To create the first 100% organic distillery in the state, liquor marketing vet Keith Barnes and his son Patrick use stills from Vendome, a storied Kentucky company in business since the early 1900s. Read more.
Joel Tefft distills a liquor laundry list—vodka, gin, limoncello, cordial, whiskey, grappa, and brandy—using a 300-gallon, American-made copper pot still, one of the biggest in the state. Read more.
The specialty here is brandy made with grapes grown on the premises. The Trappers Peak Brandy ($35) is on sale at the winery’s estate tasting room just west of Concrete. Read more.
The distillery plucks grains for its spirits from Winsota Farm just outside Rosalia. They aim to get their gin and vodka (both $30) on shelves in every state, and they ship to Canada as well. Read more.
Twelve years ago the Sherlocks discovered a small distillery in Canada that would make their rye whiskey recipe, which explains why the brand-new distillery is already serving up aged spirits. Read more.
Semiretired restaurateurs Jim Caudill and Bob Stillnovich use 90 percent Washington ingredients in their whiskeys and brandies, a fact they credit to the highly arable Skagit Valley. Read more.
Distiller Colin Levi personally picks most of the fruit that goes into his brandies and liqueurs, and he says he’s experimented with just about every sort of fruit there is. Read more.
MacDonald says his unaged Ty Wolfe White Whiskey ($38) keeps selling out, so if you can score some, do it. A line of fruit liqueurs is coming soon. Read more.
Oola’s gin and vodka are currently available to sample at the Capitol Hill tasting room that owner Kirby Kallas-Lewis hopes to one day turn into a bar. Read more.
Master distiller Marc Bernhard is a hero among fans of absinthe for Pacifique ($63), an earthy take on the Green Fairy that required years of research and experimentation inside his alembic stills. Read more.
Project V has distinguished itself via its Single Silo vodka ($29), a neutral grain spirit that captures the essence of the wheat with which it’s made—the grains come from Withrow. Read more.
Try Sidetrack’s liqueurs (strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, and raspberry) and brandies (strawberry and blueberry) at the tasting room on the farm in Kent. If it’s nice out, bring a picnic. Read more.
One of the first craft distilleries to open in Washington, Soft Tail makes grappa from the leftover grape bits (called pomace) from a nearby winery. Read more.
The "Ebb and Flow" vodka and gin are currently available at the Interbay tasting room. Future plans include aquavit, creme de menthe, whiskey, and, most ambitiously of all, a Benedictine-style liquor. Read more.
Chapman worked on Sun Liquor’s flagship spirit, the round-bodied Hedge Trimmer gin ($30), for a full year before settling on a final formula in October, now for sale at the Pike Street distillery. Read more.
Orlin Sorensen and Brett Carlile are focused on barrel-aged whiskey. Bourbon, to be precise. They developed the recipe with the aid of former Maker’s Mark distiller Dave Pickerell. Read more.
In our December 2011 issue, a guide to the Washington microdistilleries that currently make and sell spirits.
