Certain places carry the weight of what came before them and the ambition of what comes next. The Tuthilltown Gristmill in Gardiner, New York, built in 1788 by an eighteen-year-old named Selah Tuthill on the banks of the Shawangunk Kill, was one of those places long before anyone thought to fill a copper pot still there. It stood as the longest continuously operated gristmill in New York State history, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Wikipedia It ground grain into flour for two centuries. Then, in the early 2000s, a climber from Manhattan showed up with a failed plan, a stubborn streak, and an idea that would light a fire under an entire industry.
That man was Ralph Erenzo — and what he built on those 36 acres in Ulster County is one of the most consequential origin stories in American craft spirits.
The Man Who Came for the Rocks, Stayed for the Whiskey
When Ralph Erenzo purchased the Tuthilltown Gristmill in 2001, he didn’t intend to open a distillery. He planned to turn the property into a campground for rock climbers who visit the nearby Shawangunk Mountains. HV Mag The Gunks, as they’re known, are one of the great technical climbing destinations in the Northeast — quartzite cliffs rising from the Valley floor like something out of a Norse myth. Erenzo, who had spent decades building climbing gyms in New York City and guiding in those same mountains, wanted to bring that world together with this extraordinary piece of land.
His neighbors had other ideas. After years of legal battles that would have broken most men, Erenzo pivoted. He discovered a little-known law from 2000 that allowed micro-distilling at a dramatically reduced licensing rate — so long as the producer was making less than 35,000 gallons a year. Blogger The permit, which had cost sixty-five thousand dollars, was available to small operators for just fifteen hundred. That discovery changed everything.
In 2003, Erenzo partnered with Brian Lee to officially start Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery, and together, they unintentionally became pioneers of the New York State craft beverage industry. WhiskyCast Neither man had any distilling experience. They taught themselves. They made their first batches of vodka from apple scraps collected at a local slicing plant. They worked through failures by daylight and learned to trust their instincts by dark.
By 2006, those instincts had produced something that would make history: Hudson Baby Bourbon — the first legally distilled and aged grain spirit produced in New York since Prohibition, made from 100% New York corn. Hudsonvalleybeertrail
A Legislation and a Legacy
What separates Tuthilltown from almost every other craft spirits story in America is that it didn’t just build a great distillery — it rebuilt the entire legal architecture that makes great distilleries possible.
Erenzo’s efforts to ensure the new distillery could have a shop and conduct samplings and tours prompted the Farm Distillery Act of 2007, effectively opening the floodgates for would-be distillers all across the region. Chronogram Magazine It took three years of lobbying, three governors, and an extraordinary persistence that mirrors the kind of artisan determination I recognize in the craft itself — the willingness to work toward something for years before the world acknowledges what you’ve been building. Today there are over 185 craft distilleries in New York State, and locally distilled spirits contribute over $27 billion to the State’s economy. Ulster County
That number starts at Tuthilltown. One man’s failed campground became the seed of an industry.
There is something philosophically resonant in this story that I return to often. Marcus Aurelius wrote that the impediment to action advances action — that what stands in the way becomes the way. Erenzo’s neighbors blocked a climbers’ ranch. The State’s licensing laws blocked easy entry into distilling. Each obstacle became a lever he turned back on the system. That is not luck. That is the architecture of the maker’s mind.
The Spirits: Grain-to-Glass from the Hudson Valley
Tuthilltown’s approach to production is rooted in a provenance philosophy that would feel at home alongside the best farm-to-table dining on Long Island’s North Shore. Tuthilltown distills vodka using apples grown at orchards less than five miles away, and whiskey using grain harvested by farmers less than ten miles away. Nydistilled Every bottle is an expression of place — of the Catskill Mountain water that moves through the region, the specific terroir of Ulster County grain, the mineral character of the Shawangunk landscape.
The flagship Hudson Whiskey line includes Hudson Baby Bourbon, Hudson Manhattan Rye, Hudson Single Malt, Hudson New York Corn Whiskey, and Hudson Four Grain Bourbon. Beyond those anchors, the distillery produces Half Moon Orchard Gin — made with locally sourced botanicals — Indigenous Vodka from Hudson Valley apples, and a rotating range of liqueurs developed in collaboration with neighboring Hudson Valley producers. Newer expressions like Bright Lights, Big Bourbon and Short Stack — a rye aged in Vermont maple-cured bourbon casks — speak to the innovation that has continued to define the brand even after its acquisition. Chronogram Magazine
The spirits are handmade and small-batch, meaning no two batches are precisely identical. In a world drowning in algorithmic consistency, that variation is not a flaw — it is the signature of a human hand.
The William Grant Chapter
By 2010, what Erenzo and Lee had built in Gardiner had caught the attention of one of the most storied distilling families in the world. William Grant & Sons purchased the Hudson Whiskey brand in 2010, while Tuthilltown continued to produce every drop — Grant distributed the goods worldwide. Hudson Valley One It was, as Erenzo himself noted, a signal to the spirits industry that New York craft distilling had arrived.
