Still Life

More-relaxed laws put Washington distilleries on the brink of a liquor renaissance.

By Wes Simons | June 2010 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION

Credit: Photograph by Hayley Young

Dennis Robertson, co-founder of
Soft Tail Spirits in Woodinville, discovered grappa in Italy; now he makes it
in Washington.

Already a mecca for craft beer and
varietal wines, Washington has opened its doors to craft distilleries and
invited a host of midnight moonshiners to step up and vie with big national
distilleries for precious liquor store shelf space.

Dry Fly Distilling in Spokane and
Soft Tail Spirits in Woodinville are leading the charge, and with solid marketing
know-how and a superior local product, they hope to bring Washington to
national distilling prominence.

The idea for Soft Tail, the first
craft distillery in western Washington, was born on a 2000 trip to Italy where
co-owner Dennis Robertson saw grappa being made from grape skins. Robertson’s
stonecutting business shared its building with a winery, and he wanted to take
advantage of the excess grape material. The idea was shelved because of
business commitments and the difficulty involved with obtaining a distillery
license.

But because of recent changes in
the law, Robertson foresees a boom in the spirits business. “It’s a natural
progression, from microwineries to microbrewers to microdistilleries. I think
it’s happening not just in Washington but across the United States,” he says.

“Dry Tasting”: The editorial team
puts Dry Fly liquor to the test.

Prior to 2008, Washington
distilleries, of which there are few, had a hard time promoting their product
because they were not allowed to provide samples to customers. In 2008, Dry Fly
helped push legislation through the state senate allowing sampling and direct
sales to customers, as well as lowering the licensing fee. Kent Fleischmann,
one of the founders of Dry Fly, felt that beer and wine producers had a much
easier time making their product available. “We wanted to level the playing
field,” Fleischmann explains.

Dry Fly got its start on a
fly-fishing trip when Fleischmann and his partner Don Poffenroth were drinking
a bottle of what Fleischmann calls “inadequate vodka.”

Fleischmann and Poffenroth were
tired of drinking low quality liquor, especially when they didn’t know where
the ingredients originated. “We wanted to make spirits better,” Fleischmann
notes.

He felt it was important that
craft distilleries produce a high quality product while supporting local
industry, so he added a stipulation to the bill that a craft distillery must
use 51 percent Washington-grown products.

The craft distiller law originally
set maximum production at 20,000 gallons per year and