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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Startup distillery finds niche

Dominion’s spirits made in the basement of a Colville law office

COLVILLE – People come here for two reasons: They need a lawyer or they want a drink.

Legal services cover a range of family, probate and personal injury law. Beverages are limited.

Dominion Distillery – quite possibly the only spirit-making facility in America to be located in a law office – has only bottled two: apple moonshine and single malt vodka.

The boutique operation, owned by a lawyer and a self-taught distiller, opened its tasting room in downtown Colville in early March. By the end of its first month, the Washington Apple 151 Moonshine was already a winner, taking best of category for alt moonshine at the prestigious American Distillery Institute competition.

For the small-scale startup, the win was validation right out of the gate.

It was also “very unexpected,” said Dominion distiller Henry Anderson, 30. “That was the second batch out of the still, and I wasn’t going to send it because it was the second batch out of the still. I didn’t think it had a chance of winning anything.”

He sent a sample anyway – he wanted tasting notes from the judges – and ended up bringing home two medals: gold and silver. Now, Anderson can’t seem to distill it fast enough.

“It’s our biggest seller,” he said.

Boutique booze

First came the whiskey. It’s still aging, and there’s no telling when it will be ready. “When whiskey’s done, it’s done,” said Anderson, who used mash from Northern Ales in Kettle Falls and French and American oak barrels that he stripped, rebuilt and recharred.

Next, he made the apple moonshine and a single malt vodka.

Not scotch. Vodka. Single malt vodka.

It’s rare. Anderson knows of four distilleries that make it: his own, Oregon-based Rogue Ales and Spirits, Valt in Scotland and Canada’s Still Waters. There might be more, but those are the only four he could find after an online search.

“Basically, you make vodka the most expensive way you can,” Anderson said. “We go through all the steps you would to make a beer, but without the hops. And, instead of using a neutral yeast, we use an ale yeast.”

But, he said, “It ages faster, and it has a lot better flavor to it.”

But making vodka with malted grain “scared the hell out of me,” said Tom Webster, who owns the building and the law practice. Dominion Distillery is located in the lower level of Webster Law Office.

“Vodka drinkers like vodka because it disappears,” Webster said. “They like it because it’s neutral. This is the opposite of that. We call it a whiskey drinker’s vodka. It actually has a bouquet. It’s just as smooth as normal vodka. But it has actual flavor. It doesn’t disappear like a normal vodka does.”

While the finish doesn’t disappear, the bottles seem to. The first batch was gone in days – “seemed less than a week,” said Webster, who offered the business his basement and its start-up capital.

Anderson brought the hands-on experience. Though he comes from a family of teetotalers, he began making moonshine at 15.

“I’ve always liked mixing things together to see what it tastes like,” Anderson said. “I like putting flavors together.”

His first batch of booze as a teen was freeze-distilled applejack. Fifteen years later, his apple moonshine is much more refined. Dominion’s Apple 151 features five apple varieties from Sherman Creek Orchards in Kettle Falls.

“We intended it to be a seasonal thing,” Anderson said. “Up in our area, a lot of people make apple-pie moonshine. Basically, you take cider – some people add apple juice – and spices like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, and brown sugar, and you bring it to a boil. Then you cool it down and add Everclear.”

The beverage is popular in fall and winter, especially around Christmas. But Everclear – a colorless, high-proof grain alcohol – tends to burn.

Dominion’s Apple 151 is smooth. “People use it for all kinds of drinks because it’s so smooth,” said Anderson.

‘Punch drunk’

Anderson had been brewing his own beer and making his own moonshine as a hobby while working as a contractor and hot tub repairman. But that changed one day in 2012 when he ran into Webster and Saundra Richartz, 31, now a deputy prosecuting attorney for Stevens County and a third partner in the distillery.

Back then, Richartz was working for Webster when Anderson walked by the Main Street law office. Webster wanted to talk to him about his hot tub, but got a phone call just as Anderson arrived. He and Richartz, a longtime friend, began shooting the breeze about his latest concoctions. After Webster hung up the phone, he overheard, and the idea for Dominion was hatched.

“I just walked home, like, punch drunk,” Anderson said.

When he got there, he called Richartz. He wanted to make sure Webster was for real. Without Webster’s financial backing, “I would still be working toward (the dream of owning a distillery), but I probably wouldn’t have got there,” Anderson said.

Today, Richartz has a 10-percent share in the business; Anderson and Webster evenly split the remainder.

Webster, 41, came to Colville from Iowa eight years ago. Born in Southern California and raised in Bigfork, Montana, he had moved to the Midwest for school and practiced law in Des Moines for six years before he could convince his wife, Robyn, a native Iowan, to go west, or – as Webster calls it – “where I always wanted to be.”

For the trout, mostly. The mountains, too.

The distillery is named for Old Dominion Mountain, a local landmark that rises more than 5,700 feet some 7 miles east of town.

Webster founded the distillery in 2013 without any loans, but an “incredibly lean” investment of about $200,000. Federal approval was granted last year, enabling Anderson to begin making spirits for the label. Dominion has the capacity to produce up to 3,000 cases annually. “But I don’t see us reaching that this year,” Anderson said.

Still works and speakeasy

Dominion’s pot still holds 100 gallons. It features a hand-hammered dome and a fractioning column that’s easily switched out between runs. Anderson built it himself. Two patents are pending.

When he’s not distilling, he’s making stills for his and Webster’s other venture: Gatling Still Works. Their first order is from an outfit in Buffalo, New York.

The idea is to help equip other boutique distillers, including wineries wanting to use grape skins to make grappa and breweries wanting to make whiskey from mash. “I think micro-breweries should be micro-brew-stilleries,” Webster said.

Other big plans include expanding the tasting room to make it into a speakeasy-esque, library-themed bar with a staircase to rooftop lounge. The partners are hoping it will be finished by this time next year.

“Our ambition is to have a classy place to drink,” Richartz said.

Santé Restaurant and Charcuterie is the only Spokane establishment so far to carry Dominion spirits. But the distillery is hoping to expand its local and regional distribution. In the tasting room, the single malt vodka sells for $40 per bottle and the apple moonshine is $35. Several Colville watering holes mix drinks with the spirits, too – Burdick’s, Stephani’s Oak Street Grill, South Main Restaurant and Sports Bar, and the local Eagles Lodge.

By fall, Anderson is hoping to release rum distilled from fruit such as cherry and peach. He’s also interested crafting different whiskey styles. Hopped whiskey, perhaps.

“He’s kind of a crazy mad scientist,” said his wife, Quinell Anderson.

Webster calls him “the DaVinci,” “a Renaissance man” and “MacGyver,” for the late 1980s and early 1990s TV show in which the main character solved problems by making things out of duct tape and other stuff, often with the aid of a Swiss Army knife.

But you won’t find him fixing things behind the bar.

“I don’t mix drinks,” Anderson said. “I just make booze and hammer on copper until it looks pretty.”