Louisiana Distillers

Every year during Tales of the Cocktail, the annual gathering of global spirits professionals coming up in New Orleans July 16-21, the Meet the Distillers event is a runaway success. Last year, more than sixty start-ups and established craft distillers gathered to show off their wares: spirits from as far afield as France, Japan, and Mexico and as close to home as Seven Three Distilling, made right in New Orleans on Claiborne Avenue. “It used to be a novelty to be producing locally,” said Neal Bodenheimer, a leader in the national craft cocktail scene and owner of trend-setting bars Cure and Cane + Table.  (He’s also co-chair of Tales’ Board of Directors.) “Now there are many distillers producing locally, but expectations have gone higher. The ultimate test always is, the spirits have to be good.” 

Cooking hooch is a dream for many wannabes, but acquiring the basics—a source of water, a cooker, a fermenter, and a still—as well as a building, licensing, and inventory can invoke sticker shock. “Plan on somewhere between $300K–$500K as a bare minimum,” according to the pros at Moonshine University in Louisville, Kentucky. 

The Distillery Trail, a clearing house for American distilleries, reports more than 1,300 boutique and start-up distilleries in the U.S. Louisiana has at least 19 around the state.  Here’s a look at a few of the local makers and what they are concocting in those fancy stills. 

Atelier Vie

Founded in 2011, Atelier Vie produces vodka, gin, whiskey and even absinthe, from its South Broad Street location in Mid-City New Orleans.Atelier Vie’s two varieties of absinthe include the traditional green absinthe and a red version colored and flavored with hibiscus flowers.

Try: Louisiana Single Malt Whiskey, Calio Rum, Orphan Street Brandy, and Euphrosine Gin, which took the Gold Medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

Baton Rouge Distilling

This distillery in East Baton Rouge is the lovechild of LSU graduates and spouses Ricci Hull and Natacha Krzesaj. Baton Rouge Distilling is the first operating distillery in Baton Rouge since Prohibition

Try: Strawberry Brandy from fruit picked in Tangipahoa Parish.

Celebration Distillation

Maker of Old New Orleans Rum, Celebration was founded in the mid-1990s. The famed New Orleans’ painter James Michalopoulos wanted to emphasize his rum’s ties to Louisiana culture by using only Louisiana-grown sugarcane, and his company went on as a pioneer in the New Orleans distilling scene. Celebration Distillation offers free shuttle rides straight out of the French Quarter to their Gentilly location for tours, which start—rather than finish—with a tasting. 

Try: Crystal White Rum, Amber Dark Rum, which is aged for up to three years in charred whiskey barrels, or Cajun Spice Rum, flavored with cinnamon, cayenne, and ginger. 

Cajun Spirits Distillery

Founded in 2010 by New Orleanian Gus Haik, Cajun Spirits relies on Louisiana sugar cane for its small batch spirits. Although formal tours aren’t offered, call to arrange a private visit. Cajun Spirits is handcrafted in custom copper stills, made to order in Germany.  

Try: Crescent Vodka, Tresillo Rum, and 3rd Ward Gin. 

Louisiana Spirits

This distillery in Lacassine makes the well-regarded Bayou Rum, and since opening in 2013 is now the largest privately-owned rum distillery in the United States. In its first year the distillery won fifty awards from tasting competitions in the country. 

Try: Traditional Bayou Silver Rum, the Bayou Spiced Rum, or the exotic Bayou Satsuma Rum.

Lula

Opened in 2017 in the Garden District, Lula is New Orleans’ only Creole/Southern restaurant with an in-house distillery. Partner Jess Bourgeois, formerly of Commander’s Palace, handles the restaurant while co-owner Bear Caffrey, a Baton Rouge ER doctor with a penchant for chemistry, oversees the distillery. To open a combined full service restaurant with a micro-distillery, Bourgeois and Caffrey had to seek approval through House Bill 233, which passed in the summer of 2015, paving the way for future restaurant-distillery concepts in Louisiana. 

Try: The cocktails on tap program is one of the best in town. Don’t miss the gin with housemade tonic. 

NOLA Distillery

Opened in 2015, this operation closed briefly in 2018 and reopened after being purchased by the Las Vegas-based HS Beverage. This Tchoupitoulas operation sources sweet potatoes from Avoyelles Parish for vodka, Louisiana molasses for rum, cold brew coffee from French Truck Coffee for the liqueur, and cayenne peppers grown in NOCCA’s Press Street Gardens. This is also the only local distillery that uses sweet potato as a grain source for vodka. 

Try: NOLA Vodka, NOLA Pepper Vodka, Hierarchy Vodka, Louisiana Tradition Whiskey, and Pirates Code Rum, along with spirits under the Larry Flynt Hustler brand—yes, you can drink them at the Bourbon Street club. 

Roulaison Distilling Company

The brainchild of college friends Andrew Lohfeld of Philadelphia  and Morgan City native Patrick Hernandez, Roulaison Distilling was born from a dream of a rum distillery using Louisiana sugar. Sourcing sugarcane from Lafourche Parish, the pair set up shop in Mid-City in 2017. Roulaison taps into distilling traditions from Spanish, English and French, as well as the legendary practices of the Caribbean. 

Try: Traditional Pot Distilled White Rum, unaged Overproof, Amer Herbal Rum Liqueur, and Single Barrel Aged Rum.

Seven Three Distilling Co.

Named for the seventy-three neighborhoods in New Orleans, this craft maker uses locally sourced ingredients including sugar from Labadieville, Louisiana, Prairie Ronde Rice from James Rice Farms in Cajun Country, and wheat and corn from Schexnayder & Sons Farm in Erwinville.Situated in the Treme, Seven Three incorporates the neighborhood’s deeply rooted history into its distillery tours. 

Try: Bywater Bourbon, Gentilly Gin, Marigny Moonshine, Irish Channel whiskey, St. Roch Vodka, and Black Pearl Rum.

Three Roll Estate

Based in Baton Rouge, Three Roll Estate (formerly Cane Land Distilling) sources its sugar from Alma Plantation in nearby Pointe Coupee Parish. Three Roll is a single estate distillery, meaning that all of its ingredients must be sourced from a single area of land—in this case, Alma Plantation. The name “Three Roll” refers to the three-roll mill used to process its sugar cane.  

Try: Three kinds of rum, including Rhum Agricole made from the first pressing of cane juice, along with Pure Louisiana Vodka and OMFW, short for Original Mississippi Floated Whiskey.  Look for plum brandy, agave spirit, and whiskey in the coming year.  k

Visit bit.ly/31H29pc for Distillery Trail’s list of Louisiana distilleries.