Three Big Wins for Founding Spirits

We have big news for our baby distillery. Founding Spirits received three major international distilling awards at the American Distilling Institute’s (ADI) 2018 Craft Spirits Conference: a GOLD medal for our Founding Spirits American Amaro, a BRONZE medal for our Founding Spirits Vodka, and ADI’s Best of 2018 win in the Certified Craft Blended Spirit category.

To guests in our restaurants – Founding Farmers, Farmers & Distillers, Farmers Fishers Bakers – our spirits have a become well-known and beloved by many on our drinks menu. Our craft vodka is a favorite in many of our handmade cocktails. We are all thrilled to be recognized beyond our walls for how we have taken our company’s scratch-made mission and craft cocktail wizardry into distilling some very tasty and apparently award-winning spirits. We think this is a pretty big deal for our barely-a-year-old distillery.

Known as The Voice of Craft Distilling, every year the American Distilling Institute (ADI) hosts a Judging of Craft Spirits, which includes U.S. and international entries in a range of categories. In addition to being named ADI’s Best of 2018, our Founding Spirits American Amaro won GOLD in the Certified Craft Blended Spirit category for an herbal/botanical/spice liqueur; and our Founding Spirits Vodka won BRONZE in the Certified Distilled Spirit vodka category.

Our Founding Spirits team was excited to venture west to Portland, OR to receive these prestigious awards. They had the opportunity to meet and share distilling tales with craft distillers from across the globe. This included a lot of discussions about the latest and greatest in distilling, and of course, a bit of sipping and sampling too.   

The American Distilling Institute is dedicated to running rigorous and professional spirit judging that strives to promote craft distillers and blenders that are producing the finest quality, artisan spirits and to give participating producers valuable, unbiased, third-party feedback on the quality and process of their spirits. Their annual judging program accepts entries in all classes and categories of craft spirits from small, independently owned distillers, blenders, bitters makers, and producers of aperitif and fortified wines. U.S. and international entries are tasted blind and evaluated by expert panels of judges made up of distillers, journalists, bar owners, bartenders, retailers, wholesalers, distributors, and importers. All spirits entered receive written tasting notes and are considered for awards both for the spirit itself and the packaging.

Turning Up the Heat with Our Craft Vodka

Founding Spirits and Farmers & Distillers turned up the heat last night for an important cause, the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance. Our mixologists joined more than 50 female culinary and bar wizards in downtown DC for Turn Up the Heat.

Led by bartender Carly Barsalou, our team mixed and served one of our favorite Farmers & Distillers cocktails featuring our very own craft vodka. Bubbles & Berries combines our Founding Spirits Vodka with blackberry, lemon, cognac, Curaçao, and Perrier-Jouët Grand Brut. This slightly bubbly craft cocktail is light, a bit sweet, and very refreshing.

With over 400 attendees, Turn Up the Heat is a unique event showcasing women mixologists and chefs in the DC region. The gala proceeds help fund groundbreaking ovarian cancer private research grants, advocacy efforts, and support programs for patients and their families affected by this disease.

Every 24 minutes a woman is diagnosed with ovarian cancer in the U.S. The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance is the leading ovarian cancer research, advocacy, and patient support organization in the world. They are the largest, non-government funder of ovarian cancer research. They are the primary voice for the ovarian cancer community on Capitol Hill and beyond. They also direct a Woman to Woman support program, which pairs newly diagnosed patients with trained survivor volunteers.