Drinking Wyoming: Pinedale Premium Sprits Label Found On Shelves In Ireland

Pinedale photographer and retired insurance agent Dave Bell landed in Dublin on a family vacation recently with a mission. He wasn't looking for the Guinness Storehouse. He wasn't looking for a castle. He wasn't even on the prowl for a pub. He was searching for a bottle of spirits with a distinctly Wyoming connection. 'I'm going to go find a Roaming Roads bottle at some place in Ireland,' Bell decided before leaving home. It didn't take long. The Bell family had barely started walking through downtown Dublin when they found a high-end liquor store carrying Roaming Roads Spirits, a premium spirits label started by Bell's longtime friend, Pinedale businessman Mike Gilmore. 'Right out of the gate we found it,' Bell said. For Gilmore, the scene represents how far his own journey has taken him. When he moved to Pinedale in 2007, he was far from dreaming about international spirits distribution. He was simply looking for a change. Gilmore had worked in a gang unit in law enforcement in central California and wanted to decompress and start something new. He already loved Wyoming. He hunted in the state and was drawn to its culture. So, he and his family took a vacation to look at possible places to live. They had 10 days to explore the Cowboy State. They spent seven in Pinedale. 'That was the end of it,' Gilmore said. When Mike Gilmore bought a Pinedale gas station and liquor store, his pursuit of premium spirits labels ballooned into searching for the perfect barrel. That "Roaming Roads" pursuit has taken him to Ireland, France, Barbados, Croatia, and more. (Mike Gilmore) Settling In Pinedale The family settled in Pinedale, and soon afterward Gilmore bought Country Lane Convenience Store and Country Lane Liquors. 'That's where I made my reputation,' he said. For a while, Country Lane operated as you might expect for a small-town Wyoming liquor store attached to a gas station. But Gilmore was curious. What exactly distinguished a whiskey from a rum, or a bourbon from a cognac? 'It's where my curiosity really expanded in what these different spirit categories look like,' he said. The more he sampled and learned about these spirits, the deeper he went down his own self-labeled rabbit hole. 'As soon as I started, I was not coming out of there,' he said. What fascinated him wasn't simply drinking the spirits. It was understanding them — how they were made, how they aged and how traditions stretching back hundreds of years could produce such different flavors. Gilmore began traveling to Kentucky's bourbon country and building relationships with distilleries. He tasted rye whiskeys and bourbons aging in barrels, searching for the right ones to bring back to Pinedale as store exclusives. His palate turned heads; his reputation of picking barrels – something he said he was doing 'long before it became cool' – grew. He said he built a following around the United States. 'People would come to me from other states to buy my barrel picks,' he said. Three years ago, Gilmore started his own premium spirits label, Roaming Roads. The label is the result of 'doing the same thing I've always done,' he said of picking great barrels. The name, 'Roaming Roads,' is a reflection of Gilmore's journey: 'I don't know where I'm going,' he said. 'I just literally search the world.' Gilmore is quick to admit the convenience store venture in Pinedale was never his passion – the liquor store and spirits were. He bought the convenience store because it came with the liquor store. 'The only reason we bought it was because the owner wouldn't sell the gas station separate from the liquor store. I just wanted the liquor store,' he said. Gilmore said he and his wife had an everyday presence in both the liquor store and the gas station, as they are adjacent. 'We ran and controlled everything,' he said. Gilmore's wife took on most of the convenience store management while Gilmore managed the liquor store side of things. 'We built a really really strong business,' he said. Country Lane, as both sites are known – Country Lane gas station and Country Lane Liquors – is the only one-stop location where you can get beer, ice, gas and food, Gilmore said. When Mike Gilmore bought a Pinedale gas station and liquor store, his pursuit of premium spirits labels ballooned into searching for the perfect barrel. That "Roaming Roads" pursuit has taken him to Ireland, France, Barbados, Croatia, and more. (Dave Bell) Around The World Now Gilmore spends six months a year overseas, searching for exceptional spirits and building relationships with the people who make them. He ticks off the countries he's visited like a grandparent might tick off their number of grandchildren: Ireland, France, Barbados, Italy, Scotland, Croatia, Slovenia. He has encountered aged rums from all over the place, old casks from France. 'If it's a great spirit in the world, I'm going to find it,' he said. Travel is only part of the story. 'You build relationships with all these people,' he said. That might mean conversing with a cognac expert over a dinner table in France, or discussing distribution of a new bourbon label over bowls of Guinness stew at an Irish pub. And then there are the barrels. A barrel isn't just a container waiting for whiskey to become whiskey. It is a critical part of the recipe. Casks are made at specialized facilities called cooperages. American bourbon is commonly aged in white American oak, while cognac is stored in French oak barrels. The wood itself – and how it is treated – affects what eventually ends up in the glass. The pores of the wood expand during warmer months and contract during colder ones, allowing the liquid to move in and out of the wood over the years. That interaction gives the spirit its color and much of its flavor. 'There's a lot of craftsmanship that goes into (the casks),' Gilmore said. In fact, Gilmore estimates the cask accounts for about 98% of what creates the finished spirit. The liquid that comes out of a still begins clear, almost like water. The barrel does much of the rest. Gilmore's operations are headquartered at Bardstown Bourbon in Kentucky, where his casks are stored. When he visits, he tastes what's inside and determines whether a spirit is ready to be bottled and distributed. But Gilmore isn't simply looking for something good. He's looking for something memorable. Dave Bell, left, with Corkscrew Spirits owner Thomas Sutton, show off the Roaming Roads label. (Mike Gilmore) A Wyoming Spirit In Ireland More recently, Gilmore has started looking for Irish whiskey casks to sell in the U.S. In Ireland, he said he realized there were no Kentucky ryes or bourbons outside of grocery stores. He made it his mission to change that. Now, he ships Kentucky spirits to the Irish coast and finishes them in Irish casks. 