That's the pioneering spirit...Tuthilltown Distillery

         *EU laws prohibit this from being labeled "Whisky", but they can't take away the "Bourbon"

Just returned from New York and a trip to Tuthilltown, a two hour jaunt north of Manhattan.  Ralph Erenzo, Co-owner of the distillery was gracious enough to show us around and taste through their line-up of small craft spirits.  His story is one of a true pioneering American spirit.  Ralph was a professional rock climber and had intentions of building a training camp on the current sight...he had no intentions of making distilled spirits.  His neighbors were less than thrilled about the idea and began to stall him out.  They blocked him at every turn.  He was running out of resources and needed to do something to keep a revenue coming in.  An expert was brought in to help come up with ideas of things to do to achieve this.  He suggested doing something that was actually permitted based on current laws...agriculture was at the top of the list.  Maybe make wine?  Why not distill?  He found some loop holes, did some fermenting and distilling experiments at his home and in the garage and decided that he could make this work.  He brought in a partner, Brian Lee and between the two they created Tuthilltown Spirits.

We arrived just days after they had completed renovation of their gift shop-tasting room.  The entire staff was very welcoming!  Ralph took us room by room and detailed the growth of their distillery since he purchased the property in 2001.  He is the first distillery in New York since prohibition.  He has legislated at the state level to allow the sell and tasting of spirits at a distillery.  Now there are 60 distilleries operating in the state of New York.

After he walked us through the distilling and barreling process, he took us down to the bottle filling and labeling area.  All of their spirits are done by hand in small batches from start to finish.  It does not get more craft than this.

Ralph then suggested we take a stroll around the property, especially up a small dirt path that takes us to the dam that feeds the distillery and grist mill.  On the day we were there, Ralph was taking back possession of the historic grist mill that he was forced to sell as a result of the neighbors stalling him out.

I want to send a big thank you to Ralph for taking time out his day to spend a few hours with us and create a truly memorable experience!  Cheers to you Ralph and your amazing team!  Keep doing what you are doing!

http://hudsonwhiskey.com/