Interview With Deco Distilling

 Deco Distilling's Lenny Gotter and Bill Adams started making rum in 2007, “before the whole economy crunched. We thought: We’re all going to be millionaires!” Gotter says laughing. A global recession may have slowed things down a little, but you can't tell. This spring, Deco moved to a new location, opened a tasting room and won a Silver Medal at the 2011 San Francisco World Spirits Competition for its new Coffee Rum. That new location, just off Hawthorne at 1512 SE 7th Avenue, is open Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5pm.

            Inspired on a 2006 trip to Belize by six dollar bottles of silver rum that were nice and light but tasty, Gotter decided to try making the stuff himself. “Rum,” he explains, “was originally made because molasses is a waste product. It's what's left over from making sugar. You take sugar cane and you boil and boil it down. The molasses is basically the stuff left on the bottom. But the funny thing about it is that molasses has a lot more flavor, it’s concentrated caramelized sugar. Distilling it sounded easy: take molasses, water, yeast, and a little heat and that's pretty much it.” Learning the basics of making rum may have been simple, but getting it to taste right was a bit more difficult.

The pair came up with the company’s Silver Rum first, as a base, then worked from there to try out different flavors. “For the Ginger Rum there were maybe 20 or 30 different flavoring samples, and there are lots of different ways to add flavor,” Gotter explains as I look around the distillery. “I had to test them all out, trying to follow my scientific method as close as possible. The end result has a great ginger spiciness to it. All my bartender friends love it because it's a lazy person's alcohol -- you can just mix it with one thing and it tastes good.” He mentions that Ginger Rum with lemonade is his summer favorite.

            Harder still to get right was the Coffee Rum, which took six months to develop. Why so long?  “It's got caffeine and I'm reasonably sensitive to caffeine,” Gotter explains. “I couldn't drink it late at night, when I usually didn't care about getting drunk, because the caffeine would keep me awake.” Somehow Gotter overcame this dilemma to create the award-winning Coffee Rum.

            Once they had rum squared away, Deco needed a name and a logo. “Every rum product has a some sort of pirate or Caribbean theme and I wanted something that looked nothing like that,” Gotter admits. “Art Deco seemed a sufficiently non-piratey. I am a huge fan of Art Deco, or Modernism is the actual art style. I like a lot of Frank Lloyd Wright and I love the lining.”  Thus was born Deco's classy logo and its name, which was chosen to give a sense of that style.

            With the product and packaging complete, Deco now needed to figure out how sell the stuff. “One of the big advantages we have in Oregon is the OLCC actually makes it very easy for us by stocking local spirits in the state liquor stores,” notes Gotter. “In other states this is harder, because everything goes through huge distributers. If you can even get them on the phone, they will usually ask, ‘Who are you? You don't have a multi-million dollar advertising campaign? Why should I stock your product?' Capitalism is great as long as you have a lot of money.”  The OLCC, however, levels the playing field here in Oregon.

             Getting into Oregon liquor stores may be comparatively easy, but getting liquors placed in local bars and restaurants takes more work. “I can't even say how many restaurants I know that list all their local farms they buy all their ingredients from but have no local spirits,” Gotter reveal, his disbelief apparent. “There's just under 1200 bars and restaurants in Portland proper, so it’s hard to get to every one of them. But when I do get word out, I often find interest. I love Portland because the people are really cool about supporting local.” Deco supports local itself, using Thomas Kemper sodas for the mixers in its tasting room and Stumptown coffee for its Coffee Rum. And, by banding together with other distilleries into Distillery Row, he's trying to improve his neighborhood. “We are trying to market distillery row as the first distillery tour destination in the country,” he explains, his tone showing excitement.

            While Deco is getting popular, Gotter isn't content in just making three rums. “I want to make everything, but I don't have time,” he admits. “I do have some prototypes of a spiced rum, and I have a couple other flavors I'm still working out. I might even do some liqueurs of some flavors I love later on this year. They might be a little too obtuse for a rum product, like a cardamom liqueur, but that's what I say now because I haven't had to do anything. We'll see how far I get. I say I'm going to make all this great stuff, but then when it comes to the actual work,” Gotter trails off with a smile, and starts laughing. Still, it's clear he has a passion for distilling, and, with his new space, a great place to experiment and show off his new creations to the thirsty public.

Visit Deco Distilling's website