Check out the newest distilleries filling local glasses.
A decade ago, the Nevada craft liquor law created a new way of doing business. It allowed local distillers to make alcohol from scratch with natural ingredients instead of buying neutral grain spirits from large out-of-state factories. The early distillers, such as Reno’s Seven Troughs Distilling Co., Fallon’s Frey Ranch Farmers + Distillers, The Depot Brewery & Distillery in Reno, and Verdi Local Distillery in Verdi all won awards and paved the way for the next generation of business owners waiting to follow their passion for turning water into high-proof delights.
Between 2015 and 2020, more joined the crowd (and some closed), from Truckee to Mound House — 10 Torr Distilling and Brewing, Ferino Distillery, High Mark Distillery & Barrel House, Dovetail Distillery, Old Trestle Distillery, Comstock Distillers, Minden Mill Distilling, Tahoe Blue Vodka, and Two Bitch Spirits.
Though every liquor maker follows the same basic steps to produce a bottle of rum, vodka, gin, or whiskey, each company adds its own twist to the spirit through minor tweaks, ingredient choices, and production methods.
Today, the region supports 17 spirit producers who benefit from hard-fought legislative battles and friendly competition. The newest four distilleries in the Reno-Tahoe area prove there’s still room for unique offerings in an otherwise crowded market.
All four new companies started around 2020 and aim to put their twist on the way customers imbibe.
Underworld Distillery
Enter through an industrial park, and then find yourself in a Victorian vampire gothic — but somehow cozy — distillery and bar. Underworld Distillery, in South Reno, owes its décor and beverage theme to Greek mythology and Tim Burton.
“It brings you to a new dimension,” says Robbie Anderson, founder and master distiller.
Colleen Hanson, general manager, echoes Anderson’s sentiment.
“We foster intimacy here,” Hanson says. “It’s where Tim Burton and Halloween come together in a Disneyland cocktail lounge. It’s a fun vibe and kind of vintage.”
Anderson’s wife, Jennifer (Jennee) Evans, is the hidden artist behind the vibe, and she also names Hanson’s cocktail recipes. She’s the heart of the whole operation, he says.
“Jennee decided she wanted to open a bar so she can have a personal bartender,” Hanson adds.
Hanson says the three want to create a welcoming atmosphere for everyone to feel safe and have fun.
“You don’t have to yell at each other over blasting music,” she emphasizes. “We don’t have TVs because we want it to be a nice date night. We have a couple who met here and are dating now, and it’s great to see those relationships blossom.”
While Evans and Hanson manage the front of the house, Anderson distills the vodka, gin, rum, and whiskey behind the scenes. After he became a certified herbalist and built a still to make essential oils, a friend told him, “You could be making hooch with that thing!” So Anderson bought John Palmer’s book, How To Brew, then learned how to combine the art of beer-making — step one of any spirit — with distilling — step two. The same friend later convinced him to start a permitted distillery in 2020.
For the first three years, Anderson rented space inside another business, allowing him to start making and aging whiskey and rum immediately. By the time Underworld officially opened to the public in 2023, Anderson could sell aged products and clear spirits.
Most distilleries start by selling clear spirits, such as moonshine, vodka, or gin, to generate sales while their brown spirits age in barrels. Such was the case with Frey Ranch, which moved from selling gin, vodka, and absinthe to only producing whiskey. Some distilleries follow that path, while others keep their offerings diverse.
Underworld offers a “bone dry” gin named Skeletós, a purple Pegasus gin, and similarly themed whiskey, rum, and vodka. Anderson says Underwood soon will release an absinthe. His experience as a certified herbalist helps him understand and decide which herbs should go into the absinthe and how they will interact with the human body, he says.
While absinthe is traditionally made with wormwood, anise, and fennel, creating a black licorice flavor, it also often includes hyssop, melissa, angelica, peppermint, coriander, and other herbs that add flavor and intrigue. The myth that absinthe causes hallucinations has been thoroughly debunked and largely blamed on absinthe’s high alcohol content (often up to 89 percent) and heavy consumption in the 19th century, according to WebMD.
“I get excellent quality herbs and have a good, consistent, quality program for making it,” Anderson says. “I don’t use any dyes or adulterated products. It’ll be 100 percent good stuff.”
Another interesting element is, in 2022, Underworld became the first and only International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union distillery in the country. Anderson is a union electrician and was encouraged to apply for the unique designation and received it. As a union distillery, it provides full benefits and higher wages to its employees.
In 2025, Anderson plans to push more distribution of his liquors to expand the brand’s footprint and see more of his work on retail shelves.
Shedcat Distillery & Kitchen
It all started when a gnarly looking black cat wandered into the still shed to escape the cold.
