Photo courtesy of Ricci Hull
Perpetuating Louisiana’s lush strawberry is, thankfully, a well-plied trade: strawberry jam, strawberry preserves, and now—from the new Baton Rouge Distilling—a strawberry brandy (distilling the popular strawberry wine from Amato Winery in Independence).
Husband and wife Ricci Hull and Natacha Krzesaj are the artisans at the core of Baton Rouge’s first distillery since prohibition. Ninety-five years later, the hurdles are less teetotaling and more bureaucratic. “Permits are intense,” stressed Ricci. “You have to get one to get the other. It took a year and a half to get the permits together to start distilling.”
Ricci already has a queue of liquors for his fifty-two-gallon still. “The flagship product will be a bourbon,” said Ricci. While the bourbon ages—due to the small barrels, the aging process will be shortened to a year—Baton Rouge distilling will market a white whiskey. They even hope to partner with Baton Rouge’s new Southern Craft Brewing on a rye.
For now, their brandy is already on shelves at Calandro’s Supermarket, Matherne’s, and other stores in Baton Rouge. The Hulls are eager to educate the unfamiliar on brandy’s fine qualities. “It goes great in cocktails,” said Ricci, pointing the curious toward Olive or Twist, where the strawberry brandy is already being used in several concoctions. And once you’re more acquainted with its potency, Ricci suggested a more stoic method he learned in his European travels. “Straight chilled, as an aperitif.”
Find cocktail recipes and locate bottles near you at batonrougebourbon.com.
