Continuing our coverage of the 2009 ADI Conference on brandy, we conducted interviews with some of the female distillers in attendance for their take on the industry and their own roles within it.

1. From your bio it’s clear that you are dedicated to winemaking. How did you become interested in wine, and what prompted you to get started working in the field?

I don’t remember when exactly I started being interested in wine. I grew up in St. Louis, wine was not emphasized anywhere, although both my older brother and I are in the wine industry in some fashion. I was the only girl in high school I knew drinking red wine; it’s always been an interest. While going to school in Arizona I had a fleeting interest in winemaking, but from the Arizona perspective, California was not the place to be and from a complete outside perspective I figured that winemaking would be a very poplar and competitive industry—if only I had started my pursuit then. So years, colleges and careers later, I ended up in Seattle and found a job doing tours and tastings for Chateau Ste. Michelle, where I really honed my knowledge and interest in wine.

2. Obviously, being a winemaker at Jepson is a great place to be if you’re interested in distilling brandy. Were you always interested in distilling, or did your interest grow out of your experiences in wine?

I learned about and became interested in distilling out of necessity. When I started at Jepson, I knew nothing and my learning curve was huge. I did not know any distillers and those that I spoke to were not as forthcoming with information like winemakers are. Luckily for me I had a great cellar crew especially my cellarmaster, Fernando, who understood the distillation process and the intricacies of our still. I ‘only’ had to concentrate on the blending which was a true lesson in patience that I did not know I had.

3. What was the learning curve like when you started distilling? Have you learned from other distillers along the way?

See above. And…yes, I have learned from many distillers along the way. Early on a winemaker form Korbel was the most helpful, and Miles Karakasevic was a little helpful. Later Hubert Germain-Robin was generous in his knowledge, Chris Solomon from Solomon Tournour Distiller and Lance from St. George have all been helpful. The learning curve is continuous…

4. What are your biggest challenges as a craft distiller? Are they different from challenges you face as a winemaker?

Working with brandies is a much more delicate process in the blending stage. Blending initially by nose when I’m working with the higher proof brandies and really creating a kind of musical chord in the blend…looking at each brandy as a different note that will round out the blend and being able to alter the blend with a very small amount of a brandy. In winemaking, the blending process is often, not always, more forgiving.

5. Do you find there are additional challenges for women pursuing careers in winemaking or distilling?

There are many women winemakers, so it is very accepted. I do not know that many women distillers and I still get surprised responses when I tell someone that I made that brandy…

6. Do you have any plans underway for new brandy or other spirits? What can we expect to see coming from Jepson in the future?

Jepson was bought by Ken and Diane Wilson; we will probably keep the name Jepson for the brandies, the name of the winery will change to Jaxon Keys after Ken’s grandfathers. We are discussing what to do about the brandies. We will continue to make the three Jepson Brandies we have now, and will probably be making some grappa shortly. We are looking in to making some flavored spirits…the options are limitless. It’s all about that learning curve.

7. What is your favorite grape varietal to work with, in wine and in brandy?

In wine, I love the Rhone varietals: Syrah, Grenache and Viognier. In brandy, I really love working with our Estate Old Vine French Colombare, although I have worked with some lovely distillations of Pinot and Viognier.

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If one thing became apparent to me throughout the American Distilling Institute’s Brandy Conference, it’s that the bartender is the gateway to consumer taste. Panelists and craft distillers continually referred to bartenders as the arbiters of preference, the gatekeepers of public awareness, and the biggest gun in their marketing arsenal. A bar - a good bar - is a church, and the bartender, your confessor. You confess your base desires to the man or woman in formal black behind the pulpit and place your trust into their hands. And, in that trust, and what they choose to serve you, is where craft distillers’ prayers are answered.

So, in the spirit of James Garner, Destry, and Cleavon Little, approach and support your local and regional bartenders properly and your product will find its way into the hands of customers who will then start requesting it from liquor stores and from you. Here are some general guidelines:

• Give the bartender the respect and professional courtesy of making an appointment, and keeping it,

Getting facetime and building a relationship with bartenders requires that you be businesslike. For the bartenders that are best going to show off your product and give it traction, bartending is a career choice and profession, not merely a job, and they want it respected as such. And, with that in mind, be sensible about your arrival. Showing up at 7:00pm on a Friday night as they’re pushing drinks through the service bar at a clip or are just starting to pick up at the bar is no time to try and impress on them the quality of your product or ask them to try it. Want to know what time is best for them? Ask. And keep the appointment.

• Give him/her your personal contact information and invite them to use it (nothing impresses their guests more than calling the distiller on-the-spot about a product and, possibly, putting them on the phone),

Transparency and accessibility builds much more value in your product. As Jeffrey Morgenthaler, bar manager at Clyde Common in Portland, OR, notes, “What I’m looking for in a company to support is the people. I use craft spirits because I like supporting independent producers, and all I ask in turn is a passion for quality, honest information about the product, and some sort of connection to the people who produce my spirit. If I need marketing hype and press releases in my cocktails I’ll turn to one of the major brands.” This connection to the people who produce the spirit can’t be undervalued. The best advocate for your product is you, the person that made the product. And having that connection helps the bartender be more confident in answering questions customers may have and allows them a resource to contact and, perhaps in contacting, impress a customer and emphasize their own value as well.

