When I arrived on my first visit to Hillrock Estate
Distillery in Ancram, NY, I found two people in deep conversation at the table –
Jeff Baker, the owners of Hillrock, whom I expected to see, and Ariel Schlein,
co-founder and President of Dutch’s Spirits, who I did not expect to see, but
was a pleasant surprise. Areil was there to tour the new distillery just as I
was. But it was a great introduction to Dutch’s Spirits, one of the other new distillery
happening in the Hudson Valley!
Since the death of mobster Dutch Schultz in 1935, rumors
have proliferated about the whereabouts of his buried treasure up near the
craggy ranges of the Catskill Mountains – one of his favorite getaways.
For those uninitiated with Schultz, Dutch Schultz (born
Arthur Flegenheimer; August 6, 1901 – October 24, 1935) was a New York
City-area German-Jewish American mobster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his
fortune in organized crime-related activities such as bootlegging alcohol and
the numbers racket. Weakened by two tax evasion trials led by prosecutor Thomas
Dewey, Schultz's rackets were threatened by fellow mobster Lucky Luciano. In an
effort to avert his conviction, Schultz asked the Commission for permission to
kill Dewey, which they declined. After Schultz disobeyed the Commission and
attempted to carry out the hit, they ordered his assassination in 1935. You
might have seen a movie about him entitled Billy Bathgate.
But there’s more to the story than just naming the
distillery after a famous mobster. There’s a more interesting tie-in. In 2010,
a different kind of fortune was unearthed in the town of Pine Plains, New York.
Unlike the many other searches made over the previous decades, here lay a find
discovered almost eighty years earlier. Less than a mile from the town center
stood a 400 acre swath of land known as Harvest Homestead Farm, owned and
operated by the Adams family for generations. It was in the heart of this land,
beneath a nondescript bunkhouse atop a hill, that the treasure was buried. It
wasn’t the legendary suitcase of gold or cash. It wasn’t a trove of jewels or
stacks of bonds. It was a find much more
rare and valuable to its beholders. Discovered on this farm were the
foundations of a sprawling complex – a clandestine distillery, the likes of
which had never been seen before.
Financed by Schultz and built by rotating teams of local
workers during the last gasps of Prohibition in the spring of 1932, this
massive underground distilling operation produced thousands of gallons of
moonshine against the idyllic backdrop of rural Pine Plains. Here, a sprawling
network of interconnected tunnels, bunkers and false chimneys ensured, for
short while at least, that detection by the authorities was avoided. The
“hooch” was produced in an elaborate distillery cleverly secluded in an old cow
barn, and constructed of steel reinforced concrete, valves, and pipes scattered
throughout the property. Spring houses supplied water from underground
aquifers, and a swimming pool served as a cooling reservoir. Tunnels spread throughout
the farm, serving as secret passageways between the structures for its workers
and as a means of speedy exit in case of trouble. An open secret to his own
family, co-founder Alex Adams’s grandfather, Charles, worked the farm at the
time as a young “potato harvester.”
Despite their best efforts, the production of moonshine in a
sleepy country town did not escape detection. After numerous previous failed
attempts, just after dusk on Monday, October 17, 1932, Federal agents raided
the site. Among the items found were two 2,000 gallon stills in operation, two
high pressure boilers, over 15,000 gallons of mash, 10,000 pounds of sugar, two
Ford trucks, one Reo truck, and a Lincoln sedan. Two workers were arrested, and
two days later, twelve federal agents returned to destroy all of the equipment
seized.
Over the next 78 years, the farm would undergo many changes.
Its owner, Patrick Ryan, was a retired New York City policeman, which may have
played a part in his avoidance of prison for harboring the distillery. After
the raid, he quietly reverted the property back to its turkey farm origins. In
1969, the house fell to Janet and Charles Adams, the same “potato harvester”
who had worked at the distillery over thirty years earlier. For forty more
years, the Adams family kept watch over the farm and its buried secrets. Then,
in the Spring of 2008, Charles’s grandson Alex Adams and close friend Ariel
Schlein learned of the passage of the New York farm distillers’ law. They
decided it was time to write another chapter in Dutch’s history.
