Distill, My Heart
Beer will never die, but classic booze are experiencing a revival. Especially in mountain towns.
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After spending more than a decade at Makers Mark, distiller Dave Pickerell set up shop at a farm on the shore of Lake Champlain to cultivate his pet project: small-batch 100-proof Whistle Pig rye. It’s whiskey, so straight up or on the rocks.
Among Bend Distillery’s five award-winning spirits, its most decorated is Crater Lake Vodka. It’s filtered 10 times through charcoal and lava rocks, a technique that makes it extra smooth going down, and takes the sting out of a next-morning Bloody Mary. bendistillery.com
If your tastes have matured beyond gin and juice pairings, try CapRock. Organic and made from fruit, seeds and spices grown on a biodynamic farm near Crested Butte. it’s a natural partner with tonic. Snoop might not sip it, but it’s plenty laid-back.
Silverton born, Crested Butte-based Montanya makes two kinds of rum in its copper pot still. The darker, richer Oro mixes nicely into dark and stormies, or sip it after a day hiking the Billboard.
Maybe it’s a reaction to years of PBR gut rot, or we just need something stiffer to drown our recession-fueled woes, but classic cocktails are making a comeback. Ski town distilleries are cropping up like Bieber babies, and they’re making some of the best small-batch hooch we’ve tasted. Even hyper-conservative Utah re-wrote its liquor laws to get distilleries in Park City and Ogden. Load up your liquor cabinet with mountain-made alcohol.
High West broke the Utah mold: It was the first distillery in the state since the 1870s. Founded by a former biochemist, HW’s spirits are like science experiments gone very right. Silver—made from oats, not rye—is no exception.
