Food & Wine’s 2025 Drinks Visionaries

Nora Ganley-Roper and Adam Polonski are serious whiskey nerds. In 2018, when the husband-and-wife team founded Lost Lantern, an independent bottler of American whiskey, the couple were already well-versed in the spirits landscape. Ganley-Roper worked as a sales manager at the esteemed New York City retailer Astor Wines & Spirits, and Polonski worked as a journalist and senior whiskey specialist at ​Whisky Advocate​. 

They both fell hard for American whiskey, especially the country’s smaller, lesser-known gems. “When we started, the volume of distilleries was just starting to reach a point where they were truly making world-class whiskey outside of Kentucky,” says Ganley-Roper. Most of the distilleries were new, Polonski adds: “More than 90% of American distilleries have opened since 2010.” But many of those world-class distilleries without big names were unknown outside of their communities and had difficulty getting national attention and distribution.

That’s where Lost Lantern comes in. Modeled after the long-standing Scottish tradition of buying whiskey from distilleries and bottling it under its own label, the company scours the country for undiscovered whiskeys, bottles the spirits, and distributes them to a national audience. Though independent bottlers date to Johnnie Walker’s humble beginnings in the 1850s, the concept is not as familiar in the U.S. as it is in the U.K. Breaking from tradition, Lost Lantern makes sure consumers know whose product is in the bottle by highlighting the stories of the distilleries it works with.

After laying the groundwork in 2018, Lost Lantern released its first bottles in 2020. At the time, “we had probably worked with six or seven distilleries from four or five states around the country,” says Polonski, Lost Lantern’s official whiskey cask hunter. Today, they collaborate with more than 40 distilleries in 20-plus states. “We’re not buying whiskey from one or two places,” he adds. “We’re playing with a huge array of sources, a huge palette of flavors.”

Lost Lantern has worked with some of the most exciting emerging American whiskeys, releasing both single-barrel expressions and blends, which Ganley-Roper oversees as head blender in their production space in Vergennes, Vermont. 

The company’s motto is “Shining a light on the independent spirit.” In just half a decade, Ganley-Roper and Polonski have done just that. They’ve elevated the American craft whiskey industry, curated innovative bottlings, and platformed their stories. Most importantly, they’ve fostered a sense of discovery in the modern American whiskey drinker.

Food & Wine’s Drinks Visionaries program showcases the people who have changed how we drink, from bartenders and restaurant owners to distillers, winemakers, and beyond. Discover the rest of 2025’s honorees here.