Wash. — If your liquor cabinet contains mostly familiar names like Chivas Regal, Jack Daniel’s or Smirnoff, get ready to make some new acquaintances.
Small-scale distilleries making high-quality whiskey, gin, vodka and other spirits are taking off across the country.
Boutique booze — formally called artisanal spirits — is a big trend in the bar business. Just as the market for craft beers and wines boomed during the past two decades, the audience has similarly grown for small-scale booze that is high quality and often higher priced.
“Why is this better? Because it’s not produced for 10 million people; it’s produced for 5,000 people,” says Bill Owens of the American Distilling Institute.
He estimates the number of small distilleries at just over 200 and growing by about 20 to 30 a year. They have sprouted up in more than three dozen states in recent years, with Oregon, California, Colorado, Michigan and New York the main players.
The movement taps into the current trend of eating and drinking small, local and artisanal foods and beverages.
It’s also being driven by “mixologists,” a growing class of high-profile bartenders who craft trendy drinks with specialty alcohol.
But demand alone doesn’t explain the growth. The repeal of Prohibition-era laws in many states has helped spur the rush.
In an effort to promote local distilleries, many states recently have legalized liquor tastings at manufacturing facilities and retail outlets, says Frank Coleman, spokesman for the Distilled Spirits Council, which represents big booze makers.
Many states, including Colorado, have relaxed “blue laws,” or prohibitions on Sunday liquor sales.
Still, the $63 billion distilled spirits market remains almost entirely in the hands of major producers. Small distilleries generate well below 1 percent of sales, Coleman says.
But he predicts that micro- distilleries will cut into the market just as small-scale beers and wines did.
Among the big players in this little field are Anchor Distilling in San Francisco, a branch of the Anchor Brewing Company, as well as Hanger One in Alameda, Calif., and Iowa’s Templeton Rye.
Prices for these beverages trend toward the top shelf. Dry Fly Distilling of Spokane, for instance, sells 750-milliliter bottles of its vodka for $29.95 and its whiskey for $42 per bottle.
“Big distillers tend to keep every drop of alcohol produced, figuring it can be processed into something drinkable,” says Kent Fleischmann, who with partner Don Poffenroth started Dry Fly.
At Dry Fly and other small distilleries, they discard the foul stuff (which is a main cause of hangovers).
“We use it for cleaning,” Fleischmann says.
