In Spirit Alone
There has been for the last decade or so a quiet proliferation of small, handcrafted distilleries which has done much to bring a breath of life into what had become a very staid, corporate American spirits industry. This is good news for us in the wine business, since many of us “pros” turn to small batch spirits as our alternate beverages of choice. No big surprise there, it’s a better chance than not that it was the artisanal and handcrafted nature of wine that drew us to the wine business in the first place and these small batch spirits share the same spirit of individual artistry of well made wine. Either that, or we’re all a bunch of lushes who use any excuse handy to justify our over indulgence. For the sake of this journal I’ll opt for the former, while not necessarily denying the latter.
While craft beer is another subject entirely for another day, distilling and brewing do have one decidedly significant edge from winemaking and I think it might be the real reason those libations excite the wine geek so much. You see, wine is made by growing premium grapes, treating them right as they hit the winery, crushing them and letting the chemistry of the juice do the rest. Sure, the winemaker has to follow fermentation protocols, make decisions on oak, no oak, etc, but by and large the winemaker doesn’t touch the wine much at all. It’s the quality of the fruit that ultimately determines the worthiness and flavor profile of the wine and the winemaker has very little to do with that. Distilling is the complete opposite of that approach. Sure, the flavor of the beer or spirit is determined by the quality of what goes into it, but there is not some ethereal, cosmic truism in distilling spirits as there is in winemaking. Distilling is as much about the creativity and skill of the producer as it is about the combination of quality ingredients that goes into its production.
In food terms, winemaking is like low-and-slow bbq. You take one thing – and one thing only – put it in the proper conditions and don’t fool with it much at all until its done. Distilling, however, is more like making a gumbo. You start with a good base and add what you need as the process moves forward to ensure you’re going to get the product you want in the end. Both require the skilled hand of a technically trained producer with the mind of an artist, and certainly both have enjoyable outcomes, but handcrafted spirits enjoy a flavor profile in the end that is entirely determined by what the producer wants, not what mother nature gives you. The ability to use a super-premium base to elicit an exciting product is what ultimately sates both the palate and the restless curiosity of the wine drinker.
In many ways it was the wine business or an association thereto that gave start to the craft distillery movement. Beginning in the 80’s, and primarily out west, you saw small distilleries like Charbay (1983) in Napa Valley and St. George Spirits (1995) in Oakland pop up alongside The Anchor Distilling Company (1993), Clear Creek Distillery (1994) in Oregon, Distillery No. 209 (1999) in Napa and other new companies like the organic Modern Spirits (2004) in LA all rise from some corner of the wine business (save for Anchor). This isn’t just limited to the west coast anymore and and even our own NO Rum fits into the mix of the new frontier of handcrafted distiller. These distilleries all had (have) one founding principle in common: make a handcrafted, premium spirit using the best, most exciting base ingredients available. Consumers took notice and the category is growing exponentially, the offerings are more varied and the quality of what is being produced, and the creativity with which its being produced is better than ever. In fact there are several instances where you’re seeing crossover from beer and wine production to craft spirits. Case in point, Rogue Spirits, a relative newcomer to the scene that I think is sharpening up this already high-quality and fast paced field already. And spirits are their afterthought.
The Rogue Brewery in Oregon established itself in the late 80’s as one of the nation’s premier micro-breweries with regards to use of the most interesting ingredients. Their brews are a study in breaking the rules simply in order to make interesting shit. That’s the simplest way to put it (and they wouldn’t mind my candor). Clocking in at 39 brews today, each one of them highly interesting in their own right, Rogue is indeed one of the Pacific Northwest’s leading microbrews. With a high affinity for hoppiness (and, by extension, happiness) Rogue sets the bar (my God, will the double entendres ever stop) for the mid-level microbrew. Not ones to let dust settle on creativity, in 2003 they developed The Rogue House of Spirits, a company dedicated to “creat(ing) award winning multi-ingredient small batch spirits, artisan distilled in traditional hand-crafted copper pot stills.” They produce a White Rum, Dark Rum, Hazelnut Spice Rum, Spruce Gin, Wasabi Vodka, and Dead Guy Whisky – all from one, lone single 150 gallon copper compound pot still. I first saw their spirits on a trip to Portland in summer of ‘07 and meant to pick some up on my recent trip, but with so much other stuff going on it slipped my mind and I came back empty handed. However, just within the last month or two their sprits have made their way into our state, I’ve FINALLY had a chance to try them out and let me just say, its been a great deal of fun experimenting with them (read: drinking them profusely).
