Help Kat Direksyon Wines Launch Worldwide!

I'm Marcus Hammonds and I make strawberry wines.

Growing up, I witnessed my grandmother, Sophie, do the same.

In 2016, I made a batch which I eventually would give the name Prentan and hosted a small wine tasting with my wife at our home.

After that, I tasked myself with discovering whether the wine could be successful as a business. I spoke with industry compliance experts, read an assortment of books, got advice from distillers and other wine makers, attended classes about business and exposed my wine to thousands of people at events like the River North Wine Fest and the Junior League's Perfect Pairings event.

I found a location that I believe is perfect in a community filled with college educated art, jazz and food loving people.

But then covid-19 caused the world to take a long pause...

Two years ago, I came across a brewery for sale and attempted to pull some resources together to buy it, but that fell through.

Since then, I've taken a step back from opening a winery and have decided to use another winery to get the wines manufactured. For the short term, I will be a distributor of my wines.

So far I have a Federal wine distributor permit and am working on the State license requirements.

The state license cost $400. Registering my business in Illinois as a foreign corporation also cost $400. The financial responsibility bond needed to satisfy the Illinois Department of Revenue costs $100. The down payment for the production of 500 cases of wine is $15,000.

I have raised the goal of this gofundme from three years ago to $22,000 in order to raise the additional funds needed.

For more information about the wines, visit www.katdireksyon.com or @katdireksyonwinery on Instagram.

Thank you for your donation!

#SmallBusinessRelief