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Monday, July 1 was a particularly busy day for the #ColoradoDistilleryRoadTrip. We woke up in Palisade and visited Peach Street Distillers. Then we humped it up and over the Grand Mesa – passing Powderhorn Mountain Resort on the way. Next we checked out the diverse offerings from Colorado Gold Distillers in Cedaredge. After that, our GPS sent us along a wildly narrow and windy road towards Peak Spirits, makers of CapRock Vodka & Gin. I had heard a decent amount about Lance Hanson’s vineyard/distillery/farming operation from a few friends, and that made the anticipation of visiting the farm almost unbearable. Thirty minutes after we left Cedaredge we were there. At least we thought we were there. Were we there? PEAK SPIRITS is tucked away on the backroads a short drive from the Western Slope farming town of Hotchkiss, Colorado. There’s no enormous sign with their logo, just simple hand-painted sign that says ”open” or “closed”. We missed the turn into the farm at first, and continued down a road, where we encountered a sign with no names - time had worn the critical details off this marker. It reminded us of the “map with no names” from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Little did we know we were just a few minutes away from the Holy Grail of farm distilleries. Backtracking a few hundred yards, we followed the road back to where our GPS thought Peak Spirits was. We turned down a long dirt road with an open gate. It’s so low-key that even when you’re on Lance & Anna Hanson’s property, you’re not sure you’re in the right place. A half-mile down the road lined with vineyards and rows of crops, we arrived at a two-story house with brown wooden siding. As we pulled around the corner, we spied Lance Hanson cleaning up around a series of fermentors outside his high-ceiling stone basement. We hopped out of the car, and chatted a little with Lance as he finished spraying down some equipment. When he was done, we headed up to the front porch of his house to talk about what he was doing - and why he was doing it. Lance, Anna and their 2 kids moved to Hotchkiss in 2001 from California’s Bay Area. In his previous career, Lance was an executive at a software company, and when they sold he shipped his family out to live on a farm. They moved to the 72 acre farm very literally in the middle of nowhere, built a house, and started growing things. He started off with a winery, called Jack Rabbit Hill, named after the farm he moved to. In 2004, Lance & Anna decided to diversify. They began distilling in August 2005, and flew St. George Spirits founder & friend Jorg Rupf in from California for a week to help this fledgling operation out. They took grapes from their vineyards and peaches, pears, cherries and apples from some neighboring farms and started making brandies. A few years later they launched CapRock Gin and Vodka. Lance told us that it’s a little different from how other distilleries get started - but by that time we knew that Lance wasn’t interested in doing things the conventional way. Today, Lance’s operation is multifaceted – he produces estate wine, racks wine into kegs for bars with wine taps, distills spirits, grows 12 acres of hops, and in August 2013 is slated to open a bar in the new North Denver development The Source. He explained that, ”CapRock Farm Bar is all about bringing to Denver a slice of Jack Rabbit Hill Farm. We want the cocktails, stories and photos we feature there to express our farm roots.” Although Lance started in the tech sector, he’s no stranger to getting his hands dirty. The day of our visit, Lance had been working hard and was sweating pretty good on this hot summer afternoon. The entire farm only has 4 full-time employees. Considering there’s more than 70 acres to work, only 4 employees seems like too few. But they make it work. Sipping on some ice water on his porch, Lance started talking about biodynamic farming. Preaching about it, really. We hadn’t heard about it, so Lance gave us a primer. Basically, Biodynamic Agriculture emphasizes treating your farm as one organism, focusing on the ”development and interrelationships of the soil, plants and animals as a self-sustaining system.” While it’s a form of organic farming, it goes much further than that. “It’s a much more rigorous organic standard, a more holistic approach. Healthier soils make for healthier plants,” he explained. Hard to argue with that. Lance was also one of the only people on this trip so far to interview us! He asked Matt and me about who we were and what we did in our “real jobs.” We discussed the publishing industry, the goals of the Colorado Distillers Festival, and more. This was no longer an one-directional interview, it was just 3 guys hanging out and learning more about each other. After 45 minutes, we headed down to a small shed just a few steps from his house to see Peak still and talk more about the distilling process. One of the things that sets Peak Spirits apart is that they use wild fermentation of their wash. Lance said that it was a carryover from his wine-making operation. It’s one of the more unusual ideas we had seen on this trip. The name CapRock comes from their water source, a few thousand feet up above the farm. They get their water from a Cap Rock - ”a layer of hard, impervious rock overlying and often sealing in a deposit of oil, gas, or coal” – or in this case, water. The unique and pure qualities of this water source was a perfect way to brand their distillery, Lance told us. Peak Spirits’ CapRock Gin & Vodka is widely distributed in many states, and even exported to Europe. “Colorado distilleries are a great thing and good for Colorado. The stuff coming from here is high quality,” Lance told us. CapRock Gin, like many other Colorado gins we have sampled, is rich in botanicals. Juniper notes are prevalent, but there are also hints of lavender and pepper. It’s highly drinkable, balanced, and mixes into cocktails exceedingly well. It’s quickly picking up steam and is being offered in more and more bars throughout Colorado, and can often be found where quality spirits are poured, like City O’ City in Denver. “We’re comfortable with who we are. We’re trying to get flavors that are expressive of the ingredients we use,” Lance said. The comfort level we felt after being there just a few hours was evident, and we’re already looking forward to visiting Lance, Anna, and Peak Spirits again.
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