Pub Snippets..

SPIRIT LOVERS HAVE REASON TO GO STRAIGHT

This Classic Spirit

Portland Tribune - June 6, 2001

By Katherine Cole

As Oregonians, proud keepers of our rich Northwest bounty, we've done microbrews
and we've done wine. Ana, yes, caught up in a national cocktail craze, we've done mixed drinks, too. Now it's time to get wise to the startling pureness of local gin and vodka - unadorned.

Just ask Jim Bendis. "I can tell the top brands of gin and vodka by smell, even without tasting them," he says, adding that we, too, should all be sniffing our loquor as though it were wine.

Bendis, the owner of Bendistillery - one of the few boutique distilleries in the nation - is concerned about our lack of knowledge of fine spirits. And he is justified. Most of us, if pressed, would sheepishly admit that our gin and vodka purchases are determined by A) advertising and B) the liquor's ability to be masked by tonic.

But if a spirit is any good, Bendis counters, you ought to be able to quaff it straight up. "We're proud to say our gin stands alone," he brags. "It doesn't need vermouth or olives."

As you may know, that's not true of most gins. Bendis explains that extracting the proper flavor from juniper berries, which give gin its distinct bite, is a pretty complex process, so most liquor manufacturers use chemical additives rather than messing around with the actual berries. For example, he says, Bombay Sapphire "tests the limits of what a gin really is because it has aromatics and extracts in it."

By contrast, his handcrafted, small-batch gins are made with little more than spring water from the Cascades and handpicked wild juniper berries. Bendistillery's Cascade Mountain Gin, for example, has the pure aroma of summer in Bend, not chemicals. Shaken with ice, it hits the tongue with a tiny bit of sweetness, finishing fresh and clean. Mixed with tonic, an unusually sweet bite of fruit announces itself.

Bendis stumbled upon his vocation while mountain biking and triathlon training near his home in Bend. He noticed that juniper trees were everywhere and that their berries appeared to be of no use to anyone. Having studied chemistry and dabbled in craft brewing he knew what the berries were good for right then: gin. He began by literally mixing the stuff in his bathtub - breaking the law but enjoying the result. In 1996, proper licenses in line, Bendistillery became legit.

In addition to gin, Bendistillery also produces 80-proof Crater Lake Vodka, which again, stands apart from its competitors. Where posh vodka brands may boast that their products are filtered up to three times, Crater Lake gets 10 treatments.

It's slowly siphoned through charcoal five times, then volcanic rock another five times. "We use crushed lava because that's what makes the water taste so good around here," Bendis explains. "It cleanses out the impurities," he says, that give people hangovers.

Finally, in a break from traditional techniques, the vodka is aged in new American oak to give it a soft finish - think whiskey. (The result is smooth enough that Bendistillery can make a sweet vodka liqueur out of it called Crater Lake Hazelnut Espresso.) When the vodka is mixed with tonic, the oak aging process has a perceptible taste, and the vodka's mellowness is a welcome change from the typical sharp tang of a vodka tonic.