Tell us how Barr Hill got started and where the name comes from?
Barr Hill started in 2011 with a beekeeper, Todd Hardie, and a distiller, Ryan Christiansen, working together in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, one of the most remote and beautiful agricultural regions in the world. Todd had dedicated much of his life to farming, with a special love for beekeeping and their role in sustainable agriculture. Ryan, a fermentation enthusiast, had been operating a homebrew supply store in his hometown of Plainfield, Vermont. Together, they set out on a life’s work to perfect the use of raw honey - an extraordinarily mysterious and botanically rich ingredient - in their young distillery.
Our original distillery was located on a dirt road, not far from our namesake, the Barr Hill Nature Preserve, a picturesque, remote network of trails winding through wilderness and rolling hills. The view from atop Barr Hill is the landscape illustrated on the label of our Barr Hill spirits.
We began working with a small, 15-gallon direct-fire copper still and in 2012 Barr Hill Gin wontop honors in both the New York and Hong Kong International Spirits Awards. Needless to say,demand and production began to increase and hand delivering gin in a station wagon was no longer feasible. We spent months seeking a new location and were very pleased to find a spot in Montpelier VT for our new, sustainably designed, state-of-the-art distillery on Gin Lane.
Where do you source all your honey and other ingredients?
Our honey is sourced from a few different family farms all within a 250 mile radius of the distillery. Raw honey is the driving force of terroir and botanical complexity in our spirits. Honey itself is flavored by all the different nectars a honey bee collects on its foraging journey. By keeping the honey raw and never pasteurizing it, we capture the essence of all the flora and fauna of our region in every bottle.We source our juniper from Croatia and parts of Eastern Europe near the Adriatic Sea. This is where the best, most flavorful juniper in the world grows and much of it is still wild harvested to this day giving it a bold, natural aroma.
Any future plans for 2025 that you’d like to share?
We’re looking forward to continuing sharing our award winning Barr Hill Spirits with fans acrossthe country and growing our presence nationwide. And we’re very excited to continue growing our newest member of the portfolio - Phyllis Rye Whiskey. We’ve been quietly making whiskey for 10 years and this has been a very special project near and dear to us. In 2015, Todd wanted to get back to farming and sold his share of the company to Ryan so he could start an organic grain farm. But Todd has stayed close by, and his farm supplies the bulk of the rye grains for our whiskey. Committed to quality and transparency, we never source our whiskey and make it entirely ourselves, 100% from Vermont grown organic grains. True whiskey making is a very patient process that takes years. We began releasing small batches of it only about a year ago and as more of the whiskey continues to mature, we’re excited to begin distributing and sharing more of it.
What do you like most about having the distillery in Montpelier?
It's a creative, vibrant, community-minded town that celebrates art and nature nestled in the green hills of Vermont. We’re conveniently located to some of the best outdoor recreation and agriculture in the state which we highlight in our James Beard Award finalist cocktail bar and restaurant on site at the distillery.
What do you like most about Montpelier?
Montpelier values independent, local creators and producers, eschewing the generic, blandness of big box stores and national chains. We boast the only state capitol without a McDonalds or Walmart. And we’re proud to contribute to this ethos as one of very few truly independent distillers in the country.
It's a fun, vibrant community that punches well above its weight for its deceptively small size and offers something for everyone. World class skiing, hiking, biking and more, amazing arts and culture, dining and drinks - it's the perfect place to enjoy the great outdoors or a great night out.