There’s been quite a bit written about Washington State’s first distillery since Prohibition, but not much on the products themselves. Dry Fly Distilling first came to market with their gin and vodka products during the Fall of 2007. Based in Spokane and set up next to Northern Lights Brewery, this little distillery seemed to have acheived the impossible – navigating the anachronistic licensing laws which allowed them to legally start making Washington State’s first legal hooch in 75 years.

I was obviously excited to give it a shot. While I consider myself more of a whiskey fan, than vodka or gin, their whiskey will not be available for a couple more years while it matures in oak barrels. I can’t really see myself spending $32 for a bottle of vodka when the entire idea of vodka is that it’s a neutral grain spirit (vodka purists will flame me for this, I am sure). So their gin it is! I hit the 4th Ave liquor store here in Seattle and plop down my $32 for the bottle.

Before I open the bottle, let’s talk a little about the container itself. Dry Fly prides themselves on using 99% Washington grown ingredients, yet they also gladly announce that they buy their bottles in France and ship them up to British Columbia to print them. It is a nice bottle, but thumbing through my recent copy of Whisky Magazine, I noticed an ad for Greenore Irish Whiskey which uses the exact same bottle. No word on whether they send their bottles to Canada for printing too! One nice point that should be mentioned is that each bottle is noted by a batch number and hand signed by the person who bottled it. A nice little personal touch.

But how does it taste? Uncorking the bottle, I took a sniff right out of the bottle and am hit with an overpowering blast of juniper. According to their marketing, they include dried (Washington) apples, mint and hops to the juniper, though I am not detecting the other ingredients. Maybe the leafiness of the hops, but that could just be the juniper. There’s also a slight alcohol hit in the aroma as well.

I think the taste is decent. Still very powerful with the juniper, but you get a little hint of the apple on the back end. Unfortunately, there is also a pretty significant edge to the spirit. I don’t know if that has come from the distillation process or the herbs used to infuse it. Comparing it against some Bombay Sapphire I had, the differences were pronounced. Bombay smells and tastes like a perfect mixture of process and ingredients. Floral and beautiful. Dry Fly feels more reckless, and maybe that’s what they are going for. I will say this, it made a damn fine martini, and really, isn’t that the way to drink a gin?

If you’re in Washington State, you should be able to find Dry Fly gin and vodka in state liquor stores or in select bars and restaurants.