FWK

Fetter WhisKey

This nascent brand came into existence only a few months ago, but the idea for it is almost a year old. After completing the level 1 Whiskey Somm program at the Whiskey Marketing School in Austin, Texas, I started thinking about how I’d want to represent myself in the future if I ever did anything or put anything out there using my whiskey knowledge. Immediately, I knew that I wanted to honor my grandfather in my brand.

My grandfather, Bill, or Pop as his grandkids called him, was a sharp businessman. He started his career as an IBM salesperson, spending 16 years with the company, during which time he became a member of IBM’s Golden Circle for his performance, which recognized him as one of the 100 best salesmen for the company in the entire country. Then, in 1978, he bought Wendell August Forge, a historic hand forge, and helped bring it into a new commercial age. The company now makes metal ornaments, coasters, serving dishware, and a whole host of other things. On top of all of his entrepreneurial success, Pop was also an avid collector. He had boxes and boxes of sports cards, hundreds of foreign coins, and even got into collecting grandfather clocks, with dozens hanging and sitting around his house.

I didn’t learn that Pop also had a whiskey tradition until many years after he passed, however. It was a tradition passed down to him from his family, and one he carried on throughout his life and with his children. It’s nothing fancy. He had a special bottle of whiskey – for him it was Old Fitzgerald – tucked away in a box specially made by Wendell August Forge that he only brought out for major life events of family members. On such occasions, such as graduations or marriages or other similar life-defining events, Pop would bring the bottle out, and (at the time) all the men in the family would gather together, write their names in special booklet to commemorate the date, and take a shot of the warm brown liquor together.

I love and miss my grandpa, so to honor him and his name, I thought I would create a brand that used his initials, FWK. Despite going by Bill, his full name was Frank Wilson Knecht III. And so, after many possible iterations, and with the help of my uncle – my grandfather’s only son, Frank Wilson Kneckt IV, the simple capitalization of the K in whiskey was decided on and the brand was officially born.

Fetter WhisKey

FWK