Western Massachusetts has long been a considered a pinnacle
of idyllic New England, a perfect spot to retreat from the mania of urban
bustle and the snore-worthy monotony of the suburbs. Native Americans touted
the healing properties of the crystalline mountain spring water that flowed
from the Berkshires, and in the nineteenth century, luxury spas popped up all
over the mountains to make good use of the gorgeous scenery and the “medicinal”
waters. The fashionably weary from across the region would swarm such spas in
search of a quick and restorative getaway, hoping that the celebrated springs
would clear their minds and cure their medical woes.
Fast forward into the twenty-first century, and that same
pristine Berkshire water is being distilled into premium booze.
Now we’re talking.
The Berkshire Mountain Distillers popped up in the
southwest corner of the state a few years ago, when owner Chris Weld and his
wife came to the area looking for a change of scenery and lifestyle after
spending more than a decade on the West Coast. The couple serendipitously found
a derelict apple farm that was up for sale, and they soon decided to buy it and
try their hand at cultivating an orchard. “I wish I had some glamorous story
behind the distillery, like a long family history of bootlegging, but I don’t,”
says Weld, a former physician’s assistant with a Masters degree in emergency
medicine who’d studied biochemistry in college. “In the process of bringing the
farm back, we realized we had 500 apple trees and didn’t know what to do with
the fruit, so we decided to make some brandies with it. Then we learned that
when you get a distillery permit, you can make what you want.”
The seemingly abrupt career change has suited Weld quite well.
“It’s great,” he says, “because it’s a blend of the things I like to do. I’ve
always enjoyed the outdoors — agriculture, farming. My father had a green
thumb. And there’s biochemistry in the distillation, plus the bonus of working
with local materials, like using our own apples.”
This combination of luck, a background in chemistry, and Weld’s
lifelong love of agriculture resulted in a line of premium, hand-crafted,
small-batch spirits — including Greylock Gin, Ice Glen Vodka, Ragged Mountain
Rum, and Ethereal Gin — that many local industry players are raving over. And
premium they are: the vodka is liquid crystal, the rum rich and complex enough
to sip on its own. And two gins equal two times the fun, with the Greylock
playing the role of a smooth operator and the Ethereal living up to its name,
brimming with delicate botanicals and perfumed sunshine.
It helps that Weld’s farmland is rich with history, which makes
its products all the more special. In the 1800s, the 73-acre property was home
to Henry Peck’s Berkshire Soda Springs Hotel, a luxury spa retreat for the chic
Victorian elite, who flocked from New York City to the countryside for the
fresh air and what they thought was the perfect rejuvenating tonic — the
mountain spring water. The hotel burned down at the end of the century, making
way for the subsequent landowners to plant an orchard. Weld and his wife found
the property somewhat by accident, and voila! A business was born. “We’d been
living on the West Coast for about 15 years when we felt the tug of our New
England roots,” says East Coast native Weld, who at the time was working in an
emergency room. “Every summer we’d have a pilgrimage back east to be with our
families. And during those trips we’d drive around New England, just really
focusing on Western Mass. Some friends from here would send us what they’d call
‘house porn’ — real estate magazines that we’d pore through. One random week we
were home, a realtor ended up getting a listing for this farm, so we looked at
it. It was serendipitous.”
Serendipity begat industry, and Berkshire Mountain Distillers
became the first legal distillery in the Berkshires since the dark and sober
days of Prohibition.
The spring water aside, the distillery uses other locally sourced
ingredients to produce the spirits — obviously, locally grown fruits are a
given, since the property is also an orchard. Right now, Weld ages the Ragged
Mountain Rum in bourbon barrels purchased from Woodford, but once Weld’s own
bourbon has finished aging (legally, bourbon must be aged in a “virgin”
barrel), he’ll repurpose the barrels for his rum. It’s this dedication to local
ingredients and materials that makes the spirits extra attractive to socially
conscious consumers and business owners who are loco for
local.
