from the Orlando Sentinel…
GARDINER, N.Y. - Ralph Erenzo and Brian Lee keep a still in the barn to make whiskey.
No, the two are not backwoods bootleggers. Their shiny copper kettle cooks up whiskey that can run $40 for a half-sized bottle and vodka distilled from local Hudson Valley apples, all under the high-end Tuthilltown Spirits label.
Erenzo claims they are making the first (legal) whiskey in New York since Prohibition. But they already face competition from dozens of “craft” distilleries across the country catering to consumers’ appetite for artisan and local products.
People who pay more for handcrafted cheese, bread, beer and wine are showing a willingness to do likewise for the hard stuff. Tiny Tuthilltown — which makes bourbon, rye, corn whiskey and vodka — is selling faster than it can bottle.
“Whiskey is what people are screaming about,” Erenzo said midway through distilling a batch of rye. A clear stream of spirits flowed from the still on the barn’s spacious second floor as he talked.
Erenzo and Lee seem to be unlikely spirit makers. Erenzo ran a climbing gym in Manhattan. Lee was a broadcast engineer. Neither one drinks except to taste their products.
But the two display entrepreneurship typical of the new breed. They saw their chance in 2002, when New York introduced a new class of license for small distilleries, which carries a fee of $1,450 — as opposed to $50,800 for the old license.
They created a wholesale liquor business from scratch. Until they landed a distributor this year, Erenzo loaded up his trunk and made the rounds to retailers from New York City to Albany.
“It took us about 21/2 years from a dead stop knowing nothing about it until ‘We can turn this thing on and make alcohol,’ ” Erenzo said.
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