dsmWealth: July 17, 2025

In the plush Sina Villa Medici hotel in Florence, Italy, the welcoming drink at Harry’s Bar Firenze regularly takes top honors in national aperitivo competition. And with a little luck — and money — that accolade could include Iowa-made Revelton mulberry gin.

Revelton Distillery, in Osceola, recently launched its second round of capital formation. The opportunity is open to accredited investors with a minimum of $25,000 to participate, which is meant to help the distillery expand into markets in other states and, possibly, Italy.

If you’d like to pitch in, Revelton co-founders Rob and Christi Taylor would love to hear from you (info@reveltondistillery.com). He is a former lawmaker, she is a practicing physician, and they both got their first taste of the spirits business in 2011 at a bourbon festival in Kentucky, where a Wild Turkey distiller told them that most of Kentucky’s bourbon was made from Iowa-grown corn.

Hmm, the Taylors thought. Why ship corn all the way to Kentucky when you could just make Iowa bourbon from Iowa corn? Soon enough, Rob enrolled in a distillers’ school and started building a distillery. Revelton joined a small but growing group of other Iowa distillers that have popped up in recent years, including Cedar Ridge in Swisher, Blue Ox in northeast Des Moines, and the reimagined Templeton operation in its namesake town.

The Taylors found a property alongside Interstate 35 just outside Osceola and set up shop in late 2020 in a former winery. Tours and tastings are available on the weekends, when you can visit the spacious tasting room on the top floor and the full-sized distillery in the basement. The commander there is “Lucy,” a gleaming 33-foot tall metal still. The corn, rye and nearly everything else comes from local farms. Spent mash is kept local, too: It’s fed to cattle.

At present, the company makes rye, whiskey, bourbon, gin and vodka. A warehouse behind the still holds the barrels of rye, whiskey and bourbon, which require aging. Vodka and gin can be directly bottled and sold, generating cash while those brown liquors age.

Currently, Revelton markets in Iowa and three other states. Rob said the new $6 million capital campaign will fund the company’s expansion. Lucy can produce a lot more alcohol, and there is plenty of warehouse space, but entering new markets takes money. Taylor did not specify which states, although neighboring Minnesota and Illinois would bring in 15 million more potential consumers.

And, of course, there’s Italy. “We’re thinking globally,” Rob said.

That may not be as off-beat as it sounds. An Italian family participated in Revelton’s first round of capital investment, and Rob, speaking just after he finished a trip to Italy, said the family may well pitch in again. Investors were limited to 1% in Round One, but that cap has been lifted.

The Spirits Business, an industry publication, recently reported that Italy has surpassed Spain as a top importer of British gin. Revelton has gained a reputation for its mulberry gin. With proper funding, maybe an American gin can land a spot on the drinks menu at Harry’s Bar Firenze.

Investing in a barrel of booze may not be a great idea
BY STEVE DINNEN

There are many ways to enjoy fine Scotch whisky — by the glass, with just a touch of ice to cool it a bit, or maybe a bottle if you care to share. But by the cask? As an alternative investment, a 200-liter barrel may not be the best idea.

I recently had a conversation with a whiskey broker from England who is marketing investments in whiskey distilled in Scotland. (Yes, we call it scotch; in its homeland, it’s just whiskey). The idea is to hold the whiskey for a time, let it appreciate in value and then sell it for a profit.

But there are pitfalls. For starters, you have a storage fee. You have to insure it. You lose some of the product over time to what is called the “angels’ share,” the 2-5% that evaporates naturally as it sits in those casks over the course of a year.

And then what? The company that distilled it won’t buy it back. And it’s not like you can easily set up a bottling line and take it to market yourself. And only in the rarest instance will you even be allowed to use the name of the distiller who sold it to you. From what I gathered, the whiskey sometimes is sold back to the marketer, who then markets it under a different label.

There is a bit of a tax dodge to this, thanks to that angels’ share. Whiskey casks are often classified as a "wasting asset" by the British government and any profit from their sale likely is exempted from the country’s capital gains tax.

In a testimonial, a British investor noted that he had bought some barrels, sold them back to the original seller and netted more than a 10% return in little more than a year. As an alternative off-shore risky investment, that’s a pretty low return. So take a pass, and just enjoy it by the glass.

Dividend increases: 7 stocks with rising payouts
BY DAN BURROWS FOR KIPLINGER

Dividend growth continues to slow sharply amid uncertainty over U.S. trade policy. Happily, income investors can still count on select S&P 500 names to deliver sizable and reliable hikes to their payouts.

U.S. dividend payers collectively raised their payouts by $9.8 billion in the second quarter of 2025, according to the latest data from S&P Dow Jones Indices. That's a whopping 50% decrease versus the nearly $20 million in common dividends disbursed in the first quarter. Dividend increases fell by slightly more than 50% vs the year-ago period, too.

"Dividend growth declined in Q2 2025, as concern over forward cash commitment was inhabited by the uncertainty over tariffs and its impact on sales, costs and the general economy," writes Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. "Overall, companies continued to increase their dividends, but with smaller increases for those on a perceived schedule (annually)."

Read the full article to see which companies, including Wells Fargo and Williams-Sonoma, are bumping up payouts.

5 books to help you build a bigger nest egg for retirement
BY JANE HODGES FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

These are uncertain times for people saving for retirement. Volatile markets, higher healthcare costs and talks about cuts to government entitlements have investors worried as ever about the adequacy of their portfolios.

As if that is not enough, many Americans say they are underprepared for retirement. Some 25% of adults with retirement savings say they have set aside one year or less of their current income for the future, according to research released in April from Northwestern Mutual.

What’s an anxious investor to do? For many, a good book can offer reminders about evergreen financial truths during periods of market tumult—or offer new perspectives on retirement. With that in mind, The Wall Street Journal asked financial planners what titles they recommend to retirement-minded clients during this period of volatility.

‘Mastering the Market Cycle’

For investors concerned about volatility and fluctuating market conditions, “Mastering the Market Cycle” by Howard Marks offers “a great reminder of how emotions drive cyclical market prices more than the underlying fundamental value of an investment,” says David K. MacLeod, an adviser at Eclectic Associates in Fullerton, Calif.

He adds that Marks’s book does a good job communicating that, while it isn’t possible to time markets, markets do swing based on investor euphoria and investor fear. “Fear can take over; it’s to be expected during the lifetime of any long-term investor,” MacLeod says. “It’s important to guide investors in understanding when and why we rebalance or derisk a portfolio.”

Periodic adjustments that consider market conditions are one thing, he adds, while overcorrection based on emotion is another. Ultimately, he says, investors can benefit from the book by learning the investing fundamentals that protect them from acting out of emotion and against their own interests. In a downturn, they’ll understand not exiting entirely; in an exuberant market, they won’t overemphasize investments in riskier stocks or sectors.

Read the full article for four more book recommendations.