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Five years ago, Colin Baker was an unhappy accountant living in Orange County. Today, he’s making some of the most highly-lauded gin in the country. Baker, 31, is the founder and master distiller of Loch & Union, a small craft distillery in Napa Valley’s American Canyon.
Together with his team, Baker launched his American Dry Gin in August and has already racked up 15 awards, including New York International Spirits Competition’s California Gin Distillery of the Year and California International Spirits Competition’s Best in Class American Dry Gin.
We caught up with Baker recently to find out how he traded in his spreadsheets for beakers and a masters degree in distilling from one of Europe’s top universities. Loch & Union gins and barrel-aged spirits can be found at Ledger’s Liquor Store in Berkeley and Alchemy Bottle Shop in Oakland.
Q: How did you go from accounting to distilling?
A: I was working for Deloitte in Orange County and really didn’t like it. At the same time, I was becoming obsessively into home brewing. So I decided to quit my job, move to London and start working for a small brewery in South London called Sambrook’s. I wanted to work and live in the UK long term and one way for me to obtain a long-term visa was to earn a degree from a university there. So I ended up attending Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Q: From brewing to distilling?
A: I fell in love with Scotch whiskey and distilling as a process and realized that if I can work for myself and do something I love, what could be better than that? So I decided to open a distillery back in California. I was 27 at the time. I started designing the stills with one of my professors in Scotland. My dorm room looked out on this loch and the student union was on the bank of the loch. A lot of the original ideas of this distillery were hashed out there.
Q: Why did you choose American Canyon?
A: I chose Napa Valley because two of the best cooperages in the world, Seguin Moreau and Demptos, are there — in addition to all the world-class wineries, of course. We source cabernet sauvignon barrels from a legacy winery in Napa, because you need a really punchy big wine to stand up to a whiskey.
Q: Tell us about your recipe process. How did you pick the botanicals for your dry gin?
A: We started with a list of 150 botanicals and did single-distillate trials of all of them. Eventually, we narrowed it down to 40. Then we went to TC Bauer Co in Chicago and had them send us three of the best examples of each, regardless of price. Something that was difficult was to know when to stop. We now use 12 botanicals from nine countries, including juniper from Greece and Germany, coriander from Ukraine and India, cubeb berry from Indonesia and damiana leaf from Mexico.
Q: How do you enjoy dry gin?
A: The way I drink this at home is a stiff gin and tonic with a really good tonic, like Fevertree — one to one ratio. Or go Spanish, throw a bunch of garnishes in it, like black peppercorns or orange slices, rosemary or mint. Anything you want.
Q: What do you want people to know about the barley gin?
A: Gin isn’t something that people really think of as a neat beverage, but the body and smoothness of our single malted Barley Gin is incredible. It has the same botanical and distillation process as our dry gin. The only difference is the base spirit, and that gives it an almost creamy mouthfeel. It drinks almost like a whiskey but doesn’t need any aging time.
Q: Speaking of whiskey … we hear you have one in the works.
A: It’s probably three years away. When we release the whiskey it will be a seminal moment for us. It has to be perfect, even if it takes five years. Pumping out whiskey that’s too young is common in the industry and I understand why — cash. But I think it ends up hurting the industry. Ours has been in barrel for six months and we’ve had bartenders taste it and tell us they’d buy it now. We just want to make the best whiskey we can.