'It's a completely unique idea,' he said. And, it's done well, especially among the American tourists. 'They know bourbon and rye, but they've never seen it with an Irish influence,' Gilmore said. Gilmore has since formed a company in Dublin, Roaming Roads Spirits International Ltd., to help build the brand overseas. For now, he's still doing much of it himself. 'The poor sap talking on this phone,' he joked when describing who runs the operation. 'I have built this from the ground up myself.' But he said he is beginning to build a team, including a brand ambassador in Ireland named Gabi. And the brand is growing. A year ago, Gilmore traveled to Whiskey Live Dublin to introduce Roaming Roads to Ireland. He wasn't entirely sure how the reception would go. 'I didn't know if they were going to throw me out of there like this crazy American in Ireland,' he said. They didn't. Instead, Gilmore found himself becoming part of Ireland's whiskey culture. The Irish embraced the American spirits with an Irish influence. Then came an invitation from the U.S. Embassy in Ireland. Roaming Roads was invited to pour at the embassy's Fourth of July celebration at the Ambassador's Residence in 2025, serving more than 2,000 guests. By 2026, the relationship had grown. Roaming Roads returned for the embassy's largest celebration yet, serving about 3,200 guests. Gilmore also unveiled a special Roaming Roads Cask Exclusive created specifically for the U.S. Embassy in Ireland. A cask exclusive hand-selected by the ambassador is now being used as gifts for dignitaries. All this from a guy who initially came to Wyoming without a plan. When Mike Gilmore bought a Pinedale gas station and liquor store, his pursuit of premium spirits labels ballooned into searching for the perfect barrel. That "Roaming Roads" pursuit has taken him to Ireland, France, Barbados, Croatia, and more. (Mike Gilmore) The Search For The Perfect Barrel Back in Pinedale, Bell watched Gilmore's international adventure with curiosity. The two men have known each other since Gilmore moved to Wyoming about 15 years ago. Bell sold him insurance and later accompanied him on photography expeditions into Yellowstone. Bell said he doesn't drink, but that hasn't stopped him from being fascinated by what his old friend has built. 'He's on the road all the time,' Bell said. So when Bell found himself headed to Ireland with his family, he decided he had to see whether Gilmore's bottles really had made it across the Atlantic. They had. At the third-generation family-owned Corkscrew Wine & Spirit Merchants on Harry Street in Dublin, Bell found the Roaming Roads label. Store owner Thomas Sutton told Cowboy State Daily that Gilmore approached him with something he believed wasn't otherwise being done in Ireland: single-barrel, barrel-proof rye and bourbon that wasn't available in the United States. 'It intrigued us straight away and the liquid was so good, it sealed the deal,' Sutton said. Sutton said the premium liquid, packaging and story all appealed to his customers. 'It really comes down to the passion he has for this business,' Sutton said. 'We consider ourselves along those same lines, so we aligned perfectly.' The store carries a range of rare Roaming Roads spirits, including a 10-year-old Guyana rum, a 14-year-old Trinidad rum and a 19-year-old Haitian rum. 'Our customers like the exclusivity and rarity angle,' Sutton said. That exclusivity is central to Gilmore's philosophy. 'Every drop from every bottle comes from one cask,' Gilmore said. 'When it's gone it's gone. You can't duplicate it.' The magic, he said, is 'capturing a moment in time when you find that perfect barrel.' When Mike Gilmore bought a Pinedale gas station and liquor store, his pursuit of premium spirits labels ballooned into searching for the perfect barrel. That "Roaming Roads" pursuit has taken him to Ireland, France, Barbados, Croatia, and more. (Dave Bell) Who's Your Favorite? People frequently ask Gilmore what his favorite spirit is. He's still searching for an answer. 'It's almost like, who's your favorite kid?' he said. 'I love everything equally but differently.' That's also the appeal of Roaming Roads. One night might call for something from Barbados. Another might call for something from France. 'You can pull a bottle from any place in the world,' Gilmore said. Roaming Roads debuted in the United States in 2024 with single-cask aged rums from places including Belize and Venezuela, with barrels aged 16, 18 and 20 years. The portfolio also includes limited single-cask Cognacs, some more than 50 years old, along with Irish whiskeys bottled at natural cask strength. The common denominator is Gilmore's search for something distinctive. Dave Bell found the Roaming Roads label at the Shannon Airport on Ireland's west coast. (Dave Bell) 3 Things He has three criteria. First comes the nose. 'You get it in the glass and you're nosing it, smelling it,' he said. 'You want it to be enticing. You want to be excited about that drink you're about to get into.' Then comes the taste. 'You want to taste all the influences of that spirit after spending all the time in the cask,' he said. Finally, there is the finish. Gilmore wants the flavor to stick around. 'You want it to last,' he said. 'If you set your glass down for 30 seconds, you should be able to smack your lips and still taste the spirit.' He calls it 'smacking back.' Finding all three qualities in one barrel is rare. Finding them repeatedly, across countries and types of spirits, is what Gilmore has made his business. Gilmore's own roaming road started in California. It led to Wyoming, and then a small gas station liquor store in Pinedale. From there, it wound through Kentucky bourbon country and eventually across oceans to Ireland, France, Barbados and beyond. Gllmore still isn't sure exactly where the road will lead. But he knows what he's looking for. And if Dave Bell happens to be vacationing nearby, he just might find the perfect bottle, too. Kate Meadows can be reached at kate@cowboystatedaily.com.