VENUS SPIRITS “WE LIVE IN ONE OF THE GREATEST FRUIT- AND WINE-PRODUCING REGIONS OF THE WORLD, AND WE KNEW THERE WEREN’T MANY 60 South Bay Accent SMALL-SCALE DISTILLERS HERE IN THE BAY AREA.” COURTESY OF VENUS SPIRITS; OPPOSITE : COURTESY OF HALF MOON BAY DISTILLERY as No. 6 in Trip Advisor’s ranking of the most popular regional destinations; Bisono points out that the first five on the list are beaches, and all the reviews on the website are five stars. Another coup—the distillery is now the sole provider of cocktails at the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival. This surge in popularity recently prompted an expansion of the facilities, and Bisono is expecting to open a larger tasting room in the near future. HALF MOON BAY DISTILLERY, 103 Harvard Ave., is open for tours Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Visit hmbdistillery.com for a complete list of where to purchase. OLD WORLD SPIRITS BELMONT A passion for family is at the heart of what drives Davorin Kuchan to create his own classic spirits. Kuchan grew up on a family farm in Croatia, where he helped crush fruit and make mashes for distilling liquors that the household and visiting friends sipped during mealtimes and celebrations. “Most of our products are deeply personal,” Kuchan says. “I didn’t do it because it was a fad. I grew up with it, I wanted to introduce people to craft-made spirits, and share the passion, the way I grew up with it.” Kuchan came to the United States to earn a degree in math along with an MBA, fell in love with California and stayed, but part of his heart remained in Croatia. When he lost both his parents within a two-year period, he was determined to distill the fruits of California into the spirits he fondly remembered as part of his home life. His love of the fruit brandies his family produced drove him to design his own still and create pear and peach brandies, using Northern California fruit. He also distilled California walnuts to make nocino, a walnut liqueur native to northern Italy and Croatia. Also a lover of gin, he created Blade Gin (some may remember the Sarticious label he was a part of in the early 2000s), named for the slang term for surfboards. Kuchan, with his blonde hair and athletic build looks like a surfer himself, although he’s a selfdescribed scuba diver. Always game for experimenting, Kuchan decided to age some of his gin in oak barrels, a process that was unheard of in the early 2000s. That produced a dark gin he named Rusty Blade. “People were just blown away, it’s between cognac, Armagnac, single malt whiskey and gin, it’s a unique flavor profile,” he says. He also created two different absinthes, another spirit his family produced. A rye whiskey he creates reminds him of the rye bread his grandmother baked. Although the fine art of crafting the fruit brandy, eau de vies, remains a passion of Bisono’s, the distillery launched as a producer of premium vodka and gin. Its brandies couldn’t be legally produced, Ulli explains. Even more daunting, finding a distributor for the niche product was a nearly impossible mission. A grim forecast indeed, but the 2015 change in law opened up a whole new world for distillers. “This year, I can now sell direct to consumer at our new tasting room,” she says. This opportunity “will allow us to unleash our creativity,” Ulli enthuses. She plans on offering tastes of the popular vodka and gin alongside other spirits she creates. This fall she began distilling a 100 percent rye whiskey, and 100 percent California Chardonnay brandy. Bisono is also proud of the tours and tastings Half Moon Bay Distillery offers on weekends. The business was recently listed
South Bay Accent - DecJan 2016
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