Santa Fe Spirits

The company exists because an architect bought a house with too many apple trees. Colin Keegan and his wife took a property that had come loose from another sale, inherited an orchard with it, and found themselves each autumn with more fruit than any household could reasonably use. He pressed it. Then he made cider from the juice. Then, with more cider than that problem required, he distilled it into apple brandy, and by 2010 he had left architecture entirely.

The Apples

Almost nothing about that origin is romantic, which is why it is worth keeping. Distilleries usually begin with a thesis about terroir. This one began with a logistics problem in a back garden, and the solution turned out to be a business.

Apple brandy was the first spirit and is still made. What grew around it is a range of American single malt whiskey, gin, vodka, and liqueurs, all produced in a light industrial unit on the south side of town. In New Mexico terms 2010 is early. The state’s distilleries mostly arrived after it, and Santa Fe Spirits is now the oldest one still working in the city, in roughly the position Santa Fe Brewing Company occupies among the breweries, having got there twenty-two years sooner.

Mesquite

The signature is smoke, and it is the right kind. Scotch smokes malted barley over peat because peat is what Islay has. Santa Fe Spirits smokes its barley over mesquite, because mesquite is what the Southwest has, and the result tastes like the difference rather than like an imitation of Scotland.

The whiskey range now runs to six expressions, all American single malt: the original mesquite-smoked one, an unsmoked version for comparison, and finishes in sherry casks, in cask strength, bottled in bond, and, satisfyingly, in the distillery’s own apple brandy barrels. The last of those closes the circle back to the orchard. The house has taken medals at national competitions, including at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, though the more persuasive evidence is that the whiskey now sells well outside a state that was not previously known for making any.

What Happened to Wheeler’s

For most of the last decade the gin was Wheeler’s Western Dry Gin, named for George Wheeler, the surveyor who mapped the American West, and built on botanicals gathered within about thirty miles of the distillery. A great many reviews, bottle lists, and enthusiast threads still refer to it.

Wheeler’s is no longer sold. The gin is now Desert Bloom, in two expressions, one distilled with wild purple sage and one with ripe prickly pear. The mesquite whiskey has been through a similar renaming and no longer carries the Colkegan name it wore for years, which was a contraction of the founder’s own. Anyone going in with an old bottle list should know that before they arrive.

Two Addresses, One Distillery

This is where visitors go wrong, and it is worth being blunt about it. Santa Fe Spirits has two places you can drink. Only one of them makes anything.

The distillery is at 7505 Mallard Way, Unit I, out in the industrial belt near the airport, well south of the Plaza and not walkable from anywhere. There is a tasting room attached, and there are guided tours that walk the actual production line from milling through fermentation and distillation to the barrels. The flight afterwards is curated, in the distillery’s own word, chosen and ordered rather than handed over at random. If you want to see whiskey being made, this is the only correct address.

The second is a downtown tasting room on Read Street, a short walk from the Railyard. It pours the same spirits in a much smaller space and distills nothing. Confirm which is open before you drive to either.

For a bar built over a stage, there is Tonic. For a distillery you can walk to, As Above, So Below. For a farm’s own gin poured a block off the Plaza, Farm Shop Norte. For mezcal and a fire out on Cerrillos, La Reina. The rest of this section sits alongside them.

Common Questions

Where is the Santa Fe Spirits distillery?

At 7505 Mallard Way, Unit I, on the south side of Santa Fe near the airport. That is the only address where spirits are produced, and where the tours run. A second tasting room downtown on Read Street pours the range but distills nothing.

What happened to Wheeler’s Gin?

Santa Fe Spirits no longer sells gin under the Wheeler’s name. It is now Desert Bloom, made in two expressions, one with wild purple sage and one with prickly pear.