A spirited mission

How do you build a scene?

Word of mouth. Good word of mouth. And not just words either. But mouth as in taste! As in one friend telling another friend: You gotta go to the Distill America tasting event at The Edgewater!

Jeremy Zielke, a whiskey-loving corporate attorney in Madison, first heard of the annual distilled spirits celebration from his colleague Kevin Bartrom, who got clued to it by me, who heard about it a decade ago from Star Liquor manager Adam Casey.

It was Casey who cooked up the idea with fellow craft beer enthusiast Fred Swanson, on a sweltering hot Saturday in August 2007. They were sitting on a grassy knoll at Olin Park overlooking Lake Monona while the wildly successful Great Taste of the Midwest craft beer festival — these guys are key organizers — unfolded around them with its usual sell-out exuberance.

Casey and Swanson had a thunderclap moment: Let’s do the same sort of event for craft distilling!

Soon Casey had pulled in Star Liquor owner and spirits aficionado Jerry Mogensen. Their meeting that afternoon set the ball in motion for the spirits tasting that will — flash forward — celebrate its 10th anniversary on Feb. 24 at The Edgewater. Expect a sell-out crowd of 600-plus attendees and exhibitors ranging from global giants like Jim Beam and Jack Daniel’s to quietly celebrated boutique Wisconsin stars like J. Henry & Sons and Great Northern. (For details, see sidebar near end of story.)

“It’s a great event, really well handled,” enthuses Zielke, who on the day the tickets went on sale in early December sent an email to 10 of his drinking buddies urging them to buy early-admission tickets for this year’s event before they sold out.

Word of mouth indeed.

But, really, that’s how you build a scene if not an industry...if not a more prosperous Wisconsin.

Guy Rehorst was first in Wisconsin. When he launched Great Lakes Distillery in Milwaukee in 2004 and began selling his vodka in 2006, he was the first new Wisconsin distiller since Prohibition and — notably — among the first 30 craft distilleries in all of the U.S to crawl out from the under the shadows of the liquor industry giants.

Nick Quint of Madison’s Yahara Bay, Paul Werni of New Richmond’s 45th Parallel Distillery and Brian Ellison of Middleton’s Death’s Door Spirits weren’t far behind. They’re all lucky they survived.

That’s because alcohol beverages are regulated in Wisconsin “largely to the benefit of the entrenched providers” — namely, a handful of distributors and the 5,000-member Tavern League of Wisconsin, says Jeff Glazer, a lawyer with the UW-Madison Law and Entrepreneurship Clinic. This three-tier regulatory system was put in place after Prohibition ended in 1933. Aimed at breaking up the monopoly power that big brewers once exerted over taverns, it divided the industry into three non-overlapping businesses: makers, distributors and sellers.

Cold reality is that craft distilling in Wisconsin might never have gotten off the ground if the Legislature hadn’t legalized on-site tasting rooms in 2009. This came at the great displeasure of tavern keepers and distributors, who saw these direct sales to consumers as impinging on their franchises. (Research shows that small distillers can generate up to 50 percent of their revenue from tasting rooms.) Suffice it to say that the politics of booze regulation remain highly contested, although the tiers remain intimately connected.

“Our relationship with craft distillers has been good until recently,” says Pete Madland of the Tavern League. “We didn’t see them as a threat. We saw them as partners.”

This week the regulatory outlook for small distillers grew darker with news that state Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald wants to toughen enforcement of the three-tier system by establishing an "alcohol czar." The move would seemingly buttress the positions of distributors and taverns at a time when craft distillers (as well as small breweries and wineries) have gathered popular support to expand their operations. (Interestingly, free-market conservatives have signalled their opposition to the Republican leader's move.)

Today, there are nearly 1,600 craft distillers in the U.S. making small-batch alcohols and more than 30 in Wisconsin, including “rectifiers.” (These are spirit makers who contract for custom distilling and may provide the grain for fermentation and/or do their own casking and blending.)

David Wondrich, a Brooklyn-based spirits chronicler for Esquire and The Daily Beast, wasn’t impressed at first. The early craft whiskeys were under-aged, the gins overly floral. “I felt they hadn’t lived up to their potential,” he says. “Now we’re at an interesting moment. They’ve had things in the barrel long enough now that their whiskey is fully mature and ready to drink.”

