Tuthilltown Spirits was founded in 2001 on the site of Tuthilltown Gristmill, which had been grinding grain to flour using the local river as power for over 220 years. Ralph Erenzo and Vicki Morgan purchased the property and put a microdistillery on the site. We were told that they at first wanted to make a world-class climbing facility over the rocky terrain but that local opposition squelched the idea and they had to something else… and that something else turned into spirits. They first produced a vodka two years later. Since that time they have expanded into several spirits and hope to renew the pre-Prohibition New York spirit of craft-distilling. Tuthilltown’s Hudson Whiskey brand was acquired by Willaim Grant & Sons in 2010.

Heart of the Hudson vodka (not to be confused with Tuthilltown’s Spirit of the Hudson vodka) is distilled from a press of apple cider using Hudson Valley apples. The 375ml bottle is said to have the press of 80 apples in the bottle. They describe it as a “real fruit spirit.”