• Show up with the product, tell your story, and get out-of-the-way (They want to get to know it, not have you cram a bunch of half-baked recipes at them),

As a cocktail writer, I assure you, bartenders don’t need any more marketing material from you. If there’s a question they have about the product or there’s a quality that intrigues them, they’ll ask. And that’s where you cease to be a salesman and enter the realm of craftsman. As Craig Hermann, bartender at Thatch in Portland, OR, put it this way, “A guy came in and bragged about how awesome and superior his moderately acceptable product was, and how it was the name that pushed the product. Like we’re also salesmen for the product. The best relationship is the one where I don’t know you’re playing me and you can hold up your end of the conversation.” So, know your product, know how and why they should use it, and, for the love of Pete, don’t show up with “chain-restaurant quality “cocktail” lists.”

• Try and slow them down in using your product in some way to avoid them cracking it open, pouring, and putting it back on the shelf, and

Honestly, this one is dicey. Large wax seals around your cap? Lovely, but also a potential hand injury or cursing of your name as they’re trying to open it, are buried 10-tickets deep and start balefully glowering at the label as they continue the struggle. They’ll remember your brand alright, but no in the way you’d hoped. Razor-sharp, and high, edge to your foil after the cap is removed? Welcome to Band-Aid city. Be very careful in approaching your packaging; bottles that are difficult to work with, cause injury, or are a challenge to open may lead to your bartender talking about your product, for sure, but not what’s in the bottle. If you want them to slow down, get them to know your story, and be able to tell it.

• Get them to your distillery and teach them about your distillation process and show interest in their feedback (once they taste your product coming out of the still, it becomes theirs)

And on this last point, one finds that it’s about people. Morgenthaler says this, “The guys at House Spirits here in Portland should be a model for craft distilling.  Even when I was in Eugene, they made a point of coming down to the bar, trying out my drinks - no matter what spirit - and occasionally pushing me to come up with drinks and experiment with their product.  They’re super accessible and always invite me to stop by the distillery to see what they’re up to, have a drink, try something new, etc.  When I’m reaching for a bottle, I often think about supporting them because they’re part of our little family here, and I often grab one of their products.”

These are only a few of the ways bartenders and craft distillers can have the sort of symbiotic and productive relationship. Bartenders, what are your peeves and what brings you joy?

And, distillers, what has worked best for you and what do bartenders need to know to better work with you?

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In early April, The American Distilling Institute convened a panel of judges in Alameda, California to evaluate dozens of American fruit spirits. The submissions ranged from European-inspired varietal grappas and whole-fruit-in-the-bottle pear eaux de vie to a purportedly extinct American spirit, barrel-aged peach brandy. By day’s end, 58 spirits had been swirled, sniffed, sipped, and sometimes spat. Along with Rogue Spirits’ distiller John Couchot, I poured a fair number of those half-ounce doses for judges sequestered behind sliding doors off the upstairs aerobar of St. George Spirits.

Talk about two kids in a candy store.

As John and I poured spirits from competing distilleries, we scoped out the expansive liquid arsenal before us. Occasionally, a brandy once opened had an aroma so beguiling that our eyes locked, our lips curled into bookend smiles, and we were compelled to do some pre-judging of our own.

When tasting spirits, judges may talk of straightforward smells and tastes of orange, peach, pineapple, juniper, or almond notes. They can also sometimes get more esoteric and less complimentary with the references—yeast extract, blackcurrant leaves, white pepper, biscuits, varnish, Band-Aid, fungal, paint thinner, or boiled cabbage notes aren’t unknown.

That’s all well and good, but it can lead to some seriously overwrought prose in the wrong hands. Consider an approach espoused by Gary Regan at last year’s Tales of the Cocktail. Regan’s particularly Spartan approach to evaluating spirits called for using as few words as possible: one word is best, two is good, three is ok. Anything more than that and you may be blowing hot air up our skirts.

There is a middle ground, of course. I like the one-word approach. Orange. Oak. Peat. Even Autumn or Grandpa. Gets at the heart of the thing immediately. Provides a nice platform for developing what you’d want to do with the spirit. But well-made spirits (and some disastrous attempts as well) may be more complex than a mere three words capture. As a heuristic device, Grandpa gets the mind working, but he’s not a monolithic aroma. What else does he smell of? Cigars? Old shoe leather? Aqua Velva? Freshly-mown grass? Grandma, perhaps? We’ll put aside for the time being what he might taste like.

Stepping up to classify those points that distinguish gold medal spirits from also-rans, the Wine & Spirits Education Trust has developed an approach to liquor tasting that guides tasters through evaluating a spirit’s appearance, nose, palate, and aroma & flavor characteristics (download Level 4 Diploma - Spirits pdf here).

