'Bernasconi says that purchasing whiskey from MGP and bottling it is “a means to develop a brand and help fund the next step” of actually distilling a unique product.'

This sounds similar to how Reddit grew. It created a bunch of fake accounts until it didn't need to no more. Though there has been little outcry about that practice around here.

motherboard.vice.com/read/how-reddit-got-huge-tons-of-fake-accounts--2