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Springtime in Portland Oregon – Part 1

April 09, 2011 / Comments (1)

Way back in the depths of February we booked ourselves into attending the American Distilling Institute’s annual convention. This year’s topic was Brandy – so it seemed appropriate – plus it was being held in Portland Oregon which has arguably the hottest, fastest growing artisan distilling community in the States. Add to that the opportunity to visit some of these folks and see how they do what they do – well it was an easy decision. The gravy on the whole thing was the unanticipated fact that Portland is about a month or so ahead of us in terms of the weather so we got to take in daffodils, cherry blossoms and the tail end of the magnolia season – all good and healthy balm for winter weary souls with slightly splintered hearts. The conference was a flurry of distillery visits and information sessions – filled with business card swapping salesfolk, eager young distilling whiz kids and a surprising number of wide eyed wannabee booze makers. We fit somewhere in the middle of it all. In the end we , gleaned some great ideas, answered some questions, and got to meet one of the American rock stars of eau de vie, Steve McCarthy from Clear Creek Distillery. All in all a well justified expense. If only we hadn’t had to fly across North America to get there. Flying is indeed a hateful and onerous task now. But not to dwell on that part of things. Here are a few shots of the nifty bits.