GROWING UP
Santa Fe Spirits celebrates expansion with reopening party
Santa Fe Spirits keeps growing in production to the point that it actually ran out of space to age its spirits.
“We’ve been growing at a pretty good clip every year, anywhere from
30 to 50 percent a year, and that presents a lot of challenges, especially with a business like ours, where we need to put away a lot of product to age,” said Adam Vincent, marketing manager for Santa Fe Spirits.
The distillery makes Silver Coyote pure malt whiskey; Expedition vodka; apple brandy made with New Mexico apples; Wheeler’s Western Dry Gin, made with local botanicals; Colkegan Single Malt Whiskey; Atapiño liqueur and Slow Burn liqueur. Santa Fe Spirits turned to the state and the city of Santa Fe for help with a much-needed expansion.
“Not only does it cost a lot of money to make the whiskey and let it sit for three, four years; it costs a lot of money to build the facility to age it,” Vincent said. “We got to the point where we needed a little bit of capital to support our growth, and that’s when (owner) Colin (Keegan) started talking to folks from the city and the state about getting a LETA (Local Economic Development Act) grant.”
The LETA grant is designed to help local businesses get the money that they need to grow. The grant is essentially a loan, and Santa Fe Spirits will pay the state back. To get the money, Santa Fe Spirits had to promise to expand its business and hire more people. The distillery also received $100,000 in incentives from Santa Fe. The city did not charge some permit fees and reduced some of the other fees for the new building, Vincent said.
Santa Fe Spirits is celebrating the completion of the expansion of its distillery and on-site tasting room today with a grand reopening party.
There is a lot of potential for distilleries in New Mexico. There are about nine in the state, compared with about 90 in Colorado, according to Vincent.
“We have an advantage that we’ve been around long enough,” Vincent said of Santa Fe Spirits, which opened in 2010. “We’ve made a lot of mistakes, and we’ve learned from those. We’re getting to the point where we’re making award-winning product, getting recognition. A lot of the distilleries that are coming online in New Mexico, they’re still pretty young. They’re doing pretty well with the tasting rooms, but they’re still growing their distribution and getting that notoriety. We’re looking forward to what they’re doing, because as they grow, it grows the whole awareness of New Mexico-made spirits, drinking local, and it helps everybody.”