Our Story,
Our Passion
About Us
Hello, we’re Laurie & Bernard Quandt, the husband and wife founding team of War Trail Spirits! And though we weren’t born in Texas, our story is just as the bumper sticker says… We ‘got here as fast as we could.’
After raising our kids— we quit our careers, loaded up the pirate ship, burnt the house, the bridge, and the dock, and sailed off on a mission to create a beloved Texas distillery that would allow our customers to “Taste Texas in a Glass!”
We’re Passionate About Creating Great Texas Taste in Every Sip!
We believe in tradition with a modern Texas twist!
- We mix traditional methods with modern methods
- Experiment with all natural tastes
- Develop unique blends
- Conduct general “Can we make this blow up?” experiments!
A quick note to our insurance broker if they’re reading this: So far, it’s not literal.
Our passion is making Texas Bourbon a reason to visit the great state. If you can’t visit, we want you to at least taste Texas in every sip! With the mineral water, mesquite and sage-scented winds, and the hot sun tastefully married with the finest of ingredients, we’ve ultimately set out to produce something genuinely singular in taste!
About War Trail
Our Texas Distillery is located in the Texas Hill Country, a unique geographical region of Texas where the plains end, and the arid rolling hills begin. It’s a land comprised of beautiful lakes and rivers, granite outcroppings, mesquite, cedar, prickly pear, and bluebonnet flowers.
Historically, this region was an area that experienced substantial conflicts between the Natives, the Cowboys, Mexican settlers, Texas Rangers, and even German settlers who turned into ranchers. In other words, it’s quite a melting pot! And at the edge of “discovered” territory, a population of people who had spent everything on a one-way trip settled to make a new life. Meanwhile, the Native Americans watched and sometimes took action to reverse the tide of regional change.
Established on Rich Land & History
In the 1500s, when Spanish explorers released horses into America— be it by accident or on purpose, they had no idea what changes a single animal would bring to the Natives. Native Americans, up to that time, had no horses to travel or hunt. However, this circumstance quickly changed as some tribes became masters of the horse and, thus, masters of the great plains! Horse tribes like the Apache and then the Comanche ruled this land, and the Hill Country area was the frontier where these cultural groups met and sometimes clashed.
Every year, the Comanche would use one of the War Trails to enter into what is now Mexico to raid and capture horses from Spanish settlers and other local tribes. After their raids, they would head back up the War Trail to their winter camps in the heart of Comanche territory. Today, this area is known as Palo Duro Canyon.
Our distillery is within sight of some of the first and last battles between the Comanche and settlers; it also happens to be on one of the Annual War Trails used by the Comanche.
Hence, our distillery name became War Trail Spirits!
The Spirit of Texas Remains
The Comanche people were bold, brave, ruthless, master horsemen, and supremely free. In truth, the Comanche way of life could not survive in the “modern” era, just as the Vikings couldn’t survive in modern Europe or Genghis Khan’s Mongols in modern Asia. However, their spirit tempered the land and the people.
And today, we’re better in part because of them; we learned freedom out here on the frontier!
Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.
Sam Houston
Contact Us!
Taste • Tradition • Texas
