Death's Door went big, but bankruptcy doesn't mean the end for the distilling company

MIDDLETON — When Brian Ellison, Brian Vandewalle and Leah Caplan launched a line of distilled spirits named after a hazardous passage way off the Door County Peninsula, they wanted to make storytellers out of waiters and waitresses, chefs and bartenders.

The idea was to have them tell the tale of a Wisconsin-based company that used grains and juniper berries from Washington Island to produce vodka and gin.

Now, however, the story is one of bankruptcy with hopes of a rebirth.

But it’s a story that doesn’t match the rest of the craft distilling industry nationally nor in Wisconsin.

Death’s Door started in 2007. The state’s craft distilling industry was in its infancy and trying to mimic the rapid growth of the craft brewing industry that was, as it turns out, beginning its own meteoric rise.

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