Interviewer:
You probably know Chris Montana's name in connection with Du Nord Craft Spirits and the fact that there wasn't a single trouble from last year that did not darken the doorstep of his distillery. From COVID closure and making hand sanitiser to the riots and the flames that engulfed in business. But even while assessing the wreckage of his business, it was not on himself where his attentions lay but rather his community and the other makers and businesses around him.
In what was left of his warehouse space, Montana set up impromptu food bank and conducted a fundraising drive to help other businesses in the area owned by people of colour and that desire to focus on those around him has continued as he has taken up the role of master blender for a new vodka brand American Liquor Co.
We talk to Montana about expert distillers, grains, blends and the sort of vodka cocktails you should be making. Thank you for joining us, Chris.

Chris Montana:
Thank you for having me.

Interviewer:
The world isn't short of vodka, what made you and your partners pursue this route?

Chris Montana:
Well, it's about people and the most interesting project ever that's run by jerks, I don't want anything to do with, right? You have to find the right mix of people and I was introduced through a mutual friend to this group and had a chance to sit down with them and enjoy a cocktail or two and chat about what they were trying to do with this company because as you well know, there's a lot of vodka brands and they pop up and they're somewhat indistinguishable but they're really just about trying to grab a segment of the market. Maybe sell a few cases and then sell off and make some money on it.
It's just about making money and people think, I think, wrongly that vodka is an easy place to do that. So, what got me hooked was the philosophy behind the liquid. If you know anything about our distillery, it's what happens behind the liquid. That probably sets us apart. We make good stuff but it's also about what we do after we've made it which has to do with focusing on our community and trying to lift up other people who need lifting. That's what hooked me with this. It's focusing on actual craftsmanship and craftsmen and women from an area that I love and as American Liquor Company does better, so too those distilleries. Those distilleries were founded in neighbourhoods that were blighted and needed revitalisation. So, as they do well, so too does their neighbourhood and I hate to use the term but there is a trickle down effect there. I don't know, I think that's fun. I think it's interesting and so, who wouldn't want to be a part of that project?

Interviewer:
Now, when people create a spirits brand, it's usually about their own distilling ability, tell us about the six vodka distilleries that you've highlighted with this new venture.

Chris Montana:
Yeah, we've worked with a number of facilities. It's taken some time to drill down and get the blend right as you can probably imagine but I think we have a lot to be excited about with the folks that we're working with. We can really start anywhere. Closest to home, for me, is Proof, the artisan distillers. They're up in Fargo, North Dakota which is further north than in the twin cities and so, it's even colder there but I've met them at industry events and it's a nebulous thing to say but you meet people and you just know who gets it. They're not folks who are out to just build your brand at all costs. They want to see all boats rise and I saw that in them. The cherry on top is the liquor's good.So, we're really excited to have them be a part of this and really excited to have them tell their story and what they're doing up in North Dakota.
Valentine Rifino, he's a bit original. Now, we're moving from North Dakota to Michigan, to Detroit. I think that they're the first distillery in Detroit. Really the first micro distillery in Detroit. I could be wrong about that but if I am then, he was one of the first. It seems they just win awards left and right and from reputable sources. So, it's not metal mills. So, they know what they're doing and tasting their spirit, it was quality, spot on. With all of these brands, when you're talking about vodka, there's no place to hide.So, you can taste when someone doesn't know exactly what they're doing or they're making mistakes that have to do with purity or you're not getting the flavour of the grain or you're getting not the viscosity you would expect to get from that particular grain and they were dead on and it's a great addition. They're in on the Rye side and so, we get some of the spiciness from them.
Moving back, Yahara Bay. They're also a neighbour, just in Wisconsin and they've been around for a long time and they're experts at what they do. I think people might be surprised to find that Yahara Bay is... That their spirit ends up in a lot of other people's blends and brands quite frankly, in large part because they're known within the industry as being experts at their craft and consistent. With the corn side of it, we want some of that sweetness. We want that extra viscosity we can get from the corn, that mouthfeel and we get that from Yahara Bay.
Then, the last one that I'll mention is Middle West and right in the Middle West, again. They're another one of these distilleries. They're older than mine. They've been around for a long time. They have grown from very humble roots like many of us have. In fact, if you look at the story of all of these distilleries, they all start as the smaller distilleries and then eventually grow into their own, into what you see today. What that man can do with wheat, it's impressive truly and I wouldn't call it a dominant but there is a note that you get from his wheat and the way that he does it that adds a vanilla taste that you might not immediately associate with wheat but his process gets this really, really nice vanilla note to it. When you put all these pieces together, it creates a truly unique vodka. It's a one of a kind.