The boom is on, for sure. Craft spirit sales rose by 25 percent from 2015 to 2016, from $2.4 billion to $3 billion, according to data compiled by the American Craft Spirits Association. In 2012, sales were just $1 billion.

Forget the numbers. Just go strolling on Madison’s near east side. Late this fall I was out walking the dog one night when I stumbled upon — in a tucked-away industrial court — the brand new $1.2 million State Line Distillery, 1413 Northern Court. Glory! Founder John Mleziva even allows dogs in the tasting room. (And quite the room it is: An artfully designed space with weathered barn lumber and a great piece of abstract art representing whiskey making by Madison’s Leslie Smith III.)

As Swanson points out, a Madison “Beverage Row” is busily taking shape on the east side. A 15-minute walk from State Line sits the Old Sugar Distillery tasting room, 931 E. Main St., which offers a full sampling of its whiskey, rum, brandy and specialty spirits. Or how about perambulating to Bos Meadery, 849 E. Washington Ave., for its fermented honey drink? As for craft breweries, you can’t swing a dead cat on the east side without hitting a growler: I count 10 eastside craft beer tap rooms.

Drive a little farther out and you find Dancing Goat Distillery in Cambridge and Driftless Glen Distillery in Baraboo. And if you head south or go west in Madison and Dane County it’s more of the same. Lots of brew pubs, a smattering of distilleries and more wineries than you would think possible in our cold climate.

Hey, it’s a good thing. And not just because Wisconsinites enjoy a good buzz. Whether it’s a distillery, brewery or winery, all of these makers are idiosyncratic, specific in their missions, and forceful in staking a claim to the Wisconsin terroir. Yeah, it gets down to our identity. And when you consider how so much of small town Wisconsin didn’t share in the economic recovery, and is losing its best and brightest young people to big cities, championing local identity seems no small matter.

Brian Cummins, who founded Great Northern Distilling in Plover, near Stevens Point, makes this case. He points out how Great Northern is one of six beverage makers in the Central Wisconsin Craft Collective producing beer, wine and spirits — all within a 30-minute drive of one another in Point, Plover, Amherst and Rosholt.

Take the tour. They’re proud of their work.

“We’re part of the new creative community,” says Cummins, underlining how quality of life goes up for everyone in a region when there are such artisan producers. “It’s something to point to that makes their towns unique.”

Creative placemaking is what keeps young people in the community, he adds. “For us in central and northern Wisconsin, we need to maintain our millennials. It just can’t continue to drain to Minneapolis, Madison and Milwaukee.”

Cummins’ argument reminded me of what I learned last year when I wrote an Isthmus series on “The Two Wisconsins.” Those stories detailed the stark economic divide between the prosperous communities in Dane County, the Milwaukee suburbs, the Fox River Valley and a few other cities and the unending recession that has gripped not just the poverty neighborhoods in Wisconsin’s larger cities, but much of small town Wisconsin.

Cummins is an old economy guy who jumped into the new era. “I was a frustrated chemical engineer in the paper industry,” he says. “Not really looking forward to another 25 years of mergers and downsizing and everything else central Wisconsin has faced over the last 10 or 15 years.”

Now Cummins makes my single favorite Wisconsin craft beverage — distinctive Polish-style potato vodka that, when served ice cold on my back porch in the middle of winter to my shivering friends is, well, an earthy, head-clearing delight. He makes it from potatoes harvested two miles from his distillery. Stevens Point, as the historically minded know, was a center of Wisconsin’s Polish immigration, and some of its potato farms go back four generations to when Point was known as “Little Warsaw.”

Wisconsin’s craft distillers embrace the state’s soil and soul. Death’s Door has broken out nationally selling vodka distilled from special wheat grown on Washington Island off of the Door Peninsula. J. Henry’s award-winning bourbon is distilled from the heirloom red corn, wheat, and rye sown on the family farm 20 miles north of Madison. Old Sugar touts its Queen Jennie whiskey made from 100 percent Wisconsin sorghum. Yahara Bay distills its apple brandy with fruit from a Gays Mills orchard and its cherry brandy from tart cherries from Door County. State Line uses local botanicals for its gin.

