Lexi Aho of Proof Artisan Distillers in Fargo, North Dakota, echoes Wood on the temperamental nature of distilling potatoes. Proof produces 2DOCKS Vodka, made with starch from locally grown potatoes. “You have to know exactly what you’re doing,” says Aho, “because if you add the enzyme in at the wrong time, you’re going to end up with ballistic gel. If you add it in too late or too much of it, you’re going to end up with something else. It’s very time consuming and you really have to know what you’re doing when you’re making vodka out of potatoes.” Each of those distilleries credits local potatoes for making their vodkas unique. “We couldn’t make it anywhere else, and we couldn’t make it with any other ingredients than what we do,” says Wood. For its vodka, Hinterhaus Distilling relies on an ingredient a few steps removed from a farm. The Arnold, California-based distillery uses wine that would otherwise be destined for the drain. Nate Randall, who opened the distillery in 2020 with his wife Bonnie BoglioliRandall, says there are numerous reasons why the wine may be available—a winery overproduced, a contract fell through or it’s not selling through in the tasting room. While there is a financial benefit in collecting that wine (Hinterahus prefer totes, by the way, rather than bottles), the distillery also sees it as a sustainability effort. “They’ve used a ton of water to grow grapes and California has a major water
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Ryan Lang of Middle West Spirits
issue,” he says. “And then their alternative, if they can’t unload it somewhere, is to dump it down the drain. So for us ... it just makes sense all around.” The result is a vodka with cotton candy on the nose and hints of jam and vanilla on the palate. In the future, Randall says the distillery hopes to partner with winemakers to make its own purpose-built wine. For now, he says Hinterhaus will happily continue to produce
its vodka from unwanted deep red wines, typically Cabernet Sauvignon or red blends. As for blending vodkas made from a variety of bases like corn, wheat, rye and potato, Montana was immediately intrigued when the rest of the team at American Liquor Co.—including Mike Slapp, William Brumder and Steve Luttmann—approached him about the project. “I told them, ‘You’re trying to put together
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