Interviewer:
When it comes to vodka, most people would concentrate on a single grain base. What gave you the idea of combining different grains to create the vodka for your brand?

Chris Montana:
Well, I can't take full credit for that. I think there was a full team at the company that thought about how this could be a fun way or at least a fun challenge. What excites me about it, first of all, it's very difficult. You have some things in there that traditionally do not play well together. Wheat and rye are both soft grains. They show up in a lot of spirits together. A lot of four grain whiskeys will have the two of them but corn and potato do not show up together. That's not a pairing that you often see and to get that right is hard and so, it's a challenge and who doesn't love a challenge?
When you've been doing this for years and something comes along that that looks like it can be fun, it can be a challenge, you want to jump on it but the second piece of it is, I think what drives most craft distillers, which is, we're not out here to make what exists. We're not marketing companies. Our purpose isn't just to make something and then sell it on the basis of a pretty label or a fancy bottle. Our purpose is to add something to the library, to add something unique and you could not get more unique. This type of a vodka is unknown to the U S and anywhere else, so far as I know and so, that makes it exciting to break into and start trail blaze a new category of multigrain vodka.

Interviewer:
The term, Master Blender, is one that's usually used for aged spirits such as rum or whiskey yet you are a Master Blender for vodka. How does that work?

Chris Montana:
Yeah, It's a good question. First of all, I think that there is a misconception and part of that misconception is driven by the legal definition so far as our regulatory agency describes it, which is, vodka is this neutral spirit with no discernible character or taste and that's just flat out not true. Anyone who has spent any time around vodkas and I don't mean in a professional sense, I mean if you've had a few drinks, you know that vodkas have plenty of flavour. It's very easy to distinguish between them. So, if you start there, that this isn't about taking a bunch of just liquids that all tastes the same and putting them together, they all have distinct characters. When you think of a blender in the whiskey sense, I actually think of it more in the gin sense to be honest, it's more thinking of how do these flavours work well together and how can they support each other?
Some flavours are there to stand up on their own and some flavours are there to enhance other ones. For example, I think our potato vodka does more enhancing of the other flavours than it does standing out on its own. That's the way that I think about gin when I'm building a gin is, what is this balance of flavours? It's not about creating something that has so many tastes going on at the same time, you can't handle yourself, it's about creating something that can highlight a few flavours that are pleasing within a spirit that goes down smooth and that, your average person who picks it up should be able to tell what's going on in that spirit. You don't need a degree in drinking vodka to know what's going on in American Liquor Company.

Interviewer:
So, what are you looking for in the blend?

Chris Montana:
Well, With all vodkas, you generally are looking for flavour, purity and mouthfeel. The purity is a given and that's something that on the front end, as we tried different spirits, you can taste for that. If something is distilled, a wide cut, you can taste that and if someone is trying to get a little more out of their rum than they probably should, you can taste that.
So, we can and we could eliminate a number of products on that basis right away. When it comes to the mouthfeel, again, to a point with what we've chosen in here, it's about the ratio of some of the spirits that are known for contributing that mouthfeel and those fatty acids. Corn and wheat perhaps being the two biggest ones. The last piece is, the third leg of the stool - flavour. That's the most difficult one because as I said before, there are just some flavours that don't work well together, right? You don't want them in your sandwich. So, you have to pick complimentary flavours and then you have to pick the ratio of them, right? So, it's not so much that I was looking for one particular flavour from any particular distillery, it was more looking to build a team that worked well together.

Interviewer:
The vodka that you have created is said to embrace the taste of the Midwest. I assume, from what you've already said, you do believe that there is a certain amount of terroir in vodka. In this particular blend, how does that express itself?

Chris Montana:
Well, Yes, yes. I do agree. You can taste the earth from which it came and the flavour that you get out of, for example, I said before, one of our blends is Middle West and Middle West with that dominant vanilla flavour, that dominant vanilla flavour would be different if it were grown in wetter soil, right? It might not be there to the same degree. In your fermentation instead of getting that vanilla, you might get more of a banana flavour. Which is very common when fermenting corn or wheat, right? So, it does matter. Whether or not you're using a winter or spring wheat or red wheat, hard week. Now, all of those things are going to affect your ultimate flavour profile and in that particular example, there are regions that they can't get their wheat from and it has to do with the soil and it's not that they can't get it, it's that they won't use it because it adds a flavour that they don't like.
So, they've honed in on a particular area that they want to get their wheat from. When we're doing vodka with corn, we do the same thing, right? We know the area that we want our corn to come from. It will taste different if we go use a different corn from a different area. It could be the same corn planted a hundred miles away, it will not taste the same. So, when you get down to this.... And again, the balance of a vodka is on a pinhead, right? It's very easy to mess it up and there's no place to hide. So, when you're getting this fine and particular about it, those types of decisions about where your grain is coming from and those subtleties matter so much.

