Pure, beautifully made spirits
Craft-method means hand-made. Every brand, every bottling reflects the creative individuality of a single human being working with small, hand-operated equipment: his quirks and insights, his special talents, his innovations.
What creates authentically great distilled spirits is the intervention of the individual distiller in what can be a fairly mechanical process. In a great distilled spirit, you can taste the application of the distiller’s skill, his talent, his experience.
Spirits distilled using craft methods are an antidote to the commoditized large-production spirits you see advertised & promoted. Craft methods are about authenticity, personal attention, and love of one’s work. Our products are real.
Distillers/Cellarmen
Distillers/cellarmen we have worked with, persons with creativity, talent, commitment. Their knowledge, their work, is not theoretical: it is deeply engaged in the physical world, a kind of work that is getting scarce. They perform alchemical wonders.
Karina Abad Rojas of Los Nahuales/Alipus/Mezcalero
Richard Braastad of Maison Surrenne
Crispin Cain of Tamar Distillery & The American Craft Whiskey Distillery
Joe Corley of Alambic, Inc.
Craft Distillers in the Market
The responsibility is to represent accurately and straightforwardly what craft-method distillers do, to not cheapen their accomplishment by resorting to meaningless hype or by describing it inaccurately. We try to represent distillers with the same integrity they do their work with.
Chris Stevens, based in Knoxville, manages distribution nationwide. A CSW and CSS, Chris started out in the restaurant industry in management and purchasing, where he developed his love for wine and spirits. Don Sutcliffe discovered him managing a large wine territory for Young’s Market and brought him on in 2008.
Ansley Coale taught a graduate seminar on Tacitus’ Histories and Roman Numismatics at U C Berkeley, served as apprentice to a dhow-builder on Lamu, walked from Lahoul to Cham, renovated Victorian buildings in San Francisco, co-founded the Germain-Robin distillery, performed Argentine tango before paying audiences, founded the marketing company Craft Distillers, walked five times from Oaxaca to Juquila, and – he hopes – helped a few humans along the way.