Mequon-based Big League Distributing has announced that it will distribute Illinois-made Alexander James Whiskey expressions – a brand created by former Division I college athlete Jesse Steward Jr. – in Wisconsin.
Steward – who was a sprinter and jumper at Purdue University and Lewis University (as well as being an operations supervisor at O’Hare International Airport, which is probably a challenging sport of its own!) – has a bourbon and a rye so far.
Each is distilled by Two Eagles Distillery in Mount Prospect, Illinois, aged four years in charred American white oak barrels and bottled at 90 proof.
"Big League Distributing and Alexander James are a great match," says Steward, who launched his whiskey brand on his 30th birthday in October 2021. "The BLD team understands that behind every high-quality product is a meaningful story. And those stories are key ingredients.
“Alexander James was born of my family's rich history passed down to me from my father, his father and so on, each story told over a glass of whiskey. BLD also made history in its founding. Wisconsin is a state of discerning diners and drinkers, and we are confident that Alexander James will resonate."
The deal is the first to distribute Steward’s whiskeys outside Illinois.
But, I admit I’ve buried the lead here, because Big League Distributing (BLD), founded in March by former professional baseball player Larry Hisle Jr. and journalist James H. Burnett III, appears to be Wisconsin’s first-ever Black-owned alcohol distributor.
“BLD, to the best of our knowledge and that of alcohol industry veterans we consulted, is the first Black-founded, minority-owned alcohol distributorship in Wisconsin,” Hisle says, noting that four years of planning went into the 2024 launch.
“Black-founded because two African American men created the company before bringing in our third partner, an Indian American man (Krishan Mehta), whose father was a successful first-generation immigrant from India.”
In addition to Steward’s bourbon and rye, BLD distributes more than a dozen wine varietals from two different California-based wineries and a New York-Jersey Metro-area importer. Among them are Baker Family Wines, which is co-owned by former LMB star Dusty Baker, and Robert Randolph Prosecco, a label created by Grammy-nominated guitarist Robert Randolph.
“We had a great tequila brand on board as well, but a catastrophic production issue iced that arrangement,” Hisle says. “It has been a roller coaster ride – but thankfully far more ups than downs – as we’ve grown our business over the past five years.
“We’ve learned a great deal, including the solution to the chicken-or-egg question of which to put the most energy into at first/up front: scoring more ‘carriers’ or building up a variety of product offerings and inventory to ensure stability and lower the risk of supply line interruptions.”
What they learned? Focus on the latter and the former will come.
“Now that we’ve got a healthy variety, we’re making an aggressive push to get into more venues,” he says. “We hear from restaurant and tavern owners every week requesting meetings to either taste or coordinate the purchase of our products. This game is a marathon and not a sprint. And we’re in a good place, a great place.”
To help further expand its business, BLD will host an industry tasting event later this month for owners, managers and buyers at local restaurants, taverns, retail outlets and entertainment venues that sell alcoholic beverages.
Of course, the Alexander James Whiskey bourbon and rye will be featured.
“We’re especially excited to work with Jesse Steward, founder of Alexander James, for several reasons,” Hisle says. “His distillery produces quality whiskeys. To date, his products are the closest to Wisconsin that we carry, geographically. So, the logistics will be easier.
“And there’s a personal element. We want people to work with us because we offer great products and service. But we recognize that we’ve made history with our entree into the wholesale alcohol business. To be executives on the distribution side of this industry is extremely rare for people of color, especially Black Americans. It’s less rare but still something of a novelty to see ‘us’ on the production side. So we feel a bond with Jesse as both his operation and ours push to rise and thrive in this industry.”
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
