Story and photoS by Luka Starmer
Kindred
spirits Minden’s new estate distillery sits on a historical Nevada site
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RN&R
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05.23.19
I’ve been writing about drinking lately on assignment for the RN&R. Last time for my boozy shenanigans, I wound up being escorted by security out of the El Dorado Casino, after which my evening spiraled into a dance party at the Loving Cup. This story isn’t anything like that, but it’s still about drinking. This is a story for the type of person who likes to pour a nice cocktail at home every now and again. They might dabble with bitters or vermouth from their liquor cabinet. If asked, they could intellectually conjure the smoky finish of scotch indexed in their cerebral card catalog of highbrow tastes and experiences.
Long after the time of the Dangbergs, and way after the heyday of the Minden Flour Mill, a man named Donald Bently acquired the land that is now the Bently Ranch. I’m more or less just Wikipedia-ing, but I know he was a Nevada-based engineer and an entrepreneur starting in the 1960s. His success paved the way for his son, Chris Bently, to do something wonderfully extravagant with the property upon which he grew up. The Bently Ranch now includes a high-end beef cattle ranch and butcher, an antique car restoration facility (called the “creation station”) and thousands of acres of barley and grain for fermenting and distilling into spirits. To be considered an “estate” distillery, as the name suggests, 85 percent of the raw materials for the spirits must be grown, processed and bottled on the property. This criteria was defined in a 2017 bill passed by the Nevada Legislature—and lobbied for by Bently and the proprietors of Frey Ranch Estate Distillery in Fallon. At the time of this writing I haven’t met Chris Bently, but I seriously hope I do. I hear he is well-dressed and has a big presence. Sometimes he’s traveling the world with his wife, Camille. Sometimes he’s sharing stories with visitors in the distillery’s tasting room. If you’re still with me on this hypothetical His staff and other journalists tout him as a persona experiment, now imagine yourself on visionary, and the more I drink his Source One a rainy day in Scotland—even if you haven’t Vodka, the more I agree. been there. (I haven’t been myself.) You’ve Bently’s attention to detail is present in the been traveling for weeks, and you really miss aesthetic of the grounds and buildings. The Nevada. What spirit could you rummage from distillery is a gorgeous combination of archival the bottle collection that might slap you in the restoration and technological modernization. face with nostalgia and longing to be back out Visitors sip from their glasses over three in the sagebrush hills? floors of the old flour mill, ascending a spiral I think those bottles of spirits are being staircase towards a dazzling glass chandelier produced right now at Bently Heritage Estate that glints from the sun through the windows Distillery at 1601 Water St. in Minden. at all hours of the day. Reclaimed wooden The new distillery that opened in February beams are accented by structurally reinforcing is wholly Nevadan. It’s housed in the old black steel. The mid-century leather couches, Minden Flour Mill—the tallest building in the glassware, the artwork are all part of a Minden for over 100 years. Both the mill and its neighboring Minden Creamery are listed on designer experience for drinking lovely spirits and creative cocktails. From vantage points the National Register of Historic Places. The all over, visitors can look through glass panes brick facade of the creamery was designed by down into the preserved skeleton of the mill Nevada architect Frederic DeLongchamps. silos. On the bottom floor are two copper His is an important Nevada name to know for stills, imaginatively illuminated by theatrical sophisticated cocktail hour conversations. I’m lighting. The staff will remind you that the sure you already knew it. building is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Bently Heritage Distillery sits on the Environmental Design) Gold certified. 65,000-acre Bently Ranch. There’s a lot The copper stills are just a fraction of the happening on those 65,000 acres, and I’ll get to entire production, however. They’re responall that after some quick history. A man named Heinrich Friedrich Dangberg sible for the single malt whiskey, which was Bently’s inspiration for opening a distillery. built the Home Ranch in the Carson Valley in The whiskey will take years to age before it’s 1856 (prior to Nevada statehood), but in order available for general consumption. to build a city (future Minden), the family had Over in the old creamery stands the to dig a well. Fast-forward to today; Minden most mechanically advanced booze factory is still standing. The site of the well is across I’ve toured. (And I’ve toured a few.) The the cobblestone driveway at the distillery, production team is fewer than 10 people. Its and the water is an essential ingredient in the led by master distiller John Jeffery. Despite production of Bently Heritage spirits. Their line of vodka is called Source One Vodka – the a small workforce, I was informed the entire operation, from valves to pumps to bottling “source” referencing that original well.