Not to mention that Wollersheim, in Prairie du Sac, makes brandy on the site of its historic 19th century vineyard. And The Cider Farm, near Mineral Point, grows its own speciality apples for its lightly alcohol frizzante cider.

What’s striking about the rise of these little distillers — many have 10 or fewer employees — is that it’s occurring in a heavily consolidated industry dominated by a handful of global giants who have the economies of scale to seize the high ground on marketing and distribution.

As a point of perspective: Craft distillers accounted for only 3.8 percent of total U.S. spirits sales in 2016, according to their industry group. If anything, that underscores how important word of mouth is in telling their story. And how important Madison’s homegrown Distill America tasting is for spreading that word.

“That was the biggest benefit we got out of being at Distill America that first year: word of mouth,” says Liz Henry, marketing chief and self-described “bourbon babe” at J. Henry & Sons. “That’s where we met Adam and Fred, at the 2015 Distill America. It was a great opportunity to connect with the people we didn’t know in the business.”

Joe Jr., her son, chimes in on our conference call, saying no way could they compete with the big guys on marketing. “We don’t have that kind of money. Our customers are our angels. They are the ones promoting us and telling our story. That’s why we love Distill America. It’s an opportunity to thank all those people.”

This is a good point: Distill America has the same homegrown charm as the spirits it champions. Enthusiasts run the show. Not conference professionals. They do it for the love of drink — not for the steely pursuit of ka-ching.

The organizers, who are members of the sponsoring Madison Malt Society, include Casey, Swanson, Scott Maurer and liquor distributors Michael Paré of L’eft Bank Wine Co., Kevin Guthrie of Frank Beverage Group and Joe Tarpey of Breakthru Beverage Wisconsin. Lori Heffernon coordinates the volunteers who staff the Edgewater event. All are unpaid.

Their ruling ethos goes back to that Saturday afternoon at Olin Park. Let’s make our tasting affordable. Let’s mix the nationals with the local brands. Stick to just American products. But not limit ourselves to whiskey. And we’ll call all the shots. It’s a heckuva recipe.

Not long ago, I sat in on a planning meeting, in the basement of Star Liquor, and it sounded as casual as if they were planning a neighborhood picnic. But if it seemed easy, it’s because the group has pieced together a successful template over 10 years of careful tweaking.

Afterwards, we repaired to The Weary Traveler and several rounds of its mulled seasonal grog — a fine warm-up on a cold winter’s night that had us leaning into the conversation. The crew was expansive as they explained their history.

“What makes us different is that we’re just not a taste of what’s on the shelves,” says Swanson. “In that room are 50 to 100 products that are not even for sale in Wisconsin.”

“We’re not just a craft event either,” Casey adds. “We’re a big guy-little guy event. We’re a marriage of both. That’s the beauty of distilling. Unlike brewing, the big distillers have always supported the little distillers.”

Fellowship is part of Distill America's secret sauce. Bonds are created. Stories shared. Help offered. It’s word of mouth in the best way.

“Everyone in Wisconsin distilling is certainly coming,” says Brian Sammons of Milwaukee’s Twisted Path Distillery. “You taste what everybody is doing. And you get the national and regional players too. It’s a great way — in one day, in one place — to meet up with everybody.”

John Mleziva, founder of State Line, which opened for business in September, is eager to join their ranks. “I’m hoping to engage in some passionate conversations,” he says.

Sitting in his tasting room one afternoon, Mleziva tells me that he wants to make “the highest quality grain-to-glass spirits” he can. He wants to source all his grain from Wisconsin farmers. He dreams of buying his oak barrels from a state cooperage. “We want to be grounded in Wisconsin,” he says firmly.

State Line launched by distilling vodka and gin, the standard products for a startup distiller to generate cash flow, “but my heart is in whiskey.” Mleziva has degrees in biology and educational policy and worked in student services at Edgewood College and UW-Madison for six years before following his crazy heart to study distilling in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Mleziva loves doing tastings at Star Liquor, HyVee and Woodman’s. “It’s a unique and powerful opportunity,” he says. “No way I’m outsourcing that. I want to be there and have those face-to-face interactions with people. Get them excited about our products.”