Interviewer:
How long did it take you to achieve the right balance with the vodkas you were using?

Chris Montana:
The company has been around for a few years now and I came on in this past year or so and got working on it. Again, it's not just me, it's me and a team of folks. A lot of people that were just forced to drink a lot of vodka, it's tough for them but it took a while and really what the winnowing process largely had to do with finding companies, distillers that not only had a good product that they could send you because most places can do that but how to good product, that one, I could go buy off the shelf, not the sample that somebody wants me to taste but what they're actually putting out there, taste that, have it be the same, right? So, finding that because consistency is a big deal. Once you put out a good product, you don't then want to have it move all over the place. You want to be able to hit the same mark over and over again.
So, that took some time but once we had the producers down, that started the whole next phase of, okay, now we know that we've got some people who know what they're doing. How do we make these spirits play well together? How do we create the right team? So, it's not, it's not an understatement to say that this vodka is years in the making.

Interviewer:
I imagine it would have been a fair amount of trial and error.

Chris Montana:
Yeah and I tell that to people and they're like, "Man, you got a hard life. So, you're just sitting around and drinking vodka all day." I'll tell you this - when it's 9:00 AM in the morning and you're just getting in and you know that you have 20 or 30 different samples of booze to go through, it does wear on you. I know I'm not going to get any sympathy for that. I love my job. There's a lot of things that I could be doing that are worse than being a Distiller. So, I can't complain about it too much but yes, it is still work.

Interviewer:
Now, if someone were to taste the liquid for the first time, what do you think they would notice most?

Chris Montana:
I think there are a couple of things. I think that one, and for those who are tasting it for the first time, I'll just give you a recommendation, right? Which is, vodka doesn't need to be chilled. It doesn't need any special treatment. It's perfectly good at room temperature and a glass with nothing else in it and that will give you the best experience, actually tastes what's good and what's bad about any spirit. So, I would encourage people to do that. If you drink American Liquor Company vodka, drink it like warm water. You'll notice a couple of things. First of all, it has a very pleasing mouthfeel, right? It's not super thin in the mouth. It doesn't just slide back, it'll hang on you for a little bit and because it does, it has time to bring some of the flavours across.
So, you'll get that tart berry, almost like a blackberry taste which again, no berries were harmed in the making of this vodka, that's the grain speaking. You'll also get that vanilla note that I was talking about. That's one of the hero notes of the blend, right? When you put those things together, if you're thinking about what's a great flavour combination? Well, ice cream and berries has never hurt anyone. So, you start to get that sweetness of the corn, that vanilla note that's there, that subtle tartness and fruit note and those three things together, I think, as it moves over your palette, is what most people are going to experience. Like I said before, you don't need to be a professional to notice it. Anyone can pick up a glass of vodka and all those notes should come over pretty easily.

Interviewer:
With those notes in the vodka, if someone was going to mix this into a cocktail, what flavours do you think would work best with it?

Chris Montana:
So, that's a good question and as a Distiller, I often get asked about cocktails. I'll tell you I'm not much of a cocktail person so, when people ask me how to drink this, I will say, in a glass and if need be with ice. If you're going to go further than that, then this will make a good vodka martini. I probably wouldn't dirty it, too much at least, but it would make a good vodka martini. If for no other reason then there's little else in that martini other than the vodka. That's where I would start. Now, having said that, there's nothing in that flavour profile that is going to offend in any cocktail and because you have those tart notes in there and you have that vanilla note in there, you've opened up nearly anything that you are going to do with any fruit base or juice or anything like that. It's going to stand up well in all of those mixed drinks but if you're going after it as I would go after it, I would just say, put it in the glass.

Interviewer:
So, I'm assuming you don't ever drink cocktails with this and that you only drink it straight.

