OREGON OREGON DISTILLERS GUILD The Oregon Distillers Guild continues to focus its efforts on changing legislation to help the economic future of Oregon distilleries. The Guild is working closely with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) and the Governor’s office. According to Brad Irwin, President of the Oregon Distillers Guild, “We saw the first draft of a proposal from OLCC

UTAH DISTILLERS GUILD OF UTAH The Distillers Guild of Utah held their first marketing and fundraising event, Autumn

VIRGINIA VIRGINIA DISTILLERS ASSOCIATION The Virginia Distillers Association (VDA) meets regularly with Virginia ABC (VABC) to advance ongoing internal policy requests, and to discuss strategic partnerships for the future. Goals for the 2019 General Assembly Session (Jan. – Mar.) are focused solely on two tactical efforts: increasing the

WYOMING WYOMING DISTILLERS GUILD Elections this year saw a change in president, with Amber Pollock of Backwards Distilling Company stepping down to allow more time to devote to her ACSA board commitments (congrats, Amber!). A unanimous approval resulted in the appointing of David Defazio of Wyoming Whiskey to fill her position. A huge thanks goes out from the Guild to Amber for her service over the past several years, and we

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that achieves much of our goal. Although this proposal does not go far enough, we are moving in the right direction. We met with the Governor’s office and they are supportive of our efforts to grow the industry.” The fall season was highlighted with the High Desert Oregon Distillers Festival at the McMenamin’s Old St. Francis School. The festival showcased 20 distilleries from all over the state. Our next featured event is TOAST. TOAST 2019 is set for Saturday, March

Spirits. The event was a great time for all — cocktails, local food, live music, and tastings were enjoyed. There are several new distilleries popping up in Utah and the guild is hoping to grow and develop a bit as a result.

9, 2019 in Portland. Entering its 9th year, TOAST allows distillers and producers to showcase their handcrafted spirits and provides the public with a unique allinclusive tasting experience of diverse and high-quality craft spirits from Oregon and beyond. TOAST will take place from 4 -10 pm, with an after-party for VIPs and distillers. More details to come. Jamie Howard Co-founder/Marketing Deluxe Brewing Company & Sinister Distilling Company

Ethan S. Miller Head Distiller, Co-owner Holystone Distilling President Distillers Guild of Utah

commission paid to Virginia distilleries for onsite sales and expanding Sunday operating hours for all ABC stores (locations will be selected at VABC’s discretion). In Virginia, our distilleries’ tasting rooms are also considered ABC stores, so the expansion will not only apply to VABC’s retail stores but also our distillery stores. The latter half of the two efforts will be the funding mechanism for the first half of the legislation. As the VDA continues to focus on shortand long-term regulatory matters, we

believe that promotional activities to expand consumer awareness of our industry is equally important. This year’s September Virginia Spirits Month campaign increased cumulative sales of Virginia distilled spirits by 20 percent at both ABC’s retail stores and distillery stores. This year marked the third anniversary of the campaign.

welcome David into his new role. We are seeing the distilling industry growing here in Wyoming, with a few new members joining the Guild (welcome Chronicles Distilling and Pine Bluffs Distilling) and a few new DSPs being issued. With the growth of our industry, we hope to continue to grow the Guild, thus enhancing our influence on legislative efforts to benefit our budding industry. Our main local legislative goals for the future focus upon the ability to host our own events with what are referred to as “catering permits” in our state, the possibility of having

a second tasting room to thus expand our brands, and to “self-report” cases that we sell from our tasting rooms (i.e. not have to pay to ship them to the state warehouse, only to then pay to have them returned). All of these face challenges from lobbyists and special interest groups, but we intend to gracefully move forward in collaboration with the Wyoming State Liquor Association, Wyoming Liquor Division, and all of our onand off-premise customers. Nationally, of course, our focus is to do everything we can to make the FET reduction permanent. All members have recognized

Amy Ciarametaro Executive Director Virginia Distillers Association

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