Mleziva says he’s never worked so hard as he is working now. But he loves how every day he starts a project and finishes it by day’s end. That is soulfully satisfying. He sees the same drive in his peers.

“This industry has a lot of energy,” he says. “People are pushing boundaries in spirit development. People find innovation exciting.”

This can-do attitude, also seen in spades in Dane County’s growing tech industry, drives the new Madison economy...and maybe someday Wisconsin’s. We can all drink to that.

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Distill America’s 2018 menu

The 10th annual Distill America tasting event, Feb. 24 at The Edgewater, is stepping up its education track for spirits lovers. This year’s palate education includes Whistle Pig’s Peter Lynch discussing whiskey blending; Glen Cairn glassmaker Martin Duffy and Aroma Academy’s Tom Johnson highlighting the connection of aroma to taste; and Dancing Goat Distillery from Cambridge explaining how rye whiskey develops through stages of distillation.

Sadly, it may be too late to buy a ticket. Check the Distill America website, distilleamerica.com, to see if the $65 general admission is still available. The VIP tix, at $75 and $85, are gone. Those prices, by the way, are a deal. General admission at Chicago’s WhiskyFest in March is $325 ($275 for early purchasers) and $445 for the VIP lane ($345 for early birds).

Expect about 100 tasting tables. In years past, Wild Turkey’s master distiller Eddie Russell did a star turn here; Bulleit bourbon’s Hollis Bulleit made a memorable appearance, though she and the corporate parent later came to an ugly end.

Those 100 distillers will sample around 500 different liquors. Whiskeys will be heavily represented, but you can also expect gin, vodka, rum, aquavit, amaro, herbal liqueurs and even absinthe.

 One of the charms of Distill America is the mix of national brands with hometown favorites. Same story this year. Jack Daniel’s, George Dickel and Jim Beam will rub shoulders with J. Henry & Sons, Old Sugar and Rokker. Also keep an eye out for around 40 first-time vendors.

Lastly, a confession on behalf of my gender: Distill America is a mostly guy thing. But look for Spirited Women, the Madison bartenders group, working the roving bar carts that make batch cocktails from vendor spirits.

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How to taste it without getting wasted

That’s a big challenge with a tasting event like Distill America. If you get drunk, you’ve blown it. So how do you keep your edge?

Here are suggestions culled from my experiences and those of my betters:

• Go with friends.

The conversation will sharpen observations and slow consumption.

• Have dinner beforehand.

Or at least get food in your stomach.

• Map a strategy.

Before you hit the sample tables, review the program. Establish priorities. No way you can sample everything. I usually do brown spirits first (my favorites), try a few vodkas or gins, and finish with infused spirits (my least favorites). I could be dead wrong. Grant Hurless, a bartender who helped put cocktails on the map in Madison (and then moved to Atlanta), says he switches back and forth from brown to white, because there is less chance of residual taste confusing his judgment.

• Hit your gotta-taste choices first.

That's when your palate is cleanest.

• Sniff before you taste!

So much of taste is affected by smell. But don’t put your nose too close, because then you’ll get the fumes of alcohol and not the bouquet.

• Take breaks.

Catch your breath; compare notes. Nosh on the trays of finger food.

• Sip carbonated water.

Between samples, this will clear your palate.

• Dump samples you don’t like.

No one will be offended.

• Spit!

Well, I don’t spit, to be honest. But pros like Pat Ducey of Steve’s Wine, Beer and Spirits do. Spitting lets you sample more without getting compromised. (Note: Science says you do absorb alcohol when it’s in your mouth even if you don’t swallow.) Let the sample sit on your tongue. Don’t swish like wine. Gracefully spit into the dump bucket. Try not to dribble, okay?

• Accept your limits.

Distill America lasts for four hours. I’m out the door within two hours.

• Finally, don’t drive.

Look for the Union Cab station at The Edgewater. Prices will be discounted for attendees.