ADI’s hundred-point system is informed by WSET’s system, but it heavily weights a spirit’s aromatics and flavor. When evaluating the spirits, the eight judges assigned points in six categories;

• Appearance (10)
• Aromatics (30)
• Flavor (30)
• Mouth Feel (10)
• Finish (10)
• Balance (10)

By the time the judges emerged from the private room, clear winners had already emerged. By the by, notice that Peach Street Distillers of Colorado took home five medals. Congratulations, boys. And congratulations to all the winners. They are:

Fruit Infusions (fruit infusion in a fruit spirit)
Gold: St. George Spirits—Aqua Perfecta Framboise Liqueur
Silver: Huber Starlight Distillery—Raspberry Dessert Wine
Bronze: Uncle John’s Farmhouse & Winery—Apple Dessert Wine

Eau de Vie—Pear
Gold: Westford Hills
Silver: (Tie) Peach Street Distillers & St. George Spirits Aqua Perfecta
Bronze: Harvest Spirits

Eau de Vie—Other
Gold: St. George Spirits Aqua Perfecta Framboise
Silver: Peach Street Distillers Peach Eau de Vie
Bronze: Westford Hills Distillers—Kirsch

Grappa—Varietal
Gold: Peach Street Distillers—Gewurtztraminer
Silver: Peak Spirits—Riesling
Bronze: Peach Street Distillers—Muscat

Grappa—Non-Varietal
Gold: Huber Starlight Distillery
Silver: Great Lakes Distillery

Brandy—Apple
Best of Category: St. George Spirits—Heirloom

Brandy—Other
Double Gold: Brandy Peak—Pear Brandy
Silver: Peach Street Distillers—Peach Brandy

Grape Brandy
Gold: Jepson Vineyards—Signature Reserve
Silver: Jepson Vineyards—Old Stock
Bronze: Osocalis—Rare Alambic Brandy

ADI brandy judges from left to right: Nancy Fraley (CA), Graham Hamblett (NH), Brendan Moylan (CA), Dan Farber (CA), standing moderator Andrew Faulkner (CA), Rory Donovan (CO), Deborah Parker Wong (CA), Hubert Germain-Robin (CA) and Don Beatty (CA). All told, the judges spent eight solid hours judging submissions.

~ originally published at Rowley’s Whiskey Forge

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Where can you meet, taste, and discuss artisanal spirits from over 40 distillers in one location? Only at the American Distilling Institute’s “Meet the Maker” event. On Sunday, April 5th, distillers such as St. George, Germian-Robin, Tuthilltown Spirits, Uncle John’s, Brandy Peak Distillery, Templeton Rye Maine Distillers. Clear Creek, House Spirits, Oscoclas, Jepson, Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey, Dry Fly, North Shore Distillery, Westford Hill Distillers, High Plains Inc. Essential, Spirit, Penobscot Bay Distillery, Skyrocket Distillery. Great Lakes Distillery, Loft Organic Liqueurs, Modern Spirits and flag Hill Winery and Distillery and many more will come together to celebrate artisanal distilling.

The first event of its kind, and sponsored by The American Distilling Institute and St. George Spirits, proceeds will benefit the Michael Jackson Craft Distilling Internship.

Date: Sunday, April 5th
Time: 2:00p-5:00p
Where: Hanger One/St.George Spirits
How to get there: http://www.eastbayferry.com/ (from SFO or Oakland)
Tickets: $40, available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/60692
Information: 510.886.7418

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Brandy is not a word with pleasant associations. See the little old lady pushing a thimble of brandy across a doily strewn table? It’s a long climb from that little old lady’s living room to the barrel house at Jepson Winery in Ukiah, California, where Alison Schneider talks about blending brandies as if she were talking about choreographing a ballet.

In about a week and a half, the American Distilling Institute will convene at St. George Distillery in Alameda, California for our annual conference. I’ll be there, as will numerous writers and many, many distillers. Matt Rowley has written a great anticipatory piece here (he did the heavy lifting).

For artisan distillers, this is the key event of the year, and this year, it’s all about brandy. This will include all sorts of eaux de vie, and all types of miraculous flavors. The most surprising spirits I’ve had over the last few years have been brandies, or close to it, like the Gewürztraminer Grappa made in Petaluma at Stillwater Distillery. St. George, themselves, make a fabulous line of brandies, both aged and unaged.

These small distillers are changing the rules. Grappa, in their hands, is no longer the byproduct, no longer a desperate attempt to squeeze the last dimes out of a harvest, but a goal in itself. What’s more, small, artisinal distillers are allowed to do anything they want. Basil eau de vie? Sure. Organic asian pears? Why not?

I’m a whiskey man at heart, but I have to admit that the real sweet spot for small scale, artisinal distilling is brandy, and I’m looking forward to seeing what everybody is doing, and what they have to say about it.

This year, for the first time, the public has a chance to drop by and get a taste of the action. Come out to St George on Sunday for  Meet the Maker from 2 to 5. $40 gets you in the door, where 40 distillers will be pouring their own wares. You can buy tickets and get more details here.

In the meantime, I’m trying to get around some brandy in anticipation. Rory Donovan’s Peach Street Distillers (he’ll be there) makes my favorite:

(Originally posted on The Ocean of Intemperance.)

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