Marko Suput

The Path

The founder’s role at Rock 12 Distillery has been continuous since 2016, and that continuity matters in a small distillery where the same person who sets the concept also carries it through day to day. Marko Suput holds the work in a single chain of responsibility: founder, owner, Head Distiller. The title sequence describes how the distillery has been built and maintained, with the logic of fruit, fermentation, and spirit kept under one hand from the start.

The Work Today

Fruit brandy remains the center of the work at Rock 12 Distillery in Lompoc, where Marko Suput serves as owner and Head Distiller. His own phrasing is plain about the scale and intention of the operation: “This is kind of the dream — running my own chemical plant.” The line fits the trade, where production is both technical and practical, and where the identity of the distillery comes from controlled transformation rather than ornament.

Signature

Marko's signature wines include Victus Amaro. Within the broader range of his work, the bottle shows the same discipline that defines the distillery’s fruit brandy program: attention to structure, ingredient, and final expression. Victus Amaro sits as another measured point in the lineup, tied to the same standards of making and finish.

In Their Words “This is kind of the dream — running my own chemical plant.” “Any fruit that grows there gets turned into brandy.”

Acclaim

Marko Suput has received John Barleycorn Society, best liqueur (2023). The recognition here is sustained authorship. Since 2016, Marko Suput has remained the person behind Rock 12 Distillery’s fruit-to-brandy approach, holding the concept, the operation, and the daily practice together. That consistency is the point: the distillery’s identity is built from a clear idea and the repeated work of carrying it out.