Tailwinds Distilling Company Closes After Seven Years

PLAINFIELD, IL — It's been an "amazing ride" for Tailwinds Distilling Company, which closed this week after seven years in business.

Toby Beall and his wife Jillian took a "leap of faith" when they opened the distillery in 2012, bottling rum and blue agave spirits on Eastern Avenue in downtown Plainfield, and offering tours and tastings to anyone wanting a momentary tropical escape from Illinois' harsh winters.

Two years later, the company expanded its distribution to neighboring states and even filmed a reality TV show. But fighting to remain profitable as they struggled to expand ultimately proved too difficult for the distillery.

"We started extremely small and soon just keeping up became a big problem for us, so we took a risk to go bigger," the company wrote on Facebook last week. "The length of time from plan to execution proved to be fatal for our company. We fought hard to survive until we could increase our volume, unfortunately we could not hang on."

In a post to Facebook, Tailwinds thanked its loyal customers for their "overwhelming support through the years."

"For a company that had a minimal marketing budget YOU were truly our greatest voice," the distillery wrote. "Even if you came to us 'not a rum or tequila fan' hopefully we positively impacted your outlook on one or both. Thank you so much to our hard-working team who became our family."

Since that post about a week ago, fans have shown an outpouring of support on social media, with some expressing shock and sadness, and others recommending GoFundMe campaigns or musing about the possibility of buying the distillery themselves.

"Trust me when i say we are looking at every available option," Tailwinds responded to one such comment. "We don’t think this is the final chapter for us."

Image via Shutterstock