Roaming Road Spirits is built on a simple, stubborn idea: go anywhere, taste everything, bottle only the casks that stop you mid-sip, and leave them exactly as you found them.
That means single cask, cask strength releases across bourbon, rye, rum, Cognac, Armagnac and Irish whiskey, from 50+ year old Cognacs to long-aged Caribbean rums, Kentucky bourbons finished on the Irish coast, and whatever else the road happens to throw up next.
At its centre is Mike Gilmore, a Wyoming native who has spent nearly two decades finding great casks and trusting his palate.
Old-school instincts, modern roads
“I’ve been in the industry about 18 years,” Gilmore says. “I started in the US with a retail liquor store, and early on, I was going out to Kentucky, building relationships with distilleries, doing cask selections, and bringing them back as store-exclusive picks. I was kind of doing that before it became such a big thing in the US.”
It is a familiar starting point, even if the geography has changed. Before global brands, before marketing departments, whisky was often shaped by grocers.
Think John Walker, who began as a grocer in Kilmarnock, or Mitchell & Sons in Dublin, whose role as wine and spirit merchants is immortalised in the Spot whiskey range. These were merchants who sourced, selected, blended, and bottled spirits for their communities based on trust and taste rather than spreadsheets.
Gilmore’s path follows that same old-world logic, just applied globally.
Say hello to Mike Gilmore
No shortcuts
Roaming Road takes that merchant mindset and stretches it across borders. Instead of blending for consistency, Gilmore leans into inconsistency. Instead of smoothing edges, he celebrates them.
“I was doing barrel picks for over ten years,” he says. “People trusted my palate. They’d come from all over the US to buy those casks. That trust is everything.”
That trust is the foundation of Roaming Road. There are brands built around strategy decks and market gaps, and then there are brands built around obsession. Roaming Road Spirits belongs firmly in the second camp. Gilmore’s philosophy is disarmingly simple.
“Everything I do is single cask and cask strength. I don’t blend anything. That’s all I know. That’s my wheelhouse.”
Thisis Gilmore’s happy place
Sample, sample, sample
Crucially, Gilmore does not buy blind.
“I do everything on site, and I don’t work from samples. I believe in relationships. You can’t build those over the phone. I want to meet the producers, sit down with them, understand how they work, where it’s stored, the history, all of it.”
It is an approach that makes Roaming Road slower, harder, and far less scalable. Gilmore is unapologetic.
“I’ll try 30 casks and pick three. A lot don’t make the cut. Single cask means you get one shot. You can’t blend it away. It’s a moment in time. Two casks can sit side by side for 20 years and taste completely different. When it’s gone, it’s gone.”
That philosophy extends to packaging.
“I want the liquid to be the star. I want you to see the colour. The label tells you what you need to know. If you want more, email me. I’m an open book.”
The journey began with bourbon and rye
From bourbon roots to a global hunt
Bourbon was Gilmore’s first love. The entry point. He went deep, visiting every distillery he could, making friends, learning everything. He’s a fellow self-confessed nerd. But bourbon also taught him something else.
“You’re working within a flavour band. A great band, but still a band.”
Rum promised something else. Australia. Jamaica. Barbados. Venezuela. Guyana. Haiti. Panama. Trinidad. Cane juice. Molasses. Pot still. Column still.
“When customers started bringing me aged single cask rums, unadulterated, no sugar, no colouring, just distillate, time and wood, it blew my mind. That was my first ‘oh shit’ moment. The flavour range was enormous. That really opened my eyes.”
Roaming Roads took Gilmore to rum from all corners
Launching Roaming Road in the US
From there, France followed naturally.
“Armagnac is an easy step for bourbon drinkers. Calvados absolutely floored me. That’s coming soon. France just keeps surprising me.”
Roaming Road Spirits officially launched in the US in 2024, but the groundwork had been laid for years.
“I already had access to these casks. Aged rums. Cognacs over 50 years old. Armagnacs. Irish whiskey. It just made sense to bring them together under one name. It was very popular straight away. People connected with the purity. The honesty. The fact that it was all single cask, all cask strength, no messing.”
The range is now considerable in scope
Ireland and the accidental innovation
Then came Ireland. Looking for Irish whiskey casks, Gilmore explains that he kept noticing something missing.
Ireland had the big American brands. The household names. What it did not have was true single cask, cask-strength Kentucky bourbon. He formulated an idea.
“Because bourbon is such a big part of who I am, I thought, Americans live here. Americans visit here. They must miss proper bourbon. I’ve accumulated a couple of hundred bourbon and rye casks over the years. I work with Bardstown Bourbon Company, they handle my storage and bottling. So I thought, why not export those casks to Ireland and finish them in Irish whiskey casks on the coast?”
No one had done it before. Gilmore wasn’t even sure it would work. It did.
Gilmore at the 4 July event
Whiskey Live, Dublin, and the 4 July moment
Gilmore debuted the concept at Whiskey Live Dublin.
“The reception was incredible. People were telling me it was the best stuff in the room. And there were a hundred distilleries there.”
Including, as it turned out, representatives from the US Embassy. A week later, a call was made, and Gilmore was asked to pour at the Fourth of July celebration at the Ambassador’s Residence. That’s where the brand really launched internationally.
Two thousand people. Dignitaries. That was a moment, and everything accelerated from there. Roaming Road Spirits International Ltd. was formed soon after, based in Dublin.
The sky is the limit for Roaming Road
Scotland, Mexico, Japan… Whatever comes next
Gilmore doesn’t intend for Ireland to be the end, either.
“When I started talking to accounts in Scotland, more than one asked if I’d thought about finishing bourbon in Scotch casks. And I thought, yeah, I can do that.”
Speyside. Highlands. Lowlands. Whatever works. Gilmore sees it all as the same idea. Bringing whiskey cultures together without overpowering the bourbon. The bourbon is always the star. And beyond whisky, the road keeps widening.
“Mexico is coming. Barrel-aged mezcal. Japan is doing fascinating things with rice whisky. Ceramic ageing. That interests me. I don’t use checklists. If I find something great and unique, I’ll do it. I don’t want to miss something special because it didn’t fit a box.”
For Gilmore, this is a passion project
A brand built on the hunt
As Roaming Road grows, something interesting is happening. People are reaching out now. Saying, ‘We’ve got something you might like.’
“That’s exciting. There could be a cask sitting somewhere for 20 years that no one’s done anything with. That’s exactly what I’m looking for. I’m not releasing 10,000 bottles. It’s niche. It’s hard. But it’s special. And I’m not changing it.”
Because for Gilmore, the work is the reward.
“The hunt, the exploration, the find. That’s what drives me. This whole thing is a passion project. There is no set plan. The name says it all. I’m roaming. I never know where I’m going next.”
