Idaho’s Warfield Distillery is crafting organic award-winning spirits
After years of talking with Pacific Northwest beverage makers, I believe every worthy craft distillery could be the subject of an epic poem. These distillers have to battle through trials and overcome an array of challenges that might destroy lesser beings, and even be daunting to legends like Odysseus. Idaho’s Warfield Distillery is no different, except that they made their journey even more difficult by deciding to craft all organic spirits.
Why take this organic route with their spirits, using the highest-quality ingredients and processes, even if it’s more difficult? As Alex Buck, Warfield founder and operations manager, told us, it’s “good for the planet, good for the people who grow it, and good for the people who drink it.”
While now based in Ketchum, Idaho, the Warfield Distillery voyage started thousands of miles away, across the ocean in the United Kingdom. Back in this century’s beginnings, Buck and his wife took what once would have been called “The Tour,” crossing Europe and the U.K. While traveling, they “developed a passionate connection” with the U.K.’s real cask ales, single malt whiskies and picturesque landscapes. Back stateside, they discovered that finding a real cask ale is a difficult trek in itself. And so, they took matters into their own hands, beginning to experiment with making cask ales at home.
From there, they made the move into attempting to replicate the other beverage they fell for: single malt whiskey. They also made a move in 2014 from California to Ketchum, taking what to many would appear a formidable decision, one fraught with risk, purchasing an older historic building right on the corner of Main and Sun Valley streets. With the help and support of their family (even heroes need help along the way) they turned it into a brewery and distillery. Doing a project this intensive seems valiant all on its own. But they did it with twin 2-year-old girls. Now that’s an adventure.
Through the process, and during the next three years as Warfield Distillery grew, they never stopped focusing on crafting and pouring organic spirits. And on making everything in-house, in a true grain-to-glass manner. Even though it meant more mountains to climb, the payoff makes it worthwhile. “Organic inspections are stringent and with that stringency, I believe, it leads to higher quality production,” says Buck. “When one has someone leafing through one’s process and procedures, it will naturally lead to stricter standards.”
With the distillery’s growth, they soon had to take on another task: expansion. Popularity and the awards their classically minded spirits have won increased demand. That meant another big hill to climb: building a sparkling new 12,000-square-foot facility next to the existing distillery, one containing a 30-barrel brewhouse, two 1,000-gallon Scottish-made Forsyth copper pot stills, and a small 210-gallon pot still. That’s a substantial list of equipment to manage, but it was needed, especially to, as Buck tells us, to “maximize whiskey production.”
Warfield currently offers a 4-year aged American whiskey, The Local American whiskey, a gin, a barrel-aged gin, and a vodka (see more on individual spirits below). They’ve fresh products on the horizon, too. Warfield is creating an even-more-aged version of their American whiskey, as well as a flavored whiskey “that will embody the Rocky Mountains of Idaho,” says Buck.
Warfield also has plans to expand its reach both nationwide and international. A distillery’s work is never done, it seems, when you set yourself such a high-bar for those drinking and enjoying your organic spirits. That devotion to delivering quality sipping is likely worthy of a poem — and definitely another drink.
Where to start with Warfield Distillery spirits
Ketchum’s Warfield Distillery has an array of organic spirits and more coming out — what’s below is just a start. Try them first like Warfield Founder and Operations Manager Alex Buck, who enjoys their spirits “neat and unadorned, usually with just some Rocky Mountain water.” We’ve also added a summertime cocktail suggestion for each.
Warfield Organic American Whiskey
$90 | 750ml
This Warfield whiskey is crafted from organic malted barley in a Scottish-made pot still and aged in ex-bourbon barrels. Winning enough national and international awards to fill a pickup, it’s darn good. Beautiful stone-and-tropical-fruit nose above a hint of honey and barley linger into a malted barley, honeysuckle, tanned leather taste and smooth spiced finish. Malted whiskey is given short shrift in summer and summer cocktails, but this makes a mighty Mamie Taylor, a legendary drink named for late 1800s/early 1900s actress and singer Mayme Taylor, and probable progenitor of the Moscow Mule.
Mamie Taylor
Ingredients
2 ounces Warfield Organic American Whiskey
½ ounce freshly squeezed lime juice
4 ounces chilled ginger beer
Lime twist, for garnish
Ice cubes
Directions
Add the whiskey and lime juice to a highball glass. Stir briefly. Fill the glass three-quarters full with ice cubes, then add the ginger beer. Stir again, briefly.
Warfield Organic Gin
$35 | 750ml
A Sip Double Gold winner, this gin’s flavor is individual in essence while never losing an essential gin-ness. The intriguing nose transports one into eating savory baked goods in a Northwest forest, while the taste’s spices — cinnamon, sage, fennel, cardamon and more — and juniper backbone tempt into a second drink. It goes well in a summer classic Gin Fizz, though this recipe veers slightly off the canonical due to the addition of the uniquely fantastic Scrappy’s Black Lemon Bitters.
Gin Fizz
Ingredients
1½ ounces Warfield Organic Gin
1 ounce simple syrup
½ ounce freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 dashes Scrappy’s Black Lemon Bitters
Ice cubes
Chilled club soda
Lemon slice, for garnish
Optional: One organic egg white for a Silver Gin Fizz, which is delicious, too.
Directions
Add the gin, simple, lemon juice and bitters to a highball or comparable glass. Stir well. Fill the glass three-quarters full with ice cubes, and then top with club soda. Stir again.
Directions, part two
For the Silver Gin Fizz, add the first four ingredients and the egg white to a cocktail shaker half-full with ice cubes. Shake exceedingly well. Fill your highball glass three-quarters full with ice cubes, strain the mix over the ice, and then top carefully with club soda.
Warfield Organic Barrel-Aged Gin
$42 | 750ml
I wrote about the first little Northwest barrel-aged gin explosion back in 2018, and I’m glad that distillers like Warfield continue to roll out tasty barrels of it. Here, their gin is aged for six months in ex-bourbon barrels. That aging adds a lush vanilla-ness to the nose and palate, as well as bringing out orange peel notes mingling with the gin’s spices. Try it on a summer evening in the Up-to-Date, a drink I found originally in The Calvert Party Encyclopedia, 1960 edition.
Up-to-Date
Ingredients
1½ ounces Warfield Organic Barrel-Aged Gin
1 ounce fino sherry (Tio Pepe works nicely)
¼ ounce Grand Mariner
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Cracked ice
Directions
Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add everything. Stir well. Strain into a cocktail glass.
Warfield Organic Vodka
$25 | 750ml
Distilled from 100% organic wheat, it’s as crisp and clean as water coming down from the Rockies — which makes sense, as that water is used to make this vodka. It carries an elusive memory of the wheat in its taste, sweet grain enticing nicely and making a dandy summer companion. Berry and bubble it up in The Rebecca, a drink created long ago for a friend happily quitting her job.
The Rebecca
Ingredients
2 ounces Warfield Organic Vodka
1 ounce Chambord
4 ounces chilled Champagne or sparkling wine
Cracked ice
4 or 5 frozen raspberries, for garnish
Directions
Fill a mixing glass or cocktail shaker halfway full with cracked ice. Add the vodka and Chambord. Stir well. Add the raspberries to a cocktail glass. Strain the mix into the glass. Top with the Champagne. Stir, but don’t get wacky about it.
Note: I find using raspberries that have been freshly picked, gently washed, carefully dried and quickly frozen works best. They provide a tangy treat at the end of the drink and help keep it chilled.