In July 2011, after an extensive archaeological survey and
review, the site was added to the New York State Archaeological Inventory as a
“Bootleg Era Bunker Complex”, while the New York State Historic Preservation
Office deemed it eligible for inclusion in the State and National Register of
Historic places. Now, almost eighty years later, Dutch’s Spirits is building a
new distillery in the footprint of the original bunkhouse site – the
foundations of which are still being unearthed.
The spirits were originally distilled and blended at another
distillery while the new works are being secured and erected at Shultz’s old “digs.”
The new facility will be opened to viewing in the spring, and then hopefully by
fall, they will be fully operational…and more importantly, visit-able.
The current aim of Dutch’s Spirits? To become a
self-sustaining farm operation and agritourism destination specializing in
artisanal hand-made spirits. Our first products, produced locally in New York
State, include Dutch’s Spirits Sugar Wash Moonshine, Dutch’s Spirits Peach
Brandy, and Dutch‘s Colonial Cocktail Bitters. They welcome you to join them on
their journey as they rebuild this historic site.
Ariel Schlein (Founding Partner & President) is
spearheading the vision behind Dutch’s Spirits. An avid triathlete, Ariel has
spent years swimming, cycling, and running the Hudson Valley, spawning a
well-worn love affair with the land. Owing to his friendship with Alex Adams,
his passion for the region and its history blossomed through the discovery of
the treasure that lay beneath Harvest Homestead Farm. His free time is spent
furrowing through old newspapers, maps, and photo libraries, cornering
archeologists, or exploring Dutchess County’s burgeoning food, wine and spirits
landscape.
Alex Adams (Founding Partner) was born and raised in
Poughkeepsie, New York, a short drive from Pine Plains where his family farm –
Harvest Homestead Farm – has lain for eighty years. His father, a prominent
local land use attorney, was raised near the farm alongside four siblings, two
of whom currently call the town home. Alex’s grandfather worked the land as a
young “potato harvester” when the original distillery was in production.
Ethan R. Kelley (Sales
& Marketing) has 18 years of full time experience behind the bar – from
nightclubs and pubs to high-end lounges and cocktail havens. Most recently, he
was the Beverage Director for Brandy Library in TriBeCa, Manhattan – one of the
most revered spirits collections in the world. A well-respected teacher on the
subject of spirits, Ethan has developed spirits lists for notable bars and
restaurants across the country, and instructed members of the industry from
bartenders, marketing professionals, and sales forces.
The two products I tried were Sugar Wash Moonshine and Peach
Brandy.
Dutch’s Spirits Sugar Wash Moonshine is a nod to that
bottled lightning made in Dutch’s cavernous distillery, its stills burning
beneath the fields of Harvest Homestead Farm in Hudson Valley, New York. This
handcrafted, 100% Cane Neutral Spirit was produced in small batches from pure
Demerara sugar using artisan copper pot stills. This is a light, clean very
smooth spirit. In the glass bears aromas of cotton candy, molassas, and other
spices. Nice notes of butterscotch and vanilla and a hint of maple syrup. There
is nothing sweet about this incredibly drinkable white whiskey. It goes down
very easy! 40% ABV
Dutch’s Spirits Peach Brandy is an ode to the old Dutch
settlers. Peach brandy was originally a farmhouse product made with surplus
fruit, peach brandy was one of the most popular spirits in America throughout
the 18th and 19th centuries. Dutch’s Spirits Peach Brandy is handcrafted in the
same traditional 19th century style. Each bottle of this limited batch is hand
labeled and numbered. Distilled in artisanal copper pots and aged in a
combination of toasted and charred oak barrels, the brandy gives off the
immediate smell of peach cobble, with the fruit and the bread coming through,
but other aromas also evolves, such as vanilla, tropical fruits, and maybe a
hint of gingerbread. Brown sugar and spice also come through on the palate, but
for as much as the nose smells deceivingly sweet, the brandy is as dry as a
bone, with lots of spice on the finish. For all the packaging and descriptions,
this is a dry brandy of very good quality! Also, begging to be made into
cocktails!!!! 40% ABV
They also make a bitters I didn't get to experience. Very exciting though. It's distributed by a nmber of organizations, especially into the very exciting Manhattan and Brooklyn bar scenes.
Schultz's Spirits has plans for a number of other fun and exciting products. Another very cool addition to the very, very hot and happening scene going on in the Hudson Valley, where wine, beers, ciders, and spirits are making a huge impact, and makign the region one of the hottest on the east coast!
