American vodka makers go organic, skip flavors(2)
Aimee Blume / Special to The Courier & Press
"I have a distributor that works just with the small artisan brewers and distilleries that don't have the big dollars to spend on advertising," Rennie said. "He's selling a lot, really a lot of high-end whiskeys, bourbon, vodka. There's Death's Door gin from Wisconsin (organic, made with wheat grown on one Wisconsin Island), Square One Organic Vodka (made with organic rye from Idaho), and a French Gin (G'vine) that's made with grapes. And people aren't asking us to make fancy cocktails with it. They're drinking it neat or on the rocks."
The feel of it is a sort of nouvelle cuisine of liquor.
Libby Seward, bartender and server at Downtown's remodeled Peephole, agrees.
"We have a lot of whiskey drinkers here," she said, "and we've been selling a lot of high-end bourbon and some good Irish whiskey. They're drinking it neat — Basil Hayden's is a straight Bourbon from the Jim Beam family; it's only 80 proof, so it's really good for sipping. We also sell Redbreast, which is a single, one-pot Irish whiskey. We have it aged 12 and 15 years."
One of the Peephole's best-selling spirits and one of Seward's favorites is another American product — American Harvest Vodka.
"The man who makes American Harvest was the original owner of Grey Goose," she said. "He signed a non-competition contract for eight years after he sold the company, but when the time passed he started making American Harvest. It competes on the level of Grey Goose, but it's different; the flavoring ingredients in it are secret. It's not a flavored vodka, though. A good vodka essentially is odorless and doesn't really have flavor, but it's got a very crisp, clean taste and is easy to drink on the rocks. Another good thing is that it's not as expensive. It's very, very good quality, yet it's approachable."
Although American Harvest is sold with the vodkas, it prefers to call itself an "organic spirit." The alcohol is distilled from organic wheat, then mixed with Snake River water and a blend of secret "organic proprietary ingredients," and finally filtered through charcoal.
The minimalist approach to cocktails is evident on the American Harvest website. Harvest on the rocks, a classic Harvest martini, Harvest and tonic and Harvest and club soda top the list, but following are a few recipes using locally available artisan spirits for the cocktail lover.
