An Atlantic magazine feature article proclaimed craft distilling (defined as less than 50,000 cases a year) is still in its early days, adding, “Hardly a day passes without the announcement of a new distillery opening its doors to produce craft gin or bourbon or some obscure liqueur.”

A Time magazine small business article on “The Micro Distillery Boom” projected that the renaissance that happened to wine and beer had now moved on to spirits.

“Buoyed by America’s artisanal love affair, businesses are popping up like corks at a wedding reception,” the article said, predicting that “there could be a thousand little stills churning out potent potables” within a decade.

Happening in Arizona

“We’ve been producing wine since 1982, the second oldest continually-producing winery in the state,” said Gary Reeves of the Village of Elgin Winery in Elgin, Ariz. His business endeavors now feature the year-old Elgin Distillery, the first craft distiller in the state producing whiskeys, brandies, rums, and other specialty spirits.

Reeves said, “Last year we grew grapes on 160 acres and turned some of those gallons of wine into brandy. In addition to making our product, we own one of only two current custom crush licenses.”

The artisanal marketplace opened up with the enactment of craft distillery laws in California and Arizona. There are 13 other craft distillers in Arizona and a lot of wineries have developed brandy micro-distilleries in California,” said Reeves.

The new regulations in California and Arizona, he says, open things up and allow growers and wineries to produce another revenue stream from their base product. 

Reeves said, “It represents an additional market for flexible growers to decide what crops they will grow and what form they will end up in.”