“We bonded, and he became my cat, named Socrates, but is the ‘shed cat,’” explains Jonathan Stein, owner and master distiller of Shedcat Distillery & Kitchen, over the phone while climbing up the side of Lover’s Leap in South Lake Tahoe. “We adopted him. He’s all fat and lazy now and super loving.”
Stein says Socrates was resilient and inspiring, which led to the name of the distillery in South Lake Tahoe.
“I always had a thing for cats, and I’ve always owned cats. And he’s really sassy and keeps us in check and judges us for not putting catnip in our drinks,” Stein jokes.
Stein opened the bar, restaurant, and distillery in May 2023 after he worked with North Stills Inc. to design a specialty spirit-making machine that he could use to create a selection of gin, vodka, whiskey, brandy, and rum. Most of the spirits lines’ names are feline-themed: the Mountain Lion series of gins, Snow Leopard series of vodkas, etc.
The still’s design allows Stein and his team of distillers to control the process in finer detail than with an average still. Stills come in tall columns with individual plates. Each plate creates a stopping point where the liquid becomes purer as it condenses up the column, letting impurities drop back to the bottom. Eventually, the distillate separates into heads, hearts, and tails. Those three parts, also known as cuts, contain different flavors and alcohol compounds. Some parts are even dangerous to consume; the hearts are the most desirable. Carefully managing what part of the distillation ends up in the bottle allows distillers to manage the flavor. Restricting the final bottle to the best of the hearts ensures a cleaner, purer result — usually vodka.
Stein can run his alcohol through a selected number of distilling stages to, for example, make a crisp, pure vodka using the entire column still multiple times, or a more nuanced, flavorful spiced rum using only part of the column still. His setup also includes a small pot still to make brandy and single-malt whiskey.
“It’s kind of a do-it-all still,” Stein says. “We’re pretty space limited. I wouldn’t argue it’s amazing at any given thing, but it’s great at everything.”
Stein’s still allows him to rerun batches through the column to purify the final product further. He says those purified hearts also can make liqueurs, such as amaro or fernet. And he can run the vodka through a vapor-infusion gin basket to create unique flavors.
“I think it’s the coolest product we make currently,” Stein says. “We can route the distillate down through this secondary column, where we can put anything we want — botanicals, spices, herbs, whatever — and the gaseous phase will travel through the gin basket and strip any terpenes or bad flavors out.”
The Tahoe Terroir gin infuses handpicked herbs that Stein and his crew forage from the Lake Tahoe Basin. That gin is made with 100 percent corn, triple distilled, double-charcoal filtered, then infused with juniper, mugwort, manzanita, pine, monardella, lavender, bay leaf, and wildflower.
“Sierra juniper is more bitter and a little less sweet, so we’re careful about how much we use because it can overpower,” Stein says. “And monardella smells like eucalyptus but tastes like mint. I grabbed it, and obviously ate it because that’s what you do with strange plants you find in the wild.”
Shedcat also sells grappa, a somewhat unusual offering among the regional distilleries. Grappa comes from must, the leftover skin, seeds, and stems that result from winemaking, which he buys from Eldorado County wineries.
“[Our grappa] is softer,” Stein says. “Normally, it can be pretty intense for normal folks. We cleaned it up; it has more of an oily, lactose, creamy flavor.”
In 2025, Stein aims to expand distribution into the surrounding area and make liqueurs. To make fernet, he needs to create a high-proof neutral spirit, such as Everclear, then infuse it with herbs, sugar, and spices to make a bitter aperitif.
“I’m calling it the Alley Cat Fernet because it’s kind of a mut,” he says. “I’m picturing this scruffy, matted, semi-feral alley cat digging in the trash, missing an eye.”
El Sativo
Reno’s third-generation Whitton family launched its “liquid-to-lips” El Sativo Organic Tequila in 2020 after years of managing live events and working every food and beverage job — including owning a few restaurants — in Hollywood. The family’s love of food artistry and craft cocktails drove members to open the distillery in Amatitán, Jalisco, Mexico.
“We just geeked out on our distillation and wanted to create one of the best tequilas out there,” says co-founder Jaime Whitton.
She explains that, like Frey Ranch, an estate distillery in Mexico grows and harvests the ingredients, distills the spirits, and bottles them, all on the same property. There are very few estate distilleries throughout the world, and two of them operate in Nevada. Nevadans created El Sativo.
Whitton says in addition to running an estate distillery, the family allows its blue Weber agave to mature up to 12 years, treats the water, and runs the stills low and slow, like a bourbon still.
