The Land of Gin and Honey

BY ROBERT COOK

Barr Hill Gin is distilled with juniper in a custom-built botanical extraction still and nished with a touch of raw honey — the delivery vessel for countless other botanicals and a hint of sweetness — to balance the dry, resinous juniper. The distinct body and avor make it an excellent choice for classic cocktails, like the Bee’s Knees, as well as a sipping gin. It’s Vermont’s most popular gin, now distributed in 34 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Denmark and Hong Kong.

Barr Hill Vodka is distilled entirely from raw honey. They ferment over 3,000 pounds of raw honey per batch essentially creating mead, which is distilled twice into a vodka. Barr Hill Vodka is the most premium of the Barr Hill spirits, using roughly three to four pounds of raw honey to make each 750-mL bottle. It yields butterscotch notes on the nose and a soft honey essence on the pallet but is still dry and has no residual sugar, making it perfect for a crisp, dry vodka martini.

Tom Cat Gin is distilled in the same way as Barr Hill Gin, and becomes Tom Cat after it has been aged for six to nine months in charred and toasted American oak barrels.

Tom Cat is perfect for whiskey drinkers and gin drinkers alike with smooth, full-bodied oak characteristics and bright botanicals.

Kingdom Strength Tom Cat is the newest release and can be found only at the distillery. It is a full-bodied, aged gin bottled at 113 proof, with big spice, a hint of vanilla and smokey oak notes. A touch of juniper and honey cuts through with bright citrus and cedar aromatics.

Gin distillers put a premium on adding select botanicals like juniper berries, herbs, spices and fruit avors to create their spirits. At Caledonia Spirits, distillers of Barr Hill in Montpelier, they prefer to go to a richer, more complex source — raw honey.

Millions of bees throughout North America and Vermont pollinate owers and create raw honey that contains the essence of all the botanicals they collect. Regional beekeepers within 250 miles of Caledonia Spirits supply the distillery with 222,000 pounds of honey annually.

Sophia Barsalow, Caledonia Spirits Vermont sales manager, says that the raw honey added to every bottle of Barr Hill Gin balances the juniper and delivers wild ower nectars and oral depth, which is why gin drinkers and non-gin drinkers alike love Barr Hill. “It’s the gin that brings you in.”

Patrick Amice, Caledonia Spirits’ general manager of hospitality, said after being used to age Tom Cat the barrels are typically sold to Vermont breweries, cideries and sugarmakers to age their own products imbued with a touch of Tom Cat spice.

Barsalow says that Barr Hill Gin has been Vermont’s top-selling gin for the last six years, and during the warmer months of May through September, it is the second most popular brand in the state, just behind Tito’s.

In 2017, Barr Hill started Bee's Knees Week, held every year at the end of September. It is the largest sustainability event in the spirits industry. New this year, Bee’s Knees Week is 1% “For The Planet” certi ed. The event highlights the Bee’s Knees cocktail to celebrate the importance of pollinators, encouraging fans of cocktails and pollinators to enjoy a Bee’s Knees during the week, sharing it on social media with the hashtag #beeskneesweek. Barr Hill pledges to plant 10 square feet of new pollinator habitat for every post. After Bee’s Knees Week 2022, almost six acres of pollinator habitat were planted. This year, the goal is to plant seven acres.

Barsalow, who is a hobby beekeeper, explains that a worker bee lives for 36 days at the peak of summer, and produces the equivalent of one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. A healthy honey bee hive has over 60,000 bees. Additionally, there are millions of wild and native pollinators, all playing a critical role in feeding the planet.

To put that into greater perspective, Amice points out that “one in every three bites of food comes from pollinators.”

Barsalow says at Caledonia Spirits, they promote the health of their community and pollinators. The distillery hosts its share of cocktail classes where patrons can gain a better understanding of connecting agriculture to cocktail culture.

“We care about people, place, product and pollinators,” Barsalow says.

The distillery was mindfully built from the ground up to address common sustainability issues found in distilleries. Ryan Christiansen, president and head distiller at Caledonia Spirits, says they are always looking for more ways to make their operations as eco-friendly as possible. When asked how close Caledonia Spirits is to becoming 100% sustainable, Christiansen comments that, “we still have a way to go, but compared to the industry as a whole, what we’ve done here in Montpelier puts us at the forefront of the sustainability movement in the spirits industry.”

