The Old Guard Bourbon Takes Aim at Maryland With a High-Profile Distribution Deal
There is a particular kind of momentum in the bourbon world that does not come from marketing budgets or celebrity endorsements. It comes from the glass — from medals earned on blind judging panels, from word passed among serious drinkers, from a quietly expanding footprint that suddenly lands in a new market and makes noise. That is precisely the kind of momentum The Old Guard Bourbon has been building, and the brand's latest move makes it impossible to ignore.
The Old Guard Bourbon, one of America's emerging premium bourbon brands and a recent recipient of some of the spirits industry's highest honors, has announced a new distribution partnership with North Star Wine & Liquor, a leading Maryland beverage distributor. The announcement, issued out of Warwick, New York in late June 2026, is more than a routine expansion press release. It represents a calculated push into the Mid-Atlantic corridor by a brand that has earned its credibility the old-fashioned way — one award at a time.
What the Deal Actually Means on the Ground
The agreement will make The Old Guard Bourbon available to retailers, restaurants, bars, and hospitality venues throughout Maryland, providing consumers across the state with greater access to the brand's acclaimed small-batch bourbons. That last detail matters. This is not a deal restricted to a handful of high-end bottle shops in Baltimore or Bethesda. The partnership is structured to push the brand across the full spectrum of Maryland's on-premise and off-premise beverage landscape — from neighborhood liquor stores to steakhouses to hotel bars.
North Star Wine & Liquor brings decades of experience serving Maryland's beverage industry and represents a diverse portfolio of premium wines and spirits. But what distinguishes North Star is the breadth of its international reach. The company maintains a portfolio consisting of over 300 SKUs of Cognac, Brandy, Vodkas, Wines, Sparkling Wines and other categories, with products from Canada, France, Italy, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, and Bulgaria, just to name a few. Slotting a domestic small-batch bourbon into that kind of global portfolio sends a clear message about what Stan Stern and his team believe The Old Guard can do in front of Maryland's increasingly sophisticated spirits buyers.
Stern himself was direct about the rationale. "The Old Guard Bourbon fills a great niche among our growing global portfolio of distilled spirits, and we are excited to share another top quality brand among our customers," said Stern, President of North Star. The word "niche" is worth unpacking. In a distributor portfolio dominated by imports and established categories, a decorated American small-batch bourbon gives sales reps a genuinely differentiated story to tell at the account level — something judges have already vetted in blind competition, not just a brand with good packaging and a compelling pitch deck.
A Brand Built on Competition Gold, Not Marketing Noise
The timing of this distribution push is inseparable from The Old Guard Bourbon's recent run on the competition circuit. The partnership comes on the heels of significant national recognition for The Old Guard Bourbon. In 2025, the brand earned a Gold Medal at the New York World Spirits Competition, followed by a Double Gold Medal at the 2026 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, one of the most respected and influential spirits competitions in the world.
That progression from Gold to Double Gold — from New York to San Francisco — in back-to-back years is the kind of trajectory that gets distributors interested and gets buyers off the fence. The San Francisco World Spirits Competition, in particular, carries weight that extends well beyond the trophy case. Participating in the SFWSC offers producers the opportunity to showcase their products to an esteemed panel of judges, gain valuable industry exposure, and earn medals that carry global prestige. A Double Gold at that competition means every judge on the panel agreed the spirit merited gold — unanimous top marks from a room of professional palates who have no financial stake in the outcome.
These accolades reflect the brand's commitment to craftsmanship, quality, and authenticity. For a brand still in its formative years, having that kind of third-party validation provides the kind of credibility that no amount of advertising can replicate. When a buyer at a Maryland restaurant group or a state-licensed retailer pulls up the competition results, the medals do the talking.
The Voice Behind the Bourbon: Poppy Bruce Potash
Every bourbon has a maker, and in the case of The Old Guard, that maker wears multiple hats. The brand's statement was issued by Poppy Bruce Potash, identified as the author, Master Blender and Master Taster for The Old Guard Bourbon. That combination of titles is unusual in the American bourbon world, and it points to a brand philosophy that goes beyond simply sourcing good whiskey and slapping a label on it.
