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Grand Traverse Distillery is proud to be Michigan’s only micro-distillery dedicated to exclusively distilling vodka. Our True North Vodka celebrates the natural gifts abundant to Michigan’s 45th parallel. Home to the United Statesfinest cherry industry and award winning wine producers. The finest rye in the world is grown north of the 45thparallel and our rye is grown right here in Northern Michigan. Using crystal clear glacial waters and quality rye make the 45th parallel an ideal location to distill our TNV.

Location
Located in TC Mich, the distillery is the vision of Kent Rabish, a Michigan native. After visiting micro-distilleries on the West Coast Kent saw the opportunity to bring hand crafted spirits to Michigan. Across the country a renaissance is taking place in the distilling industry. Small craft distillers are bringing back hand made, high quality spirits using fresh locally grown ingredients.

History
Hand crafted spirits is not a new idea. In what is now Poland monks began distilling grains in the fifteenth century. Pot stills have been around for a very long time. The old word for a pot still, “alambic” or “abembic” is an Arabic word which goes back further to the ancient Greek which got the word from the Egyptians. Prior to prohibition, Americans had a strong tradition of family owned local distilleries, each with local characteristics. Prohibition saw the closing of these small distilleries, equipment was destroyed, and when prohibition was repealed in 1933 only a handful of these small distilleries reopened.

The art of handcrafting spirits, using small pot stills was replaced with very large production oriented distilleries. These commercial distilleries concentrated on quantity, not quality. Vodka from a pot still will contain the delicate aromatics, the congeners, and flavor elements from the rye. The rise of craft distilling is the return to quality and using locally grown grains. Kent saw this opportunity and has brought this style of distilling to Northern Michigan. He credits his Polish ancestry with his motivation to hand craft and ultra-premium vodka using rye.