Long Island founders bring Heritage Road Spirits home to Suffolk County

Heritage Road Spirits is betting that a Suffolk story can do more than decorate a label. The Long Island-founded bourbon brand has turned a casual conversation in Shoreham into a retail push that now reaches Wading River, Patchogue and Miller Place, with its first New York account at Wines By Nature in Wading River.

The founders, Nick Corleto and Dan Swanson, began shaping the company in 2023 after meeting a fellow Long Islander at a party who had distilling and co-packing experience in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Corleto, a Wading River resident, Long Island school administrator, chemistry graduate and U.S. Air Force veteran, had already won awards for home-brewing beer and experimented with a small home still his wife gave him. Swanson, a union steamfitter, brought a different kind of hands-on discipline. The result was a plan that moved from kitchen-table talk to a production run in September 2024.

That production model still defines the business. Heritage Road Spirits does not try to present itself as a giant distillery with local production overhead in Suffolk County. Instead, the bourbon is contract-distilled in Tennessee, with barrels made to the founders’ specifications and blending handled by Corleto and Swanson. The company lists its straight bourbon at 96.4 proof, sells it online for $43.99, and has cited a suggested retail price of $46.99 for a 750ml bottle. It describes itself as veteran-owned, award-winning and available in Tennessee, Texas and New York.

The brand’s Suffolk footprint is still small, but it is real. Bottles have started appearing at Phil’s Restaurant in Wading River and Daisy’s Nashville Lounge in Patchogue, while the company was finishing account information for Daisy’s Miller Place location. A June 6 tasting at Wines By Nature doubled as a live beta test for the company’s iPhone app, which Corleto said is meant to help a two-person operation manage event submissions, a store locator, a calendar, geolocated check-ins and bourbon education. The app also generates QR codes for tasting events.

That mix of local placements, a modest retail price and a distinctly Long Island founding story is what gives Heritage Road Spirits its commercial edge. In a crowded beverage market, Suffolk roots are not just a slogan for the label’s “road less traveled” identity. They are the company’s best argument that a small bourbon brand can earn attention by sounding like the place it came from.