Pound & Penny Spirits, a sales and brand-building platform launched by Virginia Distillery Co., announced a strategic partnership with BLACK BAND Distillery, selecting the Peoria, Illinois-based producer as its exclusive Bourbon category partner.

The partnership marks BLACK BAND’s first expansion beyond Illinois. Pound & Penny Spirits will provide commercial leadership across sales strategy, distributor development, national account execution, field sales, marketing planning, and long-term brand building as BLACK BAND enters select new markets.

Founded by Peoria native and Principal Distiller Chris Ober, BLACK BAND Distillery was built to reestablish Peoria’s place in American whiskey. Once home to 73 distilleries and widely known as the “Whiskey Capital of the World” before Prohibition, Peoria had no operating whiskey distillery for more than a century. BLACK BAND opened in 2021 as the city’s first craft distillery since Prohibition.

BLACK BAND’s whiskey portfolio includes its flagship BLACK BAND Bourbon, Four Grain Bourbon, and Straight Rye, all distilled and matured in Peoria. The distillery works with certified organic Midwest grain, naturally filtered Sankoty Aquifer water, and maintains both USDA Organic and OU Kosher certifications. With ample inventory of whiskey aged five years and beyond, BLACK BAND enters its next phase of growth with the maturity and supply to support a disciplined market expansion.

“BLACK BAND is precisely the type of brand Pound & Penny was designed to represent,” Andrew Meissner, President of Pound & Penny Spirits, said in a news release. “It has authentic production credentials, a distinctive and meaningful origin story, a clear point of view, and the aged inventory necessary to build the right way. Chris has created something rare in American whiskey: a brand that is deeply rooted in a specific place but has genuine relevance well beyond it. We are proud to select BLACK BAND as our exclusive Bourbon partner and look forward to bringing the Whiskey City story to new markets.”

BLACK BAND Bourbon (SRP $49.99) is a 46% ABV expression built on a mash bill of 64% corn, 29% rye, and 7% malted barley, with notes of caramel, vanilla, baking spice, and oak. The Four Grain Bourbon (SRP $54.99) combines corn, wheat, rye, and malted barley, while the Straight Rye (SRP $54.99) features a 100% rye mash bill and is bottled at 50% ABV. 

BLACK BAND also produces a Coffee Liqueur (SRP $29.99, 25% ABV), made with organic wheat distillate, single-origin coffee, Madagascar vanilla, and organic invert sugar, with notes of rich earth, cocoa, caramel, and brown sugar. The portfolio has earned Double Gold and Gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. At the 2026 ASCOT Awards, BLACK BAND was the only craft spirits producer to earn Best in Category honors in two categories, including for its Straight Rye.

“Growing up in Peoria, I knew the history of this city and the role it once played in American whiskey. It always felt like a shame that the Whiskey City no longer had a whiskey distillery of its own,” Chris Ober, Founder and Principal Distiller of BLACK BAND Distillery, said. “I felt uniquely positioned to help bring that legacy back, not by recreating the past, but by building a distillery worthy of it. We have been deliberate about establishing BLACK BAND the right way in Illinois first. With Pound & Penny, we now have a partner that understands how to take that story to new markets while protecting the standards, purpose, and authenticity behind the brand.”

Read more: ASCOT Awards: Best Bourbon, Best Whiskey, Tequila & More

About Pound & Penny Spirits

Launched by Virginia Distillery Co. in early 2026, Pound & Penny Spirits provides a long-term commercial platform for a select portfolio of premium, category-exclusive spirits brands, combining national sales management, distributor oversight, pricing and route-to-market strategy, account development, field execution, marketing support, and export services. For more information, visit Pound & Penny.