“Local, small-batch liquors are becoming popular, which lines up
with the local food trend,” says area cocktail maven/Berkshire Mountain
Distillers brand ambassador Adam Lantheaume. The master mixologist uses the
spirits in his how-to cocktail classes, held regularly at The
Boston Shaker, a store-within-a-store at Grand (374
Somerville Ave, Somerville, 617.623.2429). “Spending locally helps the local
economy, creates more jobs, helps keep money in the community. Supporting local
businesses is near and dear to me … I’m now a local business, so that concept hits
home with me more than when I was working in corporate America. [Before
founding The Boston Shaker] I tried to be local, but now it’s got a whole new
meaning.”
At a Boston Shaker cocktail basics class, Lantheaume produces two
bottles of Greylock Gin, which his students will use (once they’re done
struggling with jiggers and strainers and the complexities of producing a
slinky lemon twist) to create a French 75, a concoction made from gin, simple
syrup, fresh lemon juice, and champagne. A few people wrinkle their nose
discreetly at first — an understandable response. Gin elicits that reaction
from a lot of people. My friend Rachel refers to “the gin incident of 1998”
with the sort of self-deprecating wisdom that only a retch-filled night of
lessons learned can produce. I, too, had only experienced medicinally heady
G&Ts before discovering that gin can be delicate and flowery and lovely —
not, as suggested by my prior experiences, something that could only taste like
the liquid potpourri that simmers over a tea light on the tank of your grandmother’s
toilet.
Even if you’ve proclaimed yourself “not a gin person,” give
Greylock or Ethereal gins a shot (no pun intended) anyway. That night at Grand,
while sipping the bubbly cocktail, the fruits of much fumbling labor, people
gushed over the clean taste of the drink, over the gin’s pleasantly
underwhelming presence. It’s true — a lot of gins will dominate your drink like
it’s been a naughty, naughty senator in need of a spanking. And that’s no fun
for anyone.
To try your hand at whipping up a local artisanal cocktail using
the Berkshire Mountain Distillery spirits, head to The Wild Duck (96
Salem Street, Boston, 617.248.8893), Downtown Wine & Spirits
(225 Elm Street, Somerville, 617.625.7777), Liquor World (13 White
Street, Cambridge, 617.547.3110), or Seiyo Sushi Wine Shop (1721C
Washington Street, Boston, 617.447.2183), which all keep various Berkshire
products on the shelf and, if necessary, can order anything that’s not in
stock.
For those more inclined toward a night on the town — and for the
unapologetically lazy — there are Berkshire-friendly options too. Toro
(1704 Washington Street, Boston, 617.536.4300) proudly offers Ragged
Mountain Rum as a sipper, and the bar staff at Hungry Mother (233
Cardinal Medeiros Avenue, Cambridge, 617.499.0090) are all too eager to mix up
a “bartender’s choice” ($10) with Greylock Gin. Hell, even the self-proclaimed
cocktail-wary staff at Atwood’s Tavern (877
Cambridge Street, Cambridge, 617.864.2792) keep Berkshire spirits on their menu
for premium mixing, as do Lineage (242 Harvard Street,
Brookline, 617.232.0065) and The Independent (75 Union
Square, Somerville, 617.440.6022).
At the notoriously and lovably zany Upstairs on the
Square (91 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, 617.864.1933), they keep the
cocktail list pretty in pink with the Molly Ringwald ($10), which features
Greylock Gin, St. Germaine, freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, and elderflower
syrup. Obviously, I love the Journalist ($12) at Rialto (1
Bennett Street, Cambridge, 617.661.5050) because, unlike my industry, this
drink is strong, thanks to its Greylock Gin, triple sec, and sweet and dry
vermouth, which are finished with lemon juice and bitters. We can’t vouch for
whether that sparkling spring water will have the same restorative properties
in, say, gin form as it would during a steam facial on a long weekend’s
mountain retreat. But it sure tastes good, and it’s local — we all can raise a
glass to that.
