The company was the subject of a proposal to locally surtax its product in 2011. It was claimed that the distillery, the main employer in a company town, had capitalized on the bucolic image of Lynchburg, Tennessee, and it ought to pay a tax of $10 per barrel. The company responded that such a tax is a confiscatory imposition penalizing it for the success of the enterprise. The proposed tax faced a vote by the Metro Lynchburg-Moore County Council and was defeated 10-5.