Chris Montana:
Well, I'm trying to think now. I haven't mixed it. I've had it in cocktails before. I've had some very good cocktails and again, I don't have the memory for it to come back at what exactly was in it but I know I've been in some bars, particularly in Detroit, where they had some folks make some amazing cocktails with it but, yeah, as I said, here's a thing, you can put almost anything into a... The history of the cocktail in large parts was to deal with booze that wasn't that good, right?
So, and it's not to say that people shouldn't drink cocktails, absolutely, please do. Enjoy responsibly and often, but the first time that you taste a spirit, it shouldn't be in a cocktail. It should be on its own because once you throw all the juices and mixology has reached a point now where, the spirit itself can be an afterthought. Which is why, if I'm going to drink a cocktail, do something that’s spirit forward or do something like a martini. If it's whiskey, do something like an old fashioned or something that is largely driven by the spirit itself.

Interviewer:
What has the reaction of bartenders been to this liquid so far?

Chris Montana:
I think they love it. We've had, and Cole gets a lot of this stuff, not me but I know anecdotally that people have reached out and said how much they love this blend in large part because bartenders, it's their job to go through, taste these things and think about what they can do with them and this is a spirit that they can do almost anything with because they don't have to cover anything up. You don't need to throw a ton of all the fruits and weird things. It can be mashed up into a cocktail just to make it palatable. It's a quality vodka that stands on its own and that really opens up the door because as I said before, you don't need to hide anything.
So, the reception has been fantastic. We're excited to get it into more places. The difficulty, I think, is not in the reception from bartenders, I think bartenders love it, the difficulty is that, there's a lot of noise out there and how do people find a product like American Liquor Company? I know we have people working very hard on that but I think as more and more places find it, you're going to find it on more and more bars because it really does stand head and shoulders above.

Interviewer:
It must've been difficult bringing this out during lockdown and trying to communicate with people when they couldn't see it in a bar. How did you guys go about that?

Chris Montana:
Yeah. That's a good point. Most brands, whether you've been around for a long time or you're brand new, you're going out into a market of people who already know what they like or think they know what they like and so you need to have them try it. This is one of those products that once you try it, then you'll understand and I don't think you'll go back but that's difficult when you're in a pandemic and you can't go out and do tastings. You can't actually do liquid to lips. You have to talk about it in the abstract. I know it slowed some things down but there's a lot of pent up energy right now and a lot of demand. So, I don't know that it will, in the long run, have any perceivable effect on the brand.
I think that people right now are trying to get out. All these bars are reopening and one of the nice things about all of these bars re-opening at one time is that they have a once in a lifetime opportunity to re-stock an entire bar and if you're going to do that, then you have an opportunity. You don't have a bunch of inventory you have to burn through. You have an opportunity to try something new. So, I think that has helped us particularly in the on-premise, in the bars, restaurants, as they're looking to re-open and looking for that thing that's going to make them stand out, I think it's, in a way, been helpful.

Interviewer:
I can imagine that actually. Yes. Now, sustainability is a huge issue in the industry at the moment, what efforts have you guys been making towards that?

Chris Montana:
Well, I can speak to specifically is on the distilling side and if you look at the places from which we are sourcing, the typical practice is to be a part of a loop within agriculture. As then, we have grain coming to distilleries. We have distilleries using that grain. The spent grain is very protein rich but not carbohydrate rich and so, it makes for good animal feed. It goes back to a farm. That farm and other ways supports our grain farms via fertiliser and then the whole cycle repeats.
This is a brand that is built by craft distilleries. I think you'll find most craft distilleries are in a production chain that doesn't let things go to waste. I think that is, if we think about sustainability, reduce, reuse, recycle, right? Well, in this case, it's reduce. It's reducing that that impact. Also the other bit is that, we try to use grains and fermentables that are close to us. That reduces the footprint. As far as, trucks driving long distances, there's no need to do that. We're rooted in our communities, we support our communities. They're our neighbours, they're next door and so, we're not shipping over tankers of grain from China, right? It's coming from our backyard.

Interviewer:
Over the last 20 years or so, vodka's reputation has certainly had its ups and downs, do you think that the spirit is going through a resurgence at the moment?

