Written by RICH MANNING Photos provided by WANDERFOLK
RE-WRITING HISTORY After a Decade of Damning Distilled Spirits, WanderFolk Aims to Transform Oklahoma’s Distilled Spirits Narrative
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klahoma has a sordid history with alcohol. Carry Nation found her way there after hatcheting her way through Kansas. Prohibition wasn’t repealed on the state level until 1959. From 1959 to 1984, the state participated in what was colloquially known as “liquor-by-the-wink,” an oft-ignored law where people could only get a cocktail if they joined a “private club” (read: a bar), and brought in their own bottles. Oklahoma is also roughly 43 percent Native-American territory,
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land that was subject to an unfair distillation ban from 1834 to 2018. Derek Duty at WanderFolk Spirits in Guthrie, Oklahoma, knows these historic touchstones all too well. They are the items that have colored Oklahomans’ perception of what spirits are like right down to the existence of state-produced juice. “There are a lot of people in Oklahoma that we talk to that still have no idea there are distilleries here,” explained Duty, who serves as WanderFolk’s general manager and director of sales and marketing. “It’s still a gut punch to hear.” Absorbing these blows is worth it for Duty because they ultimately spur his mission to increase statewide awareness of WanderFolk’s three distinct brands: the vodka and gin labels Prairie Wolf Spirits and Garden Club, and the whiskey label Same Old Moses. Boosting awareness is part of an overarching goal to make the Oklahoma craft spirits scene relevant inside and outside W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M