From projects like building a continuous extraction still from scratch with spare parts on hand, to the physical building design which uses solar and heat reclamation, to partnerships with local agricultural producers, to the national Bee’s Knees Week campaign, Caledonia Spirits is moving the needle in the right direction.

Caledonia Spirits also sells the Barr Hill Gift Pack, which features two bottles of spirits and a jar of raw honey, as well as their newly released Gin and Tonic fourpacks. The Gin and Tonic canned cocktail was born during the pandemic when togo cocktails were the only way to service guests.

Inside the distillery, the three pot stills that make up Gin Island are named for the distiller’s maternal grandmothers: Sheri, Ramona and Irene. The towering copper still nearby is called Phyllis, which is named for Christiansen’s maternal grandmother.

Christiansen says Caledonia Spirits bottles anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 bottles Monday to Thursday, and each bottle is hand-dipped into a vessel of melted beeswax after corking, to give each one a honey sheen.

Their new facility includes a retail store and full-service bar, with seasonal farmto-table o erings and an outdoor patio, distillery, manufacturing and packing areas. Here, their goal is to promote sustainability by educating the public about bees and the ecosystem that contributes to their spirits as well as the environment.

Patrons can tour the Caledonia Spirits distillery and learn more about the processes used to create the spirits.

Caledonia Spirits also has its own research and development lab where the team is always looking for new ways to increase sustainability and operations.

Barsalow says they host large groups and corporate functions, as well as public events. For example, they host a tropical beach party with music and cocktails in February as a “winter escape” for the community. They recently hosted 220 employees from National Life, one of Montpelier’s largest companies, and each winter the Montpelier Farmers Market moves indoors to the distillery.

For the love of bees and gin

Barr Hill and Caledonia Spirits are rooted in a genuine love of bees and a desire to unleash the full botanical splendor in their raw honey.

In 2011, beekeeper Todd Hardie and Christiansen formed a partnership in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Their original 6,000-square-foot distillery was located in Hardwick near Greensboro and the Barr Hill Nature Preserve, their spirits’ namesake.

Hardie, a lifelong beekeeper, had been

Bee's Knees

2 ounces Barr Hill Gin

¾ ounce fresh lemon

¾ ounce honey syrup (2 parts honey, 1 part water)

Shake together with ice and strain into a coupe glass.

Garnish with a lemon twist.

Tom

1½ ounces Tom Cat Gin

¾ ounce Campari

¾ ounce Sweet vermouth caring for bee hives across Vermont and the world. Christiansen had recently started a home-brewing supply store and was eager to help Hardie.

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice. Garnish with an orange twist.

Distilling with a single 15-gallon, direct- re copper still, the two men sent their gin to the New York and Hong Kong International Spirits Competitions, where it won Double Gold and Best Gin of the Year, respectively.

By the end of 2012, production increased from one batch per week to three batches per day. They set out to perfect the use of raw honey in the distillery, capturing the countless botanicals foraged by honey bees into a bottle of gin.

The distillery moved its operations from Hardwick to a new 27,000-square-foot facility in Montpelier in June 2019. They restored a long-neglected brown eld site along the banks of the Winooski River. The new distillery would encompass as much sustainability and eco-friendly processes

— Ryan Christiansen, president and head

as possible. With the city’s blessing, Christiansen said they were permitted to use the name Gin Lane for their street.

Christiansen said Gin Lane is a cheeky reference to a piece of 18th-century British anti-gin propaganda depicting the evils of gin consumption on Gin Lane, contrasted with the merits of beer drinking on Beer Street. This artwork contributed to the Gin Act of 1751, restricting gin in the U.K. Christiansen added that their Tom Cat Gin is named after the rogue gin created and sold in London at this time. Thankfully, the Gin Act was short lived, and independent craft distillers, like those at Barr Hill, are able to innovate and push the boundaries of distillation. The foundation of the distillery’s ecofriendly mission and precise craftsmanship yields a cornucopia of bold, smooth avor in every bottle.

“It’s easy to make great spirits when you start with great raw materials,” Christiansen says.

Caledonia Spirits • 116 Gin Lane, Montpelier • (802) 472-8000