Welcome to Soft Tail Spirits

Here at Soft Tail Spirits, we have a passion for the finely crafted. Among our current product offerings are our award-winning Vodka and Sangiovese single varietal Grappa.

Because we are a “Craft” distillery, we have a tasting room on site and we can sell directly to the public. That’s right, if you come in for a tasting, you can leave the distillery with one of your favorite Soft Tail beverages in hand!

 Browse around our site to get more information on our products and where you can find them. The “Find Us” link to the left will direct you to a page listing liquor stores that have ordered our products. Be sure to call and see if your local liquor store carries Soft Tail.

The Grappa Life!

My wife and I had a great Northwest experience this weekend; we went camping here in Washington during the Memorial holiday. If you live in Washington, then you have an idea of what that entails: State campgrounds full of families, RV’s, tents covered with large blue tarps, smokey fire pits and soggy ground. This Memorial Day Weekend was no exception but despite the rainy weather, everyone was making the absolute best of it.

Gerry and I spent the weekend in a Yurt at Kanaskat-Palmer State Park outside of the Mount Rainer National Park area. We are avid outdoor-folk but this weekend was a whim; we decided to make our outdoor escape only a week before the holiday weekend. We were fortunate to find campsite that late in the game and extremely fortunate to end up in a Yurt.

Tasting the Elements

Nic Corbett - Lead Distiller

Before I came to work at Soft Tail spirits six months ago I didn’t really drink hard liquor except for the occasional shot or two on a wild night. I certainly never wanted to taste it! But over the last few months, I and my palate have been exposed to a whole new arena of sensory awareness. A new challenge and level of palatable pleasure have been presented to me and I’m happy to have embraced it.

 Because of the painstaking artisanal methods employed in the production of our Soft Tail products, they are notable in flavor and character. Take this year’s Sangiovese Grappa for example; produced from the finest fruit of Chandler’s Reach and Brian Carter Cellars, our 2009 Sangiovese Grappa is a truly unique tasting experience.

The nose is full and delicious; it reminds me of sweet ripened star fruit. When it hits the tongue, you are taken on a journey through 3 distinctive layers of flavor. First, a strong almost woody alcohol taste that is surprisingly delightful, hits you in the face. Then, as the alcohol begins to evaporate slightly, the taste mellows out and changes to a softer, sugary white-grape-like amiability that hangs on your tongue for just a few seconds. Finally, the last vestiges of alcohol dwindle away leaving a very light and tingling sensation just barely hanging on for dear life and then, the experience is over.

 Another singular product we have is our Soft Tail Vodka. Vodka? Singular? Right. You probably know of vodka as a versatile, certainly tasteless mixer for martinis. Well, you haven’t tried ours then. There is a distinctive smoothness to the beverage which leads me and others to prefer to drink this vodka at room temperature. It is so smooth that if you’re not careful, you’ll be half way through a bottle before you realize it. We think it’s dangerously smooth.

Production Junction

Maggi – The Pot Still

The daily operation of a small batch distillery is a balanced system. It is a process based on scientific method, intuition and sensory awareness. To make a quality batch of spirits, it takes a constant and watchful eye to ensure the process goes smoothly. Our team has found this balance and is producing a remarkable vodka in a short amount of time. In fact, after just 6 months of experimentation and productions, we won the Bronze Medal in February at the World Spirits Competition in San Francisco, California. We’ve discovered this simple fact: How we start our week determines how we finish it.

Uncommon Spirits

Today is my first day on the job and I’m stoked. There’s no better word for it. Stoked exemplifies all aspects to my mood and condition at this very moment. I’m sitting in the distillery at Soft Tail Spirits with the big wooden carriage doors open. It’s a beautiful spring day; 67 degrees outside and the sun is shining. I’ve got batch #11 of our exclusive Soft Tail Vodka distilling in our custom column still while batch #12 is working through its first round in an ancient-designed alembic pot still.

 Soft Tail opened it’s doors about 12 months ago with the intention of producing a very high quality product. The first to be batched and produced was a line of Grappa’s that will truly surprise you. Grappa is a liquor that hasn’t yet taken off here in the states but has a lot to offer the refined palate. First produced in Italy during the middle ages, Grappa is made from the pomace or left-over grape seeds, stalks and skins of wine production. The pomace is distilled down to produce an alcohol that is around 40% (80 proof).