Family keeps loved one’s distillery dream alive
Craft vodka amassing fans and awards — even after distiller’s death
Serene Mastrianni considers herself a sophisticated vodka drinker. For years, she only drank the best — Belvedere and Chopin — paying nearly $50 a bottle.
When her brother, the late Serge Shishik, told her he could distill a vodka as good or better than her preferred spirits, she was skeptical. Then she tried an early bottle of his Pick Six vodka.
“He brought over a bottle and I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “It sparkled in my mouth, in a good way.”
That was six years ago. Since then Pick Six has won multiple awards. Its first — the 2014 silver at the New York International Spirits Competition — was brought home even before the product hit the market. It also captured prizes at events in Berlin, Colorado and San Francisco.
Sadly, Serge Shishik has not been able to enjoy Pick Six’s success. Soon after he entering the spirit in its first competition, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 small-cell lung cancer. He died soon after at age 43.
But prior to his death he brought in busy family members, all of whom work full-time jobs, to take over his f ledgling Courage Distiller y.
Mastrianni, who sells pharmaceuticals, handles marketing for the brand. The late founder’s wife, Holly Shishik, a pharmacist, is CEO and his cousin Kellie Fisher, who also works in pharmaceutical sales, is the COO. His uncle Kevin Mccarthy
handles the accounting. All four co-owners are devoted to realizing Serge Shishik ’s dream to create a consistently excellent craft vodka.
“It wasn’t our dream, but we are working hard to continue,” Mastrianni said. “We are into it, way into it.”
Each year, the nearly all-woman enterprise has expanded its reach. The vodka can be found in 300 stores in the Capital Region, Mohawk Valley and in central New York. The vodka is midpriced, selling at $18.99 for 750 milliliters, $20.99 for a liter and $30.99 for 1.75 liters.
Mastrianni says that while they work hard to get their product out there, the true secret to their success is the spring water used to make it, which bubbles up through the ground next to the barn-like distiller y in Green
field Center, near the Palmertown Range. The water produces what Mastrianni says is a clean, crisp vodka.
“The water comes right from the limestone beds, rich in calcium and magnesium,” she said. “The water is beautiful.”
Using gravity and pressurized hoses, the vodka is produced without electricity with a sixtimes-distilled mash of GMOfree, gluten-free corn. Once the water is added, it is then filtered through 13 layers of carbon six times. The process, which includes hand-bottling, capping and labeling, has brought in top scores for feel and finish — two of the four Fs (along with fragrance and f lavor) of fine vodka.
“The feel, it glides across your mouth, that ’s the water,” Mastrianni said. “It ’s like glycerin across the tongue.”
She said the water also produces the finish.
“You can drink this vodka all day long and never get that bite at the back of the throat,” she said. “It ’s smooth. Anyone can make vodka, but not everyone can make great vodka. That’s the water.”
The distillery does not have a tasting room, but the spirit — including their f lavored products, strawberry jam and apple pie — can be sampled at the Saratoga Winery. She said she and Fisher can often be found at liquor stores handing out sips of the spirit. Last week, Mastrianni offered up tastings at the Rusty Nail Grill and Tavern in Clifton Park. Fisher said the aim is to “get the call,” which she said is the lingo for ordering a drink by its name.
“We want people to say ‘I want a Pick Six and club,’” Fisher said.
With prices lower than other craft spirits, Fisher said, Courage Distillery aims to compete with the national brands. Courage Distillery is also targeting women who, like Mastrianni, are older with a refined palate for the spirit and want to drink a “clean martini.”
“Once they try it, people are loyal to it,” Mastrianni said. “It ’s an amazing product.”