Sauced

Happy Days for Dry Fly

The Spokane distiller celebrates a big win in San Fran, and gets ready to roll out a new whiskey. Plus: places to sample its homegrown spirits.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Apr 09, 2009 at 02:00PM2 Comments

Early this month, Spokane-based Dry Fly Distilling claimed the “best vodka” and “double gold medal” awards for its Washington State Wheat Vodka at the 2009 San Francisco World Spirit Competition. It’s a pretty serious distinction for our state’s first small-batch distillery. “We’re not so delusional as to think we have the best vodka in the world," Dry Fly president Don Poffenroth told me. “But it validates what we’ve been up to these past years, and it’s a nice talking point as we try to increase distribution across the country.”

In other news, Dry Fly will be releasing 200 to 250 cases of its 100 percent wheat whiskey—the first 100 percent wheat whiskey to be sold in this country in over 100 years, according to Poffenroth—sometime within the next four weeks. He says there is a database of some 1,100 vendors across the state waiting to buy it. The distillery will also introduce a bourbon-style whiskey in 2010.

Personally, I love Dry Fly’s gin, which you can read more about in this Seattle Metropolitan article from 2008. There are lots of local establishments that stock the Spokane spirits, but my picks for the places that use them to create really exceptional cocktails are below.
Black Bottle
Canlis
Oliver’s Twist
Tini Bigs
Zig Zag Café