In particular I’ve gotten hold of:
Dead Guy Whiskey. Made with the same 4 grains that are used to make Dead Guy Ale, free Range Coastal Water (because they are in Oregon, after all) and Distiller’s yeast. The whiskey is then aged at sea for a month (insert eye roll here) and it all comes together to make a texturally interesting and incredibly pleasant drink. A little white pepper and vanilla (from the oak, I’m sure) predominate the nose. I’m not sure I can draw the correlation between the flavor profile of this and the grains in the Dead Guy Ale, but nevertheless this whiskey is an interesting drink. What’s best is that it lacks any of that banana peel/waxy flavor you find in some domestic whiskey. Good stuff, and it makes a pretty tasty cocktail.
Dark Rum and Hazelnut Rum. Rogue Spirits was actually the first rum distillery in the State of Oregon. The rums are distilled using Hawaiian cane sugar, Champagne yeast, and that same Free Range Coastal Water (which lacks the metallic nature of pumped water. . . .I suppose, look its Oregon, don’t ask too many questions). The Hazelnut Rum also sees toasted Oregon Hazelnuts, Bitter Orange Peel, Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean, Cinnamon and Clove.
The two rums are very much similar in base and style, save of course for the Hazelnut aromas on the second rum. The nuttiness of the hazelnut, however, I find to be a subtlety to the rum as opposed to the overriding theme of the drink. I find that both of the rums showcase their premium sugar base more than they do anything else – which is a good thing in rum- and both share the same rich, amber color and that spicy, toffee flavors. Both are of great quality as rums, the Dark Rum being a good all purpose mixer and the Hazelnut this time of year being a nice companion to a hot toddy . . .or a shot-ish type companion to a Rogue brew.
Spruce Gin. Allow me to put my subtlety hat on here and say “HOLY CRAP THIS IS AMAZING GIN!!!” There, got that out of the way. Made with 14 ingredients, this is the most aromatic domestic gin I’ve ever tasted. While not as viscous as say a Hendricks, or as singularly “juniper-y” as Junipero (also made by a beer house) the Rogue Spruce gin has an amazing evergreen/leafy aromatic explosion that does much to remind me of the smells emanating from room 307 in Hatcher Dorm at LSU (those guys from Brother Martin that lived next to me must have been big fans of Christmas is all I can say). Aromatic for sure, at the same time, however, it is a mellow, balanced spirit that makes an excellent base for a cocktail and it makes ONE HELL of a martini. Rogue lists the 14 Ingredients as: Spruce, cucumber, angelica root, orange peel, coriander, lemon peel, ginger, orris root, grains of paradise, tangerine, juniper berries. Champagne Yeast, Grain Neutral Spirit and, you guessed it, Free Range Coastal Water. Definitely not for the gin faint at heart, still though, not a gin that texturally reminds you of pancake syrup. I love this stuff.
Now lest you think I’m using my bully pulpit here to sell you a bunch of spirits, think again. I was able to procure a whopping 6 bottles of each of these (24 of each for the year for the entire state came in) so the handful of bottles I have to sell wouldn’t warrant these 1,400 words and counting. Rather, I wanted to touch on a segment of the business that is growing and thankfully looks as its here to stay. As interest grows and technology expands so does the number of small, craft distillers. In some ways we’re seeing a turn to a spirits industry whereby the playing field is made up of small people distilling as an art, not a means to the bottom line. Fortunately none of these guys have the advertising budgets to sponsor the monthly Maxim bikini party at Mandalay Bay (at least not until Bacardi makes them a buyout bid) so there’s a good chance they’re not out to become as big as the next Patron Tequila or Grey Goose Vodka or some such thing. But that’s fine with me, it means the product stays real. And I’m pretty sure its ok with the folks who make it too, at least they’re drinking well.
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