Microdistillery - Celebrity Distillers

Celebrity Distillers

Prior to the microdistillery movement, distillation was largely viewed as a high tech industrial activity and little attention was paid to the makers of spirits. However with the worldwide birth of hundreds of small boutique distilleries in the 2000s came a new way of thinking about spirits, not as simple commodities but as works of culinary art. This is especially true in the United States where early microdistilleries vocally tied themselves to California's Asian-inspired fusion cuisine. The notion of the celebrity distiller is a recent phenomenon and has emerged worldwide. It has been dramatically elevated since 2007 when absinthe was legalized in the U.S. spurring a flurry of media attention on both the spirit and the artists who make it. The rarer spirits distilled by these figures can fetch from US$50–400 per bottle.