Chris Montana:
I think it is and I think it is in part because I think many spirits are going through a resurgence right now. Spirits in general are gaining market share over beer and wine and that's a trend that's been going on for quite some time. With vodka, vodka is to me what yellow beer was, right? It's a category that people really didn't expect much from for years. We're going through the same thing that happened when, all of a sudden we had craft brewers show up and say, look, you can do better than yellow beer. There's all this other stuff out there. There's flavour, you don't have to settle. I think we're going through the same thing with vodka and there's a curve to that, right? Drinkers, and particularly younger drinkers, folks more my age in their late thirties, forties and late twenties are looking for something different and also looking for something that supports their values and their belief.
So, in this particular blend, I think we fall in that category. I think spirits in general, micro distilleries in general have done a good job of adding new things to the library and that is breaking us out of this idea of fungible vodka that, all is the same and once you break that suppose, understanding of vodka then the world opens up in a way that it never has before, quite literally never has before. So, we're at the beginning of that right now. So, it's a good time, I think, to be a vodka producer.

Interviewer:
I imagine a lot of people would have taken to vodka in lockdown simply because they assumed it was an easy spirit to work with. Are you thinking that once everything opens up, they will go out and almost demand more from that same spirit?

Chris Montana:
I would think-

Interviewer:
Start to experiment a little bit with...

Chris Montana:
Absolutely. Vodka is a social spirit, right? Different spirits have different moods, I suppose, that are attached to them. At least they are, in the areas that I grew up in. If you have a brandy or if that's an after dinner type of a thing. Vodka is a spirit that's enjoyed with friends and one of the things we've all been missing for this past year of pandemic is the ability to get out and be with friends. So, as more of that happens and people are getting out and they're going to those bars or having dinner parties or what have you, I think that the growth within the vodka category is going to continue.

Interviewer:
Speaking of which, what is next for American Liquor Company?

Chris Montana:
Well, we don't have the largest footprint at the moment. It is growing and it will grow by the month. I know we're moving into new markets. Currently in Ohio and Michigan but there are more on the horizon. I think that the ultimate goal for American Liquor company is, to bring this uniquely Midwestern spirit to all parts of the Midwest. I have no doubt that we'll get there but like all things you have to start somewhere and I think that in part because of where some of our distilleries are. Michigan and Ohio make a lot of sense and I'm waiting to reach my home state of Minnesota and some others but we'll be there soon.

Interviewer:
Some would say that a brand really only meets the jackpot, so to speak, once it's in New York and LA. Are they markets that you're looking to get into in the next year or so?

Chris Montana:
I don't know. As far as the assumption that you got to be in New York or LA, I would disagree. I think there are a lot of complexities to those markets sometimes and a lot of puffery that you have to weed your way through. One of the nice things about working in the Midwest is that, it's a very straightforward place. We're very straightforward people. People who are looking for value and not necessarily drinking something for what it says about them or how good it looks on their shelf, right? There's no ornamentation or there's no real need for ornamentation, right? If you buy something, it's because you like it and if you don't like it then you won't buy it. So, I think when you're dealing with a brand like ours, that is so based on taste, it's so based on flavour and also in the people behind it and its roots, I think those are the people who are going to get you first and if we end up in New York and in LA at some point then great. I visit those places too and want to have good drinks there too.

Interviewer:
Will you be continuing to do vodka blends in future or will you be looking to other spirits or how are things going to move forward?

Chris Montana:
It's a good question. I think right now the focus is on this product and whether or not the company branches out and does some other things, I wouldn't look for that anytime soon. I think it's very difficult to build a brand in this industry and it takes your own divided attention. So, instead of trying to be a ‘jack of all trades', we'd rather be a master of one and keep our focus on this product and making it consistently and getting it in front of people. So that way, they can be let in on the secret.
I think that it would be a mistake at this point, at the beginning of this, to try to get too broad and have seven different products or something like that. I think that could be confusing to the consumer. Who are you? Are you a vodka brand or are you this kind of a vodka? Are you that kind of a vodka? Are you a gin brand? So, I see us staying focused for now. Having said that, you never say never but I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for American liquor company flavoured vodka to come out anytime soon.

Interviewer:
Right. Okay. Now obviously, if people would like more information on American Liquor Company they should go to your website which is americanliquor.com or connect with the brand on your socials.

Chris Montana:
Yeah, absolutely. I'm in a cave when it comes to social media but I've been impressed with the content they've been putting up there and it's really engaging and it's not just... If you go there, you'll see it. Yes, it is about the booze. It is about the makers of the booze but it's also about other makers. A piece of this company is, as this company does well, it will support the work of other small makers within the Midwest and so, that's broader than the spirits industry or even hospitality. So, I think if you go on there, you'll find a lot of interesting stories with some cool people who are being highlighted and supported by American Liquor Company.

Interviewer:
Excellent. All right. Well look, thank you Chris for taking the time.

Chris Montana:
Thank you. It's been a pleasure.