A Nevada Farm With Deep Roots Plants Its Flag in Two New Southern Markets
Frey Ranch Distillery, the Fallon, Nevada-based farm-to-glass whiskey producer, has pushed its footprint further into the American South, announcing distribution into Alabama and Mississippi. The move brings the brand's total market count to 17 states, adding two more entries to a list that already includes Nevada, California, Colorado, Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Oregon, Georgia, Arizona, Tennessee, Florida, Michigan, Virginia, New Mexico, and Indiana.
For a brand that stakes its entire identity on the land its grains come from, the choice of Alabama and Mississippi as expansion targets isn't arbitrary. Both states carry serious agricultural tradition, and that's exactly the kind of common ground Frey Ranch co-founder Colby Frey was pointing to when the announcement was made.
"We're excited to introduce the Frey Ranch portfolio to Alabama and Mississippi – giving these two states that also have deep agricultural roots a taste of true farm-to-glass whiskey with the grains we grow and harvest exclusively on our farm," Frey said.
The brand will be available both on- and off-premise in its new markets, meaning drinkers will find it at their local retailer as well as at bars and restaurants across both states.
What Makes Frey Ranch Different
The phrase "farm-to-glass" gets thrown around in the spirits world more than it probably should, but Frey Ranch has one of the more legitimate claims to it in the American whiskey business. The distillery was founded in 2006 by Colby and Ashley Frey on the same land the Frey family has farmed for over 170 years in Northern Nevada. What sets it apart from most of its peers is that every single grain used in its whiskey is grown on-site — on the same 2,000 acres the family has worked for generations.
That kind of vertical integration is genuinely rare. Most distilleries, even the ones with strong reputations for quality, source their grains from outside suppliers. Frey Ranch grows its own corn, wheat, rye, and barley, which means they control the entire production chain from planting through harvest, milling, fermentation, distillation, and aging. The result is a whiskey where the terroir of Northern Nevada — the high desert soil, the mountain water, the climate — is baked into every bottle in a way that's hard to replicate.
That philosophy didn't come from a boardroom. Colby Frey's decision to build a distillery grew from a straightforward idea: take the quality grain his family had spent generations growing and turn it into something lasting. The motto the family has operated by for years — "Be good to the land and the land will be good to you" — isn't just a marketing line. It's embossed on the bottom of every bottle of Frey Ranch whiskey.
Today, the brand has grown into one of the top-selling ultra-premium bourbons in the United States and holds a position as one of the largest whiskey producers on the entire West Coast — no small achievement for a family farm operation that's never strayed from its founding principles.
Bee Season and a Bigger Purpose
The Alabama and Mississippi announcement comes during what Frey Ranch calls its annual farm-to-glass season, which runs from April through July. And this year, the brand is using that window to do something beyond just selling whiskey.
Frey Ranch has partnered with the Pollinator Partnership for the duration of the season, tying sales directly to conservation funding. For every farm-to-glass cocktail ordered or bottle of whiskey purchased during the April-to-July period, the brand will donate a portion of the proceeds to support pollinator health initiatives — with the total commitment capped at $10,000.
It's a partnership that makes a certain amount of organic sense for a farming operation. Bees and the broader pollinator ecosystem aren't an abstract conservation cause for a family that works the land every day. They're a practical necessity.
"As farmers, Frey Ranch has a symbiotic relationship with bees, as they are nature's original stewards," Frey said. "Their pollinating superpowers sustain crops, preserve biodiversity, and promote healthy ecosystems. Farmers understand this intimately — because what bees need, farmers need too."
The Pollinator Partnership is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in North America focused exclusively on the health of pollinators. Their work spans research, habitat restoration, and education across the continent — causes that align with what a multi-generational agricultural operation like the Frey family tends to care about at a ground level.
The collaboration is framed around land stewardship and sustainable agriculture, values the brand doesn't treat as a seasonal campaign but as foundational to how the operation runs. Sustainable farming, for the Freys, isn't a trend to capitalize on — it's the way the family has managed 2,000 acres in the Nevada high desert for more than a century and a half.
Seventeen Markets and Growing
The expansion into Alabama and Mississippi is the latest step in what has been a deliberate, market-by-market build for Frey Ranch. The brand has avoided the temptation to chase national distribution before establishing a strong presence in strategic markets, focusing instead on states where the product can be properly introduced and supported.
Seventeen markets is still a relatively focused footprint by the standards of the American spirits industry, but the quality of that list — major states like California, Texas, Florida, Illinois, and Tennessee — represents real national reach among serious whiskey drinkers. Adding two Southern states with strong bourbon culture is a natural fit for a brand that produces an ultra-premium bourbon with an authentic agricultural backstory.
For drinkers in Alabama and Mississippi getting their first crack at Frey Ranch, the entry point is a whiskey that carries something most bottles in the ultra-premium category can't: a complete, documented chain of custody from the seed in the ground to the pour in the glass, managed by the same family on the same patch of Nevada earth for generations.
That's the story Frey Ranch is bringing south. And given how both of those states think about land, farming, and the kind of American heritage that doesn't come with a marketing budget attached — it's probably a story worth hearing.
