Experience the wilder side of botanicals with Wilderton

Cocktails Distilled

When creating a distilled spirit, it is usual to start either with an established spirit type or with flavour, but when Seth O’Malley and Brad Whiting created Wilderton they approached it from a very different standpoint.

Starting instead with a layering of botanicals, that could not be easy identified as any particular flavour, the friends wanted to create a liquid that would function as a spirit without trying to be an already existing one.

The result is their two expressions, Lustre and Earthen, both of which were born out of curiosity about the depth of feeling that the botanicals used could express.

To find out more, we speak to Seth O’Malley about botanicals, distilling and what it means to live and drink wild and free.

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1. Experience the wilder side of botanicals with Wilderton (00:00:00)

2. Wilderton of course gets its name from the wilds of the Oregon landscape in which you both live. Is there more to the name than that though? (00:01:40)

3. So you want people to be able to reduce their ABV as much as not drink at all? (00:02:58)

4. While creating liquids that are outside the normal realms of expected flavour or expected category, may sound very freeing, how difficult was it actually to create that? (00:05:57)

5. If you approached it from the angle of light and dark, would you say that the two expressions are perhaps seasonal? (00:09:13)

6. How difficult has the education process been when people are at the tasting table? (00:10:17)

7. Well, since we can't do tastings here, describe the flavours of each of these expressions? (00:12:03)

8. How did you bridge between the thought of what you wanted to achieve and which particular botanicals you'd use? (00:14:38)

9. I suppose the experience that you gained through the distillery allowed you to quite easily upscale from experimental stage to full production. (00:19:12)

10. What do you think is the major difference between distilling alcoholic and distilling non-alcoholic spirits? (00:20:04)

11. So, it's an adventure that you've enjoyed? (00:22:36)

12. Lockdown was pretty much a boon for non-alcoholic, what do you see as the future of the category? (00:23:59)

13. Now, speaking of Jim Meehan, how did that come about? (00:27:30)

14. Now, we are featuring five of the cocktails, but there's actually quite a few that he's created, which of these is your favourite? (00:29:57)

15. Where can people find the rest of Jim's cocktails that he created for you? (00:30:57)

16. What do you want people to take away from their experience with Wilderton? (00:31:31)

17. Now, if people do want to start experimenting with Wilderton themselves, where can they find it? (00:33:48)