IN OUR WORDS:

Today Project Optimist and T8KE (Jay) Launch Odes to Vie. The world’s oldest (and first) quarterly fruit distillate club.

OTV, as we have come to call the project, is a deep dive into one of the most beautiful beverage categories, and features the set of distillates that I have been most captivated with for the past several years. In eau de vie and fruit brandy, there is nothing to hide behind. All of the flavor comes from purity of fruit and execution of production. When a bottle is unique and delicious, you can point to the land and plants it came from. You can call up the person who sorted, fermented, and distilled the fruit to thank them for their work. The romance is in the nature and in the toil. It is humbling and inspiring to see, and after you taste the distillate, it is hard to go back to anything else.

OTV releases are exclusive to us and in some instances, exist only because of our enthusiasm and willingness to invest in the category. We work with distillers and farmers who care first and foremost about quality. Our concentrated interest and buying power will make it possible for them to push the limits of their own expressions. Our dream is for the category to be more widely recognized for what it is: the purest expression of craft distillation and fruit farming. OTV is for the truest distillate nerds who want to taste the purest distillate that exists only because they are excited to support it by being an active member in this club. 

Fruit distillate receives very little commercial attention in the United States. In our opinion, there are three main reasons for this.

First, the history of distillation in America made it extremely difficult for small-lot distillation to happen close to fruit cultivation. Until recently, America was not a friendly country to craft distillers. Eau de Vie is fermented and distilled from various fruits and the best expressions are produced from fruit that is picked at optimal ripeness with as few preservatives as possible. To execute this type of production, the fermentation and distillation facilities need to be close to the farms. Unlike grain, fruit is ready at a different times every year (with little notice!), making harvest is very challenging to plan for. America never developed an appreciation for fruit distillates because, until about 20 years ago, producing them was virtually impossible without a significant regulatory and infrastructure investment—and the payoff simply wasn’t there. There are some exceptions to this, and their bottles are and always have been beautiful and available, but they never came close to reaching a critical mass.

Second, fruit is expensive. Grain, sugarcane, and grape based spirits are made from base products that can fold into larger commodity trades. They can be produced on a large scale from agricultural initiatives that have multiple revenue streams and predictable markets. Eau de Vie is made from high quality fruit that does not travel well: the base products are expensive and specific (often the best distillation fruits are too tannic or acidic for a farm stand). No larger industry or public company is interested in propelling the category forward, because there is no commercial win. Similarly, these base products do not see the same tax incentives as commodity based spirits. Whereas luxury whiskey or rum is commonly made from a base product that is seen as expendable, quality eau de vie is made from a base product that is treated as a “luxury” good from the beginning.

Finally, good fruit is not particularly high in sugar and good fruit fermentations are not particularly high in alcohol. This makes for painfully low yields. The significant amount of fruit and labor that goes into one single bottle of quality eau de vie is terrifying.

And so, our mission is to push quality, not quantity. Odes to Vie is a very limited club, because there is only a very small amount of these releases made. Our vision is to support our partners and distillers in pushing towards the most precise and exciting distillation runs, knowing there will be a home for them among enthusiast in America, regardless of the tiny yields and complicated explanations.

— Will Schragis