We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ernie Wagner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ernie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

During the course of the year, we pick several months and choose a specific cause to donate a portion of our sales to that cause. For example, in February, we have “February for Firefighters”, where we donate 10% of all our sales to the local Pendleton Volunteer Fire Department. In October, for Breast Cancer Awareness month, we sponsor “Tigers for Tata’s”, and dontate a large portion of our sales to Breast Cancer research. In December, we sponsor our local “Shop with a Cop” program, and donate a large portion of our sales to that. Throughout the year, we probably have another dozen or so causes we dontate to. Our local customers are good to us, so we give back to the local community as often as we can.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

“I’ve always been drawn to finely crafted beverages. Having been a homebrewer for over 30 years, I got the itch to maybe start my own brewery. Doing research on breweries, I determined that there were way too many and the market was a bit saturated. Could I do something else with my love of rum?

I had fallen in love with rum at a very early age and grew more intrigued as I visited several Caribbean islands to see how fine rum is produced. Researching micro-distilleries, I found the logical outlet for my dreams. Not only were there very few distilleries in the United States, but even fewer focused only on rum. I knew if I dedicated all my energy to making only rum, I could produce some of the finest anywhere.

We researched names that would tie the distillery to South Carolina and found the perfect fit with Swamp Fox Distilling connecting the distillery to Francis Marion (aka the Swamp Fox), the Revolutionary War general from South Carolina. We registered the company and name in 2017 and began looking for the perfect location to put the distillery. We found a beautiful 100-year-old building in historic downtown Pendleton, SC that would take a while to rehab, but gave us the perfect setting for the new rum distillery.

Knowing our rum would be bolder than most, we wanted to name the rum brand to reflect that character. “Pure Corruption®” became that name, and fits the rum perfectly. The distillery is now producing and selling some of the best rums money can buy.” While our rums have earned National Gold Medals, our “Dead Center XO” Single Barrel Aged Rum just earned our first International Gold Medal and Best In Category at the 2023 International American Distilling Institute Spirits Awards competition.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

We are a family owned and operated small business. We really brand it as such, and even though we make Gold medal awarding winning rum, our regulars love to see my family running the distillery. It’s just me, my wife and middle daughter who run the tasting room, which gives us a very special “feel” to our customers. They love it when they walk in and we welcome them by name. Having great rum gets them to come in, but knowing they have become part of our family keeps them coming back.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Your customers will dictate what is most popular, not you. I had a pre-concieved notion as to what styles of rum would be our best sellers, and thought for sure, our spiced rum would be our flagship. Now that I have 10 different styles of rum, it turns out that my spiced is ranked 8 out of 10 in sales. My customers tastes have dictated what they like best, the drinks they like best, and pretty much everything with our business. It’s crucial to take your passion, and align it with your customers wants and needs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.swampfoxdistilling.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/swampfoxdistilling/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SwampFoxDistillingPendleton/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/swamp-fox-distilling-pendleton?osq=swamp+fox+distilling