In April 2017, William Grant & Sons — the Scottish family-owned company renowned for Glenfiddich and The Balvenie — acquired the entire 36-acre Tuthilltown facility, including the distillery, restaurant, visitor center, and scenic grounds. Tuthilltown Spirits The acquisition was described as a logical evolution: seven years of partnership, growing demand, and a brand that had earned top-shelf placement in Manhattan bars and Parisian cocktail lounges alike.
For the craft world, acquisitions like this are sometimes treated with suspicion — the fear that scale swallows soul. But Tuthilltown’s story post-acquisition has been one of expanded production, improved distribution, and maintained character. The grain still comes from local farms. The stills still run in Gardiner. The Shawangunk Kill still moves past the tasting room deck at the same quiet pace it always has.
The Experience: 36 Acres of Intentional Living
A visit to Tuthilltown is not a transaction. It is an immersion. Set on 30+ pristine acres in the heart of the Hudson Valley, the Visitor Center and Tasting Room offers guided tours, cocktails, and customized tasting flights from the full menu of distilled spirits — all crafted onsite from New York grain. Tuthilltowndistillery
The Bourbon Renewal Tour brings guests through the production areas, into the rick houses where barrels sleep and whiskey deepens, and concludes with a deconstructed tasting that places the visitor inside the spirit’s story rather than outside it. The cocktail bar’s rotating menu is developed by Tuthilltown’s in-house mixologist, and for guests who prefer not to drink hard spirits, selections from Whitecliff Vineyard, Sloop Brewing Co., and several Hudson Valley cideries are also available. Chronogram Magazine
Beyond the tasting room, the property itself rewards wandering. Hidden nature paths weave through the acreage, and a secret waterfall rewards those who explore. The deck overlooks the Shawangunk Kill, and the Great Lawn invites the kind of unhurried afternoon that has become rare in modern life. Tuthilltowndistillery On weekends from spring through fall, food trucks set up on the grounds — Winnie’s Jerk Chicken, The Bus OC — and the whole property takes on the quality of a community gathering rather than a tourist attraction.
The tasting room opens Thursday through Sunday. Tours run approximately 45 minutes, priced at $30 per person, and include a six-sample tasting kit and a souvenir rocks glass. Private events accommodate up to 80 guests outdoors, with custom cocktail menus designed to the occasion.
Tragedy, Continuity, and the Apple Brandy Dream
The Tuthilltown story has not been without its fractures. In 2010, Erenzo narrowly escaped death in a spectacular automobile wreck in Gardiner that left him comatose for weeks. Though kidney damage left him permanently unable to drink alcohol, he underwent a long rehabilitation and remained actively involved in running the business. Hudson Valley One A fire damaged the distillery in 2012. And in 2021, his son Gabe — who had served as the distillery’s chief distiller and become one of its most beloved public faces — died suddenly from an undiagnosed heart condition.
These are the kinds of losses that hollow out an institution. That Tuthilltown has continued to evolve, to push toward new expressions, to host a weekly Farmers’ and Makers’ Market on its grounds, is its own kind of testimony.
For years, the long-term dream had been to produce an apple brandy of world-class excellence comparable to Calvados. A former production manager traveled to France in 2012 to learn the art from orchardists and distillers in Le Perche, in Basse-Normandie — forging professional friendships that led to a French delegation returning the visit. Hudson Valley One The dream of the Hudson Valley as its own terroir, producing a brandy with the same sense of place as a great Calvados, is now becoming reality.
That is the maker’s timeline. Not quarterly. Not even annually. Generational.
A Note for the North Shore Traveler
From Long Island’s North Shore, Tuthilltown is a two-hour drive through some of New York’s most compelling landscape — up the Taconic, through the Hudson Valley, into the foothills of the Shawangunks. It pairs naturally with a stop at Mohonk Mountain House, a hike through Minnewaska State Park, or a visit to one of Ulster County’s farm markets. If you’re the kind of person who values provenance in what you eat, wear, and build — who understands that the unseen details are what separate something lasting from something disposable — this distillery will feel immediately familiar.
Tuthilltown is not the story of a brand. It is the story of a place that refused to be anything less than itself, built by people who had no business doing what they did and did it anyway — and in doing so, changed the industry for everyone who came after them.
Tuthilltown Spirits Distillery 14 Grist Mill Lane, Gardiner, NY 12525 📞 (845) 419-2964 🌐 tuthilltowndistillery.com 🥃 Hudson Whiskey: hudsonwhiskey.com
Hours: Thursday–Friday: 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM Saturday: 12:00 PM – 8:00 PM Sunday: 12:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Bourbon Renewal Tour: ~45 minutes | $30/person | Includes 6-sample tasting kit and souvenir rocks glass
Private Events: Up to 80 guests outdoors | Custom cocktail menus available