“It’s really important in tequila when you harvest — it’s important in all fruits and vegetables — to harvest mature fruit,” Whitton says. “The blue agave is from the asparagus family. The asparagus we eat takes three to four years to harvest. The blue Weber agave takes seven to 12 years. Many distilleries are harvesting it as early as four years and adding additives to make it taste like a mature blue agave.”
El Sativo follows U.S. Department of Agriculture organic processes to sustain the agave plants and avoid shortages. Whitton says it’s one of few tequila makers that check all the USDA organic, non-GMO, kosher-certified, and additive-free boxes. Without using pesticides, El Sativo farmers spend seven days manually pulling weeds instead of dumping pesticides or fungicides on the agave crop.
“All those bullet points separate us from the majority of tequilas,” Whitton says.
During the distillation process, agave needs to be added to water. Whitton says she and her team purify and treat the local water by running it through a 34-foot-deep volcanic rock bed. This filtration process increases the alkalinity of the water and clarifies it.
“Dirty water equals a hangover,” Whitton says. “People get hangovers because of unclean water and additives.”
Kentucky and Tennessee bourbon makers similarly tout the importance of collecting water from deep limestone wells, which also increases the pH balance of the water. A representative from Heaven Hill Distillery, a large-scale bourbon producer in New York, says the limestone helps improve water clarity and enhances fermentation. Whitton’s team purifies the water with volcanic rock from the Jalisco region.
Similar to the making of bourbon in Kentucky, El Sativo tequila is made in pot stills. Whitton says her brother-in-law owns a cannabis lab in Reno and discovered that agave and cannabis share similar terpenes. While terpenes do not get people high, Whitton says, they are worth preserving for flavor, aroma, and other potential positive effects.
Distilling in a pot still at a lower temperature preserves these compounds and smooths the final product, making it more palatable. Whitton says El Sativo tequila does not need to be covered with sweet cocktail ingredients — unless that’s your vibe.
“Any tequila can get lost in a cocktail, especially if it’s doused with other ingredients and liqueurs,” she says.
El Sativo Blanco and Reposado won gold medals at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2020 and 2021. Then, it became a Whole Foods core brand, meaning it should always be available in the limited liquor section.
In 2025, El Sativo’s owners plan to branch out by launching Mexican gin and whiskey.
72 Mile Spirits
72 Mile Spirits’ co-owner Eric Roe loves Lake Tahoe, as evidenced by the nods to our regional gem employed in its branding. The company is named after the circumference of the lake, and if you hold a bottle up to the light, the image of Lake Tahoe reveals a depth map hidden in the label.
“We live in Nevada, and we all want to stay in Nevada. Incline is home to us,” Roe says.
For now, 72 Mile’s vodka, gin, and rye whiskey are made in Reno because only a small area of Incline Village is zoned for industrial use. But Roe says the moment some real estate opens, he will move the operation there.
72 Mile Spirits opened in early 2020 and houses its distilling equipment in a small warehouse. Despite its small size — it’s run by a team of four — the company distributes to almost 200 bars and retailers in the larger Northern Nevada-California region.
What started as a passion project became a business when Roe purchased the still to make whiskey. Like many others, the team started making vodka while the whiskey aged, but then Roe’s wife developed a 100 percent corn-based London dry gin. Her recipe converted him into a gin drinker.
“I don’t know that I had ever given gin a chance,” Roe says. “I was pretty set in my ways being a whiskey drinker, but it’s a very refreshing, clean drink.”
While his wife focuses on the gin, Roe distills a whiskey made with 60 percent rye. They also smoke all their grain, so Roe says their rye can taste like smoky Scotches to some customers.
“Everyone gets something different out of the taste,” Roe says. “When we took classes, I felt like I had to find the flavors everyone else tasted, but I just couldn’t. Everyone has a different palate, which could come from a past relationship with a different spirit or food.”
Like Whitton at El Sativo, Roe knows the importance of clean, pure water in his product. He’s working with a local organization to pull fresh water from the depths of Lake Tahoe to use in distilling.
He says that in 2025, he and the team plan to expand into ready-to-drink canned cocktails. He recognizes a market trend toward pre-made cocktails that can be taken outdoors, and he wants to work with other companies to make a canned bourbon blackberry mule and a gin smash.
“We don’t have a canning facility, so we hope to be able to stay local,” Roe says. “We want to be a local brand. We don’t want to send it to California to get it made and canned, so hopefully one of the brands in town with a canning facility would be willing to can these for us. Maybe even make a co-branded drink.”
RESOURCES
72 Mile Spirits
72mile.com
El Sativo
Elsativo.com
Shedcat Distillery & Kitchen
Shedcattahoe.com
Underworld Distillery
Underworlddistillery.com
