Drift Distillery Vodka, Our Drink of the Week!
Congrats to Ryan and Lesli Winter and their Drift Distillery in San Clemente, OC’s second legal spirits maker since Prohibition. We profiled their story online earlier this week; for this column, I’ll focus on their first product: vodka, made from wheat that Ryan buys from his family’s farm in Kansas.
I’m not going to pretend that I’m a wheat expert (I’m from the people of the nopal), but Drift vodka’s bright funk and heat reminds me of a farm after a rainstorm: there’s a deep, satisfying flavor that lingers and cools. It’s perfect neat, and I can’t wait to see the cocktails Winter will create with a Drift base. Congrats on an auspicious debut, and I can’t wait for the gin, rum, whiskey, and bourbon the Winters plan, and the inevitable distribution to follow. In the meanwhile, everyone get yourself a bottle before it sells out!
Drift Distillery, 940 Calle Amanecer, Ste. K, San Clemente, (949) 337-2318; facebook.com/driftdistillery
Gustavo Arellano is the editor of OC Weekly, author of the syndicated column "¡Ask a Mexican!", and Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. He started at the paper with an angry, fake letter to the editor and went from there—only in Anacrime!