Harvest Spirits Distillery

LOCATED ON A FAMILY APPLE FARM in the fertile Hudson Valley, Harvest Spirits benefits by having all of our ingredients grown steps from our doorstep. Our third-generation apple farm benefits by having a new market for our cider apples and increased traffic to our retail farm store. Harvest Spirits and Golden Harvest Farms work closely with several local farms. We promote strong ties among our local farmers and share information readily, from tree to bottle.

Our small distillery is a very modern work of art. Though it can only distill one hundred gallons at a time, it is flexible and precise enough to create virtually any kind of liquor, from gin and whiskey to exotics like cachaça, agave spirits and medicinal bitters. Apples offer us the perfect component and a unique opportunity to control our process from harvesting all natural ingredients to triple distilling our vodka in our custom designed German still.

We focus primarily on vodka, and every drop in every bottle of Core Vodka is meticulously and passionately hand-crafted using nothing but the apples grown steps from our distillery, and filtered water, to create a vodka with a smoother, softer spirit and an authentic flavor. The final result – vodka that greets your mouth with a rich, buttery start and leaves your palette with a subtle hint of its fruit origin.

The creation of our Pear Brandy is a collaboration between three local fruit farms. Surprisingly dry, our unaged, unsweetened brandy is a perfect expression of fruit. We capture the full flavor of ripe barlett pears by fermenting whole, crushed pears (instead of pear juice). Although much more difficult to make with whole fruit, our brandy is worth the effort. Big, bold pear aromas in the bouquet develop into a rich mouthfeel and finish with a surprisingly smooth satisfaction.

Inspired by French eau-de-vie (water of life), our apple brandy was born a year after the success of our pear brandy. Similar in style to our pear brandy, our apple brandy is made from fresh fruit grown in the Hudson Valley. This respectable spirit endeavors to embody the fragrance and velvety texture of fresh apples.

Since colonial times, traditional applejack was made by freezing barrels of hard cider during the long winter months, then tapping and removing the alcoholic center. This was a powerful and harsh liquor, since it concentrated all of the alcohols – both good and bad. We carefully distill our Cornelius Applejack three times, offering a smoother, more satisfying take on this American classic. Carefully distilled and rested in premium bourbon barrels, Cornelius Applejack is made from 100% Hudson Valley apples, homegrown on our 200-acre fruit farm. Each bottle is made from over 60 lbs. of fresh apples grown steps from our distillery.

We invite you to come in for a tour and taste some of our latest creations.

Notoriously hard to make, Grappa is an Italian spirit derived from the grape pressings. A local winemaker recently gave us a load of grape skins to experiment with. Instead of adding sugar and water to the skins, we fermented them by adding sweet cider to the must. Although this will not be considered a traditional grappa, the test trials reveal promising flavors of fresh, New York grapes.

Himbeer Geist is a traditional south German spirit made with raspberries. Our version is a bit different: we use black raspberries that we grow ourselves just steps from our distillery door. Another important distinction is that the spirit is derived from the fermented sugar of apples, not grain. We used our entire 2009 harvest of black raspberries for our test trials and look forward to releasing a finished product after the 2010 harvest. This product is unsweetened and contains no sugar, just apples, black raspberries and water. Available in September.