Northshore Magazine

Northshore July 2019

Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.

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THE FIRST QUESTION worth asking about New Hampshire's Tam- worth Distilling is geographic: Just where is Tamworth, anyway? East of Woodstock, tucked beneath Mount Whiteface, and just a half hour's drive from the Maine border, lies the small town of Tam- worth, incorporated back in 1766—a quiet and unassuming village that was once called home by luminaries of American culture including Grover Cleveland, Henry David Thoreau, and E.E. Cummings. Today, their influence remains impressed on Tamworth's identity, couched in the Barnstormers Theatre, the oldest operating professional summer theatre in the country, and in its rich artist community. But in 2019, Tamworth Distilling has taken over as the new town nucleus, a cool, rustic, down-to-earth distilling outfit meticulously producing spirits, from rye to vodka and gin to applejack, with a local focus. Years back, creator Steve Grasse, a student of transcen- dentalism who grew up summering in New Hampshire, met Madison native and whiskey enthusiast Jamie Oakes; their introduction started "an avalanche," as brand ambassador Lulu Henle puts it, that led to the distillery's conception. As Grasse and Oakes began dis- cussing spirits, Oakes also started talking to Tamworth local Matt Powers, with whom he attended the local high school in his youth. Powers has a master's in chemistry. Oakes himself has a visual arts background and is something of an autodidact. Grasse, the mind behind Hendrick's Gin and Sailor Jerry Rum, has a record of building enduring spirit brands. They all wanted to promote Tam- worth, to breathe new, revitalizing life into the town's heart, and so Tamworth Distilling was born. "When youth flight is a real issue, which it is in New Hampshire, that's a really wonderful part," says Henle. "Partly Steve did have that in mind when he chose a small town and he's like, 'Let's boost this whole place.'" Tamworth Distilling's small staff either grew up in the area, as Oakes and Powers did, or wintered or summered in the area, as Grasse did; it's a local labor of love on a human level. But the embrace of locality extends to how they approach their craft, too. Henle likens Tamworth's from-scratch distilling aesthetic to buying cake mix at the grocery store. "A cake mix is still a yummy cake," she says, "and you 94 still want to eat it. But it's just different." The extra steps the Tamworth team takes show in their spirits. Where most distilleries buy neutral grain pre-distilled, Tamworth distills everything from scratch, and nearly all of their materials come from New Hamp- shire. "We have direct relationships with the farms that grow all of our grains—or in the case of any of our brandy products, that grow the apples," Henle explains. "We source all of those base ingredients from within a 150-mile radius of the distillery." A portion of their spent grains is used in their distiller's Tamworth Distilling has brought a hip new vibe to its namesake town. Top right, Co-owners Steve Grasse and Jamie Oaks.

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