Artisan Spirit: Spring 2013

Page 13

love at first sip T he

Cas c ad e P eak Sp ir it s s t o ry

Photos courtesy of Cascade Peak Spirits

Written by R ockwell R utter

w

hen David and Diane Paulson first met in 2004 over a revised their business plan around a rye-based vodka, instead. few vodka cocktails, they never knew that their shared It was this kind of “thinking-on-your-feet” that would set the

love of fine spirits would lead them both into a new career, not to tone for the next few years as they waded through the litany of mention a marriage (!). As fate would have it, the two lovebirds governmental and logistical hurdles so many of our readers are are located in Ashland, OR, just 4 hours away from one of the familiar with. nation’s craft distilling hot-spots, Portland, OR. For a time, it

As time went on, David and Diane realized that in order to have

seemed like David and Diane couldn’t leave the house without a good product and a successful business, they needed the right being reminded of their distant dream of starting a distillery. people and the right training. After placing a want-ad looking for Whether it was a craft vodka tasting at a liquor store, or visiting a skilled distiller to help them organize and develop their recipes, local distilleries while on vacation, the desire to open up their they were lucky enough to find Thomas McKenzie, who was own shop continued to grow.

instrumental in getting Cascade Peak off the ground. He moved

Since both David and Diane have a strong commitment to in with the Paulsons for three weeks and gave them an intensive sustainability and green practices, the logical course of action education in the art, science and business of distilling. Says for them was to focus on purely organic products. After doing Diane, “Hiring an experienced distiller was one of the smartest some research they began to see just how intensive the process things we did to overcome our lack of distilling experience.” of opening and running a distillery is, and made the choice to

Of course, running a distillery is much more than just

enroll in a Bavarian Holstein Distilling course in Flagstaff, AZ. producing quality spirits. Over the course of a year, David and Through the class, David and Diane were able to have a lot of Diane learned all about the detail work that goes on behind their questions answered, including a reality check regarding the the scenes (i.e. managing supply inventory, human resources, pros and cons of organic production. When their original plan to marketing, shipping and receiving, plus a host of others). Again, offer organic potato vodka proved prohibitively expensive, they the two found that by bringing the right people on board, the job

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