The role of Master Blender is one of the most demanding in the spirits trade. It requires an encyclopedic understanding of how individual barrels interact with one another, how age and entry proof influence flavor development, and how to achieve consistency across bottlings without the industrial scale that large distilleries rely upon. For a small-batch operation, the blender is the final arbiter of every expression that reaches a consumer's glass.
The brand was born from a journey of traveling the country, tasting, and connecting with whiskey lovers and experts alike — the result of a conviction that something truly special needed to be created. Every barrel is hand-selected, every note carefully blended, resulting in a bourbon that is described as aged and mellow. That ethos — deliberate travel, persistent tasting, personal curation — is embedded in the brand's identity in a way that separates it from bourbons designed by committee and focus-grouped into existence.
Each sip is designed to reveal complex layers of flavors, inviting the drinker to slow down and savor the moment — a tribute to the art of small-batch blending and the thrill of discovery. That language, coming directly from the person responsible for the liquid, describes a bourbon positioned squarely for the drinker who has moved past name-brand label collecting and is genuinely hunting for quality.
Potash's enthusiasm for the Maryland expansion is unambiguous. "We are excited to partner with North Star Wine & Liquor as we continue to expand our distribution footprint," said Potash. "North Star's strong relationships within Maryland's beverage market and its reputation for exceptional service make them an ideal partner to help introduce more consumers to our award-winning bourbon."
Maryland as a Strategic Foothold: Why This Market, Why Now
Choosing Maryland as a distribution target is not a random move. The state sits at the center of a densely populated Mid-Atlantic corridor that runs from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. — an urban and suburban consumer base with strong disposable income, a well-established bar and restaurant scene, and a drinking culture that skews toward quality over convenience. Maryland also has a deeply personal relationship with American whiskey history that gives premium bourbon brands a particularly receptive audience.
During the Revolutionary War, when the British stopped importing rum and Americans needed a new spirit, Maryland was at the center of producing new rye whiskey. Scotch-Irish Marylanders found that barley did not adapt well to the climate, but rye was a plentiful crop. Maryland rye whiskey became famously popular during the American Civil War as soldiers from around the country took Maryland rye whiskey home with them, and demand boomed. That history — whiskey as a regional birthright rather than a passing trend — creates a consumer base in Maryland that genuinely understands what craft spirits are supposed to taste like.
During the 1920s, Maryland became the "Free State" by refusing to pass legislation enforcing Prohibition. Bootleggers took advantage of the Chesapeake Bay to move their goods and speakeasies were abundant for those in the know. That independent-minded relationship with spirits has never fully left the state's culture. Maryland drinkers have a long memory, and they have always been willing to back quality American whiskey when they find it.
The modern Maryland spirits scene reflects that heritage. The state is home to award-winning whiskey, gin, vodka, bourbon, moonshine, absinthe and other specialty spirits made by more than 30 distilleries, and since 2008 and the rebirth of Maryland distilling, new distilleries have been opening at a record rate, reviving old traditions and developing new recipes. Into that active, knowledgeable market, The Old Guard Bourbon is walking in with two major competition medals and a distributor that already has the door open at accounts across the state. The timing is sharp.
Competing in the Premium Small-Batch Space
The Old Guard is entering Maryland at a moment when the premium and super-premium bourbon segments are the most competitive they have ever been. The post-pandemic bourbon boom has cooled somewhat at the commodity end of the market, but consumers who developed serious whiskey habits during those years are still buying — they have simply become more selective. They want to know the story behind the bottle, who made the decisions about mash bill and barrel selection, and what qualified palates think of the result.
Founded on a commitment to traditional bourbon-making techniques while embracing modern standards of excellence, The Old Guard Bourbon has quickly gained attention among whiskey enthusiasts, industry professionals, and spirits judges alike. The brand's growing reputation has been fueled by its carefully crafted expressions and dedication to producing premium bourbons that honor America's rich whiskey heritage. That dual positioning — rooted in tradition but not trapped by it — is the sweet spot for a brand trying to appeal to both the purist who can cite the Bottled-in-Bond Act and the curious new drinker who just wants something better than what's sitting in their liquor cabinet right now.
