1. Acceptance of Terms

By accessing or using Whiskey Directory at whiskeydirectory.com (the "Site"), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use the Site.

These Terms apply to all visitors, registered users, and distillery owners who access or use the Site in any way. Your continued use of the Site after any updates to these Terms constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

These Terms are intended to be read alongside our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated herein by reference.

2. Who We Are

The Site is owned and operated by The Whiskey Directory, LLC, an Illinois limited liability company ("we," "our," or "us"). Whiskey Directory is a directory of craft distilleries offering tasting rooms and tours across major US metro areas. We do not own, operate, or manage any of the distilleries listed on the Site, and we are not a party to any transaction between users and distilleries.

3. Age Requirement

You must be 21 years of age or older to use this Site. By using the Site and confirming the age verification prompt, you represent and warrant that you are at least 21 years old.

We do not knowingly allow anyone under the age of 21 to register an account or use the Site. If we discover that a user is under 21, we will immediately terminate their account and delete their data. If you believe a minor has created an account, please contact us.

4. User Accounts

a. Registration

Certain features of the Site — such as saving favorites, building itineraries, and submitting reviews — require you to create a free account. When you register, you agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information and to keep that information up to date.

b. Account Security

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. You agree to notify us immediately if you suspect any unauthorized use of your account. We are not liable for any loss resulting from unauthorized access to your account caused by your failure to keep your credentials secure.

c. One Account Per Person

You may maintain only one personal account. Creating multiple accounts to circumvent suspensions, bans, or other restrictions is prohibited and may result in permanent termination of all associated accounts.

d. Account Deletion

You may delete your account at any time from your account settings or by contacting us. Upon deletion, your personal data will be handled as described in our Privacy Policy. Publicly published reviews may be retained in anonymized form after account deletion to preserve the integrity of the directory.

5. User-Generated Content

a. What You Submit

Registered users may submit reviews, ratings, and photos ("User Content"). All User Content is subject to review and must be approved by our moderation team before it is published on the Site. We reserve the right to reject, edit, or remove any User Content at our sole discretion.

b. License to Us

By submitting User Content, you grant The Whiskey Directory, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual license to use, reproduce, display, distribute, and modify your content in connection with operating and promoting the Site. You retain ownership of your content.

c. Your Representations

By submitting User Content, you represent and warrant that:

• You have personally visited the distillery you are reviewing;
• The content is accurate and reflects your genuine experience;
• You own or have the rights to any photos you submit;
• The content does not infringe any third-party intellectual property rights;
• The content does not contain defamatory, harassing, obscene, or otherwise unlawful material.

d. Content Standards

User Content must not:

• Be fake, misleading, or submitted by a distillery about its own business (or a competitor's business);
• Contain personal attacks, hate speech, or discriminatory language;
• Promote illegal activity;
• Include promotional or commercial content unrelated to an honest review;
• Contain private personal information about staff or other patrons.

6. Distillery Owner Listings

a. Claiming and Submitting Listings

Distillery owners may claim an existing listing or submit a new listing for their business. All claim requests and new listing submissions are subject to review and approval by our team before being published or granted owner access. We may request documentation to verify your relationship to the business.

b. Accuracy of Listing Information

As an owner, you are responsible for ensuring that your listing information — including hours, address, descriptions, photos, and contact details — is accurate and kept up to date. We reserve the right to correct, edit, or remove listing information that we believe to be inaccurate, misleading, or in violation of these Terms.

Changes to core address information will be flagged for admin review before going live on the Site.

c. One Owner Per Listing

Each distillery listing may only be managed by one owner account. Attempting to claim a listing already managed by another verified owner is prohibited.

d. License to Listing Content

By submitting listing content (including descriptions, photos, and business information), you grant The Whiskey Directory, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license to display, reproduce, and distribute that content in connection with operating and promoting the Site and the distillery's listing.

7. Paid Subscriptions

a. Plans Available

Distillery owners may upgrade their listing with a paid subscription plan for enhanced visibility on the Site. Current plans are described on the subscription page of the owner dashboard. Prices are subject to change with advance notice.

b. Billing

Subscriptions are billed on a recurring basis (monthly or annually, depending on the plan selected). By subscribing, you authorize us to charge your payment method through our payment processor, Stripe, for the applicable subscription fee at the start of each billing period. Billing continues automatically until you cancel.

c. Cancellation

You may cancel your subscription at any time through the owner dashboard or by contacting us. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current paid billing period — you will retain all paid subscription features until that date, and you will not be charged for the next period. We do not offer prorated refunds for unused time within a billing period.

d. What Happens When a Subscription Lapses

If your subscription is cancelled, expires, or payment fails and is not resolved, your listing will automatically revert to a free basic listing. You will not lose your listing or the content you have added; only the paid visibility features (such as highlighted or featured placement) will be removed.

e. Payment Failures

If a recurring payment fails, we may make additional attempts to charge the payment method on file. If the payment cannot be collected after those attempts, your subscription will be cancelled and your listing will revert to a free listing as described above. You will be notified by email if a payment fails.

f. Taxes

You are responsible for any applicable taxes associated with your subscription. Stripe may collect applicable sales tax based on your billing address.

8. Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to:

• Use the Site for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable law or regulation;
• Attempt to access, tamper with, or disrupt the Site's servers, databases, or security systems;
• Scrape, crawl, or otherwise systematically extract data from the Site without our written permission;
• Use automated tools (bots, scrapers, scripts) to access the Site in a manner that places an unreasonable load on our infrastructure;
• Submit false, misleading, or fraudulent reviews, listings, or claims;
• Impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
• Attempt to manipulate the Site's search rankings, review scores, or featured placements through dishonest means;
• Harass, threaten, or abuse other users, distillery staff, or our team;
• Introduce malware, viruses, or any other harmful code to the Site;
• Use the Site to send unsolicited commercial messages (spam).

Violation of these prohibitions may result in immediate account suspension or termination, and may be referred to law enforcement where appropriate.

9. Intellectual Property

All content on the Site that is not User Content or owner-submitted listing content — including the Whiskey Directory name, logo, design, editorial copy, guides, software, and overall look and feel — is owned by or licensed to The Whiskey Directory, LLC and is protected by applicable intellectual property laws.

You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, modify, or create derivative works from any part of the Site's proprietary content without our prior written permission. Personal, non-commercial use (such as sharing a link to a listing) is permitted.

10. DMCA Copyright Policy

We respect the intellectual property rights of others and expect users to do the same. In accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), we will respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement that comply with applicable law and are properly submitted to our designated copyright agent.

a. Reporting Infringement

If you believe that content on the Site infringes your copyright, please send a written notice to our designated DMCA agent containing all of the following:

• A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or a person authorized to act on their behalf;
• Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed;
• Identification of the infringing material and its location on the Site (e.g., the URL);
• Your contact information (name, address, telephone number, and email address);
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
• A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on their behalf.

b. Designated DMCA Agent

c. Counter-Notices

If you believe content was removed due to a mistake or misidentification, you may submit a written counter-notice to our DMCA agent. A valid counter-notice must include your contact information, identification of the removed content and its prior location, a statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good-faith belief the content was removed by mistake, and your consent to the jurisdiction of the federal court in your district.

d. Repeat Infringers

We will terminate the accounts of users who are repeat copyright infringers in appropriate circumstances.

11. Third-Party Links & Services

The Site may contain links to third-party websites, including distillery websites, booking platforms, and ad network destinations. We do not control these sites and are not responsible for their content, privacy practices, or availability. Links do not imply our endorsement of the linked site or its operators.

We use third-party services including Stripe (payment processing), Google Analytics (usage analytics), and ad network partners. Your use of these services is governed by their respective terms of service and privacy policies. See our Privacy Policy for more detail.

12. Disclaimers

The Site is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

We do not warrant that the Site will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of viruses or other harmful components. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any listing information, including but not limited to hours of operation, tasting room availability, tour schedules, pricing, or contact details. Distillery information on the Site is provided for general reference only. Always confirm details directly with the distillery before visiting.

User reviews represent the opinions of individual users and do not reflect the views of The Whiskey Directory, LLC. We do not verify the accuracy of user reviews beyond our content moderation process.

13. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, The Whiskey Directory, LLC and its members, managers, employees, and agents shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising out of or related to your use of — or inability to use — the Site, including but not limited to lost profits, lost data, or personal injury.

Our total liability to you for any claim arising out of or related to these Terms or the Site shall not exceed the greater of (a) the total amount you paid us in subscription fees in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim, or (b) one hundred dollars ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of liability for certain types of damages. In such jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted by law.

14. Account Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or permanently terminate your account, with or without notice, for any violation of these Terms, including (but not limited to) submitting fraudulent reviews, engaging in prohibited conduct, misrepresenting your business in a listing, or failing to maintain payment for a subscription after reasonable notice.

We may also terminate or suspend accounts where we determine, in our sole discretion, that continued access poses a risk to the integrity of the Site or the safety of other users.

You may terminate your own account at any time as described in Section 4(d). Upon any termination, your right to use the Site immediately ceases. Sections 5(b), 9, 12, 13, and 15 of these Terms survive termination.

15. Governing Law

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict of law principles. Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Site that is not resolved informally shall be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois, and you consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts.

We encourage you to contact us first if you have a dispute. We will make a good-faith effort to resolve it before resorting to formal legal proceedings.

16. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms at any time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. If changes are material — for example, changes to subscription terms, limitation of liability, or governing law — we will notify registered users by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect.

Your continued use of the Site after any changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms. If you do not agree to revised Terms, you should stop using the Site and may delete your account.

17. Contact Us

Questions about these Terms? Reach us at: