Tom Burkleaux, founder of New Deal Distillery, best known for its Oregon-grown wheat and rye vodka, and its Ginger Liqueur made with pounds of fresh ginger root, says, “Craft spirits must be distilled in small batches and with love, and the person making the spirits must have control over how it tastes.”

Innovation is also what sets the craft distillery industry apart from the big boys like Jack Daniels, Bombay Sapphire, Bacardi, and Smirnoff. When comparing craft spirits to their mass- produced, corporatised counterparts, Burkleaux uses the analogy of the chef-owned restaurant. “It’s like the difference between a chef-owned establishment and a quality chain restaurant. Both can provide amazing food, but the chef-owned restaurant is tied more to the passion, learning, and the chef’s experimentation, whereas the chain restaurant will more than likely make classics consistently. Both have their place.”

According to Burkleaux, places like Kentucky, a state known for its bourbon industry, and Scotland, a country famous for its barrel-aged whiskies, make world-class spirits, but they play within a narrow range of styles, so drinkers always know what they are going to get.

When it comes to experimentation, many Kentucky and Scotland distillers are victims of their own success. They are in the business of selling bourbon and scotch, not creating new categories, so their success is tied to the terroir of their specific geographies. But nothing stops us Portland craft distillers from playing with non-traditional grains, distillation styles, and barrel types.

If you’re looking to taste and buy some of Oregon’s finest locally-made craft whiskeys, bourbons, vodkas, gins, brandies and more, set aside at least a day to explore Distillery Row — a cooperative of 13 locally-owned, craft distilleries scattered around Portland.

The Row began with a handful of small, independent distilleries that opened in an industrial area in Portland’s inner eastside between 2004 and 2007. It has since grown and now consists of 13 distilleries in Southeast, North, Northeast, and Northwest Portland.

Burkleaux’s New Deal was the first distillery to open on the inner east side in 2004. By 2007, four other distilleries began operating in the area. In true Portland-style, Burkleaux got friendly with his neighbours, and they all banded together to support each other as well as other budding craft spirit businesses.

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“Being Portland, we quickly became friends, and from the beginning, we discussed working together. Almost immediately, we started calling ourselves Distillery Row. As we opened tasting rooms, people would tour one distillery to another. It was the most natural thing in the world,” he says. In 2010, Distillery Row was registered as an official non-profit association.

Today, you can drop by the distilleries you’re interested in or get a Distillery Row Passport and visit them all. In addition to learning how spirits are made and how to use them in cocktails, you will taste whiskies, gins, brandies, vodkas, rums, aquavits, and other spirits and liqueurs in a variety of styles that you may not have ever tried before on your tour.

“Distillery Row has brought awareness to the burgeoning craft spirit scene of Portland. Coming to town and visiting up to 13 craft distilleries and spirit tasting rooms is an experience hard to find outside of Kentucky and Scotland,” says Burkleaux.

Erika Degens, who founded Stone Barn Brandyworks with her husband Sebastian Degens in 2009, says the boom in small distilleries happened between 2007 and 2009, after the high demand for craft beers and wines had run its course.

For the Degens, “craft” means doing it all from scratch. “Stone Barn has the smallest — 40-gallon capacity — commercial still, which was especially designed for brandy,” says Degens whose distillery specialises in European-style fruit brandies such as Oregon Cherry Brandy and Northwest Plum Brandy.

“When we distil, we exercise care and discernment in making ‘cuts’ which result in a clean and well-defined spirit that preserves the flavour of the original mash. Our mashes consist of raw ingredients sourced locally. Plus, we always oversee the quality of our fruit and grain and distil with care by using our sense of smell and taste to create the best spirit possible. All this makes us stand apart from mass-produced spirits,” she explains.

Degen cites Oregon’s bountiful agricultural offerings as one reason for the industry’s huge success.

“Because of Oregon’s local agriculture and the impressive range of ingredients available in the Pacific Northwest, small-batch distilleries have plenty of high quality, locally sourced ingredients to work with, and can innovate and thrive here. The wealth of fruit and grain grown in this region inspires many would-be distillers. There is also a sizeable craft cocktail scene in many Portland F&B venues and top-notch, inventive bartenders who love to use products from local distillers.”

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A more recent addition to the Distillery Row collaborative is Freeland Spirits — a women-owned and operated enterprise that focuses on gins and whiskeys. Freeland, which opened in 2018, is known for its classic Freeland Gin, a unique, botanically infused contemporary product created with fresh, local herbs and a dual hot and cold distillation that retains the grain and botanical aromas. Their Freeland Fresh line of cocktail mixers made with fresh fruit juices and botanical syrups is also very popular.

“Portland has long been known for its craft beer and wine, but people soon realised they could imbibe amazing craft spirits that were made right in their backyard,” says Freeland Spirit’s founder Jill Kuehler who joined the Distillery Row cooperative the year she launched her business.

Kuehler says that when the pandemic sent Portland’s F&B industry into crisis in 2020, members of the cooperative and the people of Portland took the motto ‘we’re all in this together’ very seriously. Locals began to worry that their favourite businesses and makers wouldn’t survive, so everyone came out in full force to support their local distilleries.

“The Distillery Row community is an empowering one, full of scientists and creatives who lift one another up. The cooperative is focused on making craft spirits a more inclusive space, which is exactly what we stand for. We were so excited to join the abundant community of craft spirits makers in Portland when we first launched our business. Portland’s Distillery Row is the largest concentration of craft distilleries in the world; we are so proud to be a part of this epicentre of the craft spirit industry,” she says.

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