Misunderstood Brands Announces Strategic Partnership with Lofted Spirits

The Bardstown Bourbon Company distillery will become the primary production hub for Misunderstood Brands across multiple product lines

JERSEY CITY, N.J., Dec. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Misunderstood Brands, the innovation-driven spirits company behind Misunderstood Whiskey Co®. and OATRAGEOUS®, today announced a strategic production partnership with Lofted Spirits, marking a significant step in the company's nationwide expansion and acceleration of new product development.

Misunderstood enters this milestone off the heels of its Walmart Golden Ticket win - awarded for its OATRAGEOUS® Oat Milk Liqueur - and amid strong double-digit year-over-year growth and expanding national demand for its brands. The company's portfolio includes Misunderstood Ginger Spiced Whiskey, Orange Blossom Bourbon and Dairy-Free Oat Nog, alongside OATRAGEOUS®, which continues to modernize the cream liqueur category with a "less guilty indulging" approach.

As Misunderstood's footprint grows across key national and regional retailers, the company is preparing for substantial expansion in 2026. Partnering with Lofted Spirits enables Misunderstood to scale more efficiently, innovate more aggressively, and bring new category-pushing products to market with the support of one of the most advanced distilling ecosystems in the country.

Lofted Spirits – parent company of Bardstown Bourbon Company and Green River Distillery – emerged as the ideal partner thanks to its industry-leading manufacturing platform, deep technical expertise, and commitment to supporting next-generation brands. Under the new partnership, the Bardstown Bourbon Company distillery will become the primary production hub for Misunderstood Brands across multiple product lines. OATRAGEOUS® will become the first cream-based liqueur produced at the Bardstown Bourbon Company distillery, expanding the facility's capabilities.

"Lofted Spirits was built to partner with the most forward-thinking brands in the industry, and Misunderstood is exactly that," said Pete Marino, President of Lofted Spirits. "We offer the best co-manufacturing services in the American whiskey business and have been intentionally built to help scale brands like Misunderstood and OATRAGEOUS. Chris and JD are hungry, visionary entrepreneurs who are aggressively and creatively building some great brands and we are thrilled to help bring them to life at Bardstown."

"Lofted's support validates everything we've been building," said JD Recobs and Chris Buglisi, co-founders of Misunderstood Brands. "This partnership gives us the scale, the speed, and the world-class production backbone to meet the demand we're seeing nationwide while continuing to push into new categories with the creativity our consumers expect from us. With this momentum, we're strategically preparing for the next stage of growth as we move into 2026."

The integration with Lofted Spirits lays the foundation for deeper collaboration across the Misunderstood portfolio, expanded production capabilities, and accelerated development of new innovations set to roll out over the next year.

About Misunderstood Brands

Misunderstood Brands, founded by lifelong friends JD Recobs and Chris Buglisi, is an innovation-focused spirits company known for redefining categories through flavor and inclusivity. Their award-winning Misunderstood Whiskey Co. has earned national attention for their botanically infused whiskey portfolio such as Ginger Spiced Whiskey and seasonal Dairy-Free Oat Nog. Today, the company continues to lead the next wave of spirits innovation with brands like OATRAGEOUS® - the first portfolio of plant-based, dairy-free cream liqueurs in the U.S.

ABOUT LOFTED SPIRITS

From bespoke bourbon production to boundary-pushing brands, Lofted Spirits is where tradition meets transformation. Expanding on the work started by Peter Loftin in 2016, and today the number one producer of Kentucky contract whiskey, Lofted Spirits pioneered a world-class, industry-shaking approach to custom contract distillation while developing some of the fastest growing brands in American Whiskey, Bardstown Bourbon and Green River. A unified entity, Lofted Spirits is built to lead the global whiskey industry, delivering exceptional experiences through innovation, trust and transformative industry impact while crafting some of the world's most desired and awarded whiskies. Lofted Spirits joined the PPC family of companies in 2022. Learn more at the link below.