The small-batch approach also means the brand is not competing on volume. It is competing on character. The hand-selection of individual barrels, the meticulous blending process, the deliberate restraint on output — these are choices that communicate something to a consumer who has shopped the bourbon aisle enough times to recognize the difference between a brand that controls its quality and one that merely claims to.
The Distribution Partnership Model and What It Signals
The mechanics of how premium small-batch bourbon brands grow in the United States almost always run through regional distributor relationships. A brand can achieve critical acclaim and win every medal on the circuit, but without feet on the street — sales reps who know the buyers, who have standing relationships with restaurant beverage directors and retail chain managers — that acclaim stays theoretical. The North Star deal gives The Old Guard practical reach across an entire state.
North Star bases its business on one main objective: to share its global array of products while keeping a healthy, responsible, and honest customer relationship. For a craft bourbon brand, that relationship-first model is exactly the kind of distribution philosophy that works. Premium spirits do not sell themselves off the shelf the way a nationally advertised brand might. They sell through conversations, through samples poured at a buyer meeting, through a rep who believes enough in the product to hand-sell it account by account.
The new partnership is expected to accelerate The Old Guard Bourbon's growth throughout Maryland while giving consumers greater access to one of the nation's most decorated emerging bourbon brands. The phrase "most decorated emerging bourbon brands" carries real weight when you can point to a Gold Medal from New York and a Double Gold from San Francisco earned in consecutive years. That medal stack is the kind of third-party proof that makes a sales conversation far easier — and far more convincing — than any brand story on its own.
What Comes Next: A Mid-Atlantic Beachhead
Maryland is described explicitly as part of a broader Mid-Atlantic growth strategy, and that framing matters. The Warwick, New York base of operations puts the brand in the heart of a region where premium spirits culture is dense and distribution networks are interconnected. Maryland, with its mix of urban Baltimore, suburban D.C. suburbs, the Eastern Shore, and the western mountains, represents a genuinely diverse set of consumer markets within a single state license. Cracking it well — building real velocity at accounts rather than just getting listed — sets up natural expansion into neighboring Virginia, Delaware, and the D.C. market itself.
The brand has structured this move with the discipline of an operator thinking about the long game. Rather than chasing national distribution before the liquid and the production capacity are ready to support it, The Old Guard is building state by state, partner by partner, with competition credentials that grow with each passing year on the judging circuit. It is the kind of deliberate, proof-driven expansion strategy that tends to build the most durable brands in the American bourbon market.
For Maryland bourbon drinkers, the practical upshot is straightforward: a hand-crafted, award-validated small-batch bourbon that has been earning serious recognition on the national stage is about to show up at your local bottle shop, at the bar where you watch the game, and on the menu at places that take their spirits lists seriously. The Old Guard is not just passing through. It is setting up camp.
For the Enthusiast: Why This One Is Worth Your Attention
Bourbon drinkers who have been tracking the competition results from San Francisco already know that a Double Gold in 2026 puts The Old Guard in distinguished company. The SFWSC offers producers the opportunity to showcase their products to an esteemed panel of judges, gain valuable industry exposure, and earn medals that carry global prestige — and those medals are earned blind, with no label visible and no marketing budget factored into the score. The glass speaks for itself or it does not speak at all.
What makes the Maryland moment interesting from an enthusiast's perspective is the entry point. This is still an emerging brand building its distribution footprint, which means the kind of scarcity premium that plagues the most sought-after American bourbons has not yet attached itself to The Old Guard. The window to discover it before it becomes difficult to find — before the allocated-bourbon machine grinds its gears — is right now, in a state where the brand is just arriving on shelves for the first time.
Each sip is described as revealing complex layers of flavors, and the bourbon is positioned as a tribute to the art of small-batch blending and the thrill of discovery. For the bourbon drinker who still remembers the feeling of finding something remarkable before everyone else did, the Maryland launch of The Old Guard Bourbon has that energy about it. Pay attention.
