category suggests Polonski and Ganley-Roper have a sharp eye for where the market is heading, not just where it has been.
All of this happened during a year that, by the founders' own admission, brought new challenges to the spirits industry. Tariff concerns, shifting consumer spending habits, and an increasingly crowded market have made life harder for plenty of brands. That Lost Lantern managed to raise capital, grow its team, launch a new membership program, expand its retail presence, and rack up a shelf full of awards while navigating those headwinds says something about the strength of the model they have built.
The independent bottler approach gives them flexibility that traditional distilleries do not have. They are not locked into one style, one region, or one set of production constraints. If a brilliant barrel of wheat whiskey turns up at a small distillery in the Pacific Northwest, they can grab it. If a rye from the mid-Atlantic is doing something unexpected, they can bottle it and tell that story. Every release is an opportunity to introduce drinkers to something they have never tried before, from a place they may have never heard of.
That flexibility also means the company can pivot quickly as tastes evolve. While large distilleries plan production years or even decades in advance, Lost Lantern can respond to what is happening in the market in something closer to real time. It is a nimble way to operate, and it suits an era when whiskey drinkers are more adventurous and better informed than they have ever been.
As 2026 gets underway, Lost Lantern is being deliberately vague about what comes next, saying only that major new projects, releases, and partnerships are in development. Given the trajectory of the past year, whatever they have planned is likely to be worth watching. The seed money is in place. The team is bigger. The awards keep coming. And the fundamental idea behind the company, that American whiskey is far more diverse and interesting than most people realize, feels more relevant now than it did when Polonski and Ganley-Roper started this whole thing.
For the whiskey drinker who already has a favorite bourbon on the shelf but has been thinking about branching out, Lost Lantern might be the most interesting company in the business right now. Not because they are the biggest or the flashiest, but because they are doing the hard work of finding great whiskey in unexpected places and making sure it does not stay hidden. That is a mission worth raising a glass to.
