If you've ever sipped sotol on a Hill Country patio and thought, 'man, I love this Texas spirit thing,' you might want to sit down for this one. Desert Door, the Driftwood-based distillery that pretty much put Texas sotol on the map, is going through some serious internal turbulence right now.
According to reporting from the Austin Business Journal, things behind the scenes at Desert Door have gotten pretty messy. We're talking the kind of organizational chaos that makes you wonder how the bottles kept flowing as long as they did. Disputes, leadership shake-ups, and the general drama that tends to happen when a small craft operation tries to scale up faster than its infrastructure can handle.
Desert Door built a real following out here — the kind of brand that Austinites were proud to put in front of out-of-town guests as proof that Texas does cool stuff. Their outdoor space in Driftwood became a legit destination, and the sotol itself earned serious respect in craft cocktail circles. So watching it hit rough waters stings a little.
The details of exactly who said what and who's pointing fingers at whom are still a bit murky from what's been reported publicly, but the gist is that the company's internal structure apparently couldn't keep up with its ambitions. That's a story we've seen play out with more than a few Austin darlings over the years.
No word yet on what this means for the brand's future or whether you'll still be able to grab a bottle at your local liquor store. We'll be keeping an eye on how this shakes out — because honestly, losing Desert Door from the Austin spirits scene would be a real bummer. Fingers crossed they find a way to get it together.