Top Rated Eau-De-Vies

Husband-and-wife team Kenneth and Lori Wortz run this small operation in a former bookbinding factory in rural central New York. Kenneth grew up on an apple farm in Pennsylvania, but never though he'd set foot on a farm again as an adult. KyMar Farm spirits are made from locally-grown ingredients, fermented, distilled, and bottled on site.

Meyer's Kirsch is produced from Alsatian cherries. The F. Meyer distillery was established in the Alsace region of France in 1958, and produces a variety of eau de vie. Double-distilled in copper pot stills it is then rested in steel tanks for two to five years before bottling.

St. George starts out with whole California raspberries, picked at the height of ripeness to retain the freshness and purity of the fruit. Distilled in their proprietary copper pot-stills, the objective here was to capture the aromas of raspberries at their peak. Produced without the use of extra sugars or any other additives.

Pear Brandy was one of the first products made by St George Spirits after they were founded in 1982. They start with whole organic Bartlett pears, picked at the height of ripeness and distill in copper pot-stills. The goal here, as with all great eau-de-vie is to create a pure unaffected expression of the base distillate. About 30 pounds of fruit are used to create just one 750ml bottle.

A cacao spirit that surprisingly has little to do with chocolate. While chocolate is made from the beans inside of the cacao pod, Sobleso is made from the pulp surrounding those beans. Inspired by all of the waste left behind in the chocolate making process, creator Thomas Higbee decided to take this “trash” and turn it into “treasure”. Made from select varieties of cacao prized for their subtlety and aromatics sourced from Peru, the Dominican Republic and Ecuador.

This eau-de-vie style brandy from Coppersea Distilling uses local fruit sourced from Hudson Valley farms, whole-fruit mashing with no sugar added, and open-top, wild yeast fermentation. The spirit is then distilled in a direct-fire still before being aged a minimum of 6 months in a neutral vessel (stainless steel) before bottling.

This eau-de-vie is made from local Hudson Valley pears, and fermented in open-top wooden fermentation tanks with wild yeasts. It was then distilled in direct-fire copper stills before being aged in a neutral vessel (stainless steel) for 6 months before bottling.

Clear Creek Douglas Fir Brandy is a seasonal product created by harvesting green buds from Douglas fir trees (also known as Oregon pine or Douglas spruce). These buds are then dropped into clear brandy and allowed to macerate. This now green brandy is re-distilled, but though this process will flavor the brandy, it will also become clear. More buds are collected and added and the maceration is repeated; the buds are removed a few weeks later. A touch of pear brandy is added before bottling. Sold in 375ml sized bottles.

Clear Creek is a distillery located in Oregon established in 1985 by Steve McCarthy. He creates eau-de-vies, grappas, and liqueurs, but his single malt whiskey is what he can't keep stocked. The labor of love, however, lay with his fruit-based spirits which deserve more attention than they get. The fruit used for this eau-de-vie is organically grown Mirabelle plums from the King Estate near Eugene, Oregon. It is sold in 375ml sized bottles.

Hudson Valley Distillers opened their doors in 2014 after receiving a New York Farm Distillery license and rehabbing the 150-year-old barn that houses the distillery and tasting room. Fine Shine is their applejack minus the barrel aging. Apples are sourced from a neighboring orchard while the long neglected home orchard, part of their 2013 farm purchase, is revived and converted to chemical-free practices. Passionate to the extreme about using only local ingredients they are foraging what grows wild locally and have plans to grow in their greenhouse what isn’t traditionally grown in the region.