Lifting Spirits

A small Oregon distillery is bringing home big praise for big brandies

YOU CAN CERTAINLY be forgiven if you missed the results of the 2004 U.S. Slivovitz Competition. Hey, we're all busy these days, and what the heck is slivovitz anyway?

Well, it turns out the recent winner for making the world's best glass-aged slivovitz (blue plum brandy) is none other than Oregon's Clear Creek Distillery. I'm no expert on the stuff, but Clear Creek's version, which sells for around $37, is perfumed and intense, with a creamy, smooth mouthfeel and no heat or bitterness. "This is the bottle you give to your best man at your wedding," raved one judge.

If slivovitz were Clear Creek's main claim to fame, the distillery might not have lasted 20 years in such a difficult, labor-intensive, niche business. Owner Steve McCarthy describes his product line as "expensive, sort of weird and hard to sell." Nonetheless, he has grown it from an initial foray into pear brandy (still his best-selling product) to making as many as 18 different distilled beverages, with more in development.

Apple brandy? Check. Kirschwasser (cherry brandy)?? Yup. Framboise (raspberry brandy), grappa (from muscat, gewurztraminer, pinot grigio and even pinot noir)??? Clear Creek has got you covered.

Along the way, McCarthy has won critical praise, high scores and numerous awards for virtually every product he's ever made. But the accolade he is perhaps most proud of is a listing in "Jim Murray's 2004 Whiskey Bible" (Carlton Books, $14.95). This pocket-sized guide to more than 2,000 whiskeys, mostly single malts and blended scotch, awarded just 85 brands a score of 94 or above. Clear Creek's Oregon Single Malt Pot Distilled Whiskey scored 94 and was named "Best Small Batch Whiskey of the Year."

That an Oregon distillery could claim such honors utterly astounded Murray, who ran out of superlatives describing Clear Creek's malt.

My own impressions were equally enthusiastic. My notes read "Wow! Amazingly smoky, peaty bouquet. Briny, like a really smoky Lagavulin; this just goes on forever with smoke, peat, brine, sea salt, anise." Did I mention smoke?

McCarthy, a droll, professorial 62-year-old, has little time to enjoy such praise. In a wide-ranging conversation, as I carefully sipped and spit my way through the full spectrum of Clear Creek offerings, he kept returning to the day-to-day frustrations of the business.

"After 20 years," he explains, "we're still not making much money. Our stuff is well-regarded, and, by-and-large, making it is fun. But at this time there's no great leap forward left. Improvements now are just nuances."

The problem, he feels, is the liquor market itself. In Washington and Oregon, as in many other states, Clear Creek products are highly regulated. Here they can be sold only in state liquor stores, which do not provide the sort of helpful promotion and education that wine retailers routinely offer. And all over the country, liquor sales are tied to big advertising budgets, and the products of tiny, artisanal producers such as Clear Creek, which are what is called "a hand sell," find it very difficult to compete. His sales would quadruple if he could sell in wine shops, McCarthy believes.

Despite the obstacles, he seems determined to prevail. He is readying some new products, chief among them a new line of loganberry, cherry and cassis liqueurs that may eventually fit under the legal limits for alcoholic products that can be sold in wine shops. For the moment, they are being introduced in select liquor stores and restaurants.

But he's not stopping there. Soon to be released is a product he's been working on for a decade: an eau de vie of Douglas fir. "The restaurant people will go nuts with it at Christmas," he predicts. Don't be surprised if he pulls down the grand prize at the National 2006 Douglas Fir Eaux de Vie Competition.

Paul Gregutt writes the Wednesday wine column for The Seattle Times and covers Northwest wine for the Wine Enthusiast magazine. Write him at wine@seattletimes.com. Benjamin Benschneider is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff photographer.