Written by GABE TOTH
Photo by Allyson Campbell
DESERT DOOR DISTILLERY Tasting Prehistoric Texas
D
esert Door Distillery is looking to the past for inspiration. More specifically, they’re looking about as far back in the past as the historic and prehistoric record of humanity goes in west Texas. Distillery co-founder Ryan Campbell said the sotol plant, which also lends its name to the unique spirit produced from the plant, was long a staple for anyone who lived in the area.
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Written by Gabe Toth
“If you go out to west Texas today, there are actually cave drawings of the plant,” he said. “Natives used it for sustenance for 10,000 years. They would make baskets from the leaves; they would make weapons from the stalks; they would also cook it and eat it. They figured out, about 1,000 years ago, after cooking it, if they mashed it up and added water to it, then put it in a hole in the ground, they could come back after a few days and get drunk.”
The spirit originated about 300 years ago, when the Spanish taught the Native population how to distill their fermented beverage. “It was all sort of lost to history due to Prohibition and other government regulations, and we’re bringing it back,” he said. Campbell, Brent Looby, and Judson Kaufmann caught the sotol bug after growing up in Texas and hearing about it from the old-timers in that part of the state — the more W W W . ARTISANSPIRITMAG . C O M