Clear Creek Distillers managers are, from left to right, Everett Rubin, Master Distiller Caitlin Bartlemay and Garrett Trotter-Ramos. The tasting room is located at 304 Oak St., Suite 3, downtown Hood River, open noon to 6 p.m. Thursday through Monday.
Two of the original 60-gallon Arnold Holstien hybrid pot stills at HRD. They are the original Clear Creek stills and have been the workhorses behind all of the Fruit Brandies and McCarthy’s American Single Malt.
Clear Creek Distillers managers are, from left to right, Everett Rubin, Master Distiller Caitlin Bartlemay and Garrett Trotter-Ramos. The tasting room is located at 304 Oak St., Suite 3, downtown Hood River, open noon to 6 p.m. Thursday through Monday.
HOOD RIVER — It has been a busy spring season for Hood River Distillers (HRD) and their newest master distiller at Clear Creek Distillery, Caitlin Bartlemay. In April, the company celebrated its 90th anniversary as the largest and oldest importer, distiller, producer, and marketer of distilled spirits in the Pacific Northwest. One of 30 brands under the HRD umbrella, Clear Creek Distillery is now being managed by Bartlemay and her team of distillers: Garrett Trotter-Ramos and Everett Rubin.
Bartlemay’s ascension to master distiller started on an Eastern Oregon homestead that her great-great-grandfather acquired in 1898. Four generations of her family lived on farmland that was traditionally known for producing cereal crops such as wheat, barley and corn. The Bartlemays bucked that trend and became the first family in the area to plant two acres of grapevines. Of course, they had no idea which variety of vines would grow best, so they created a “fruit salad.”
“We didn’t really know what was going to do well and what wasn’t. So, we eventually settled on cab sauv [Cabernet Sauvignon], and viognier, and a little bit of Chenin Blanc,” Bartlemay said. “I caught the fermentation bug from my dad at a very early age.”
At the behest of her parents, Bartlemay went to college at Oregon State University but her curiosity for the sciences was conceived by one of her high school teachers, Alan Cunningham.
“I hope many of his students know how fortunate they were to have him as a teacher because, even when I went to college for the first couple terms of 200 level chemistry, I was still going over information that I had learned in high school,” she said. Cunningham still teaches at Arlington High today.
Bartlemay began higher education in the Viticulture and Enology program at OSU but wanted to broaden her studies, so she transferred to the fermentation science option within the Food Sciences Department. Even before she was out of school, Bartlemay began the search for a job at a distillery.
Barrels containing prepared spirits lay in wait as they age.
Noah Noteboom photo
“I cold called every distillery in the entire Pacific Northwest,” Bartlemay said. At that time, there were only 12, including in parts of Montana. She did not receive much in response, but she remained steadfast in her hunt for a job. One day, Clear Creek Distillery Founder Steve McCarth, asked for a copy of her resume and cover letter — because he had lost the first copy she sent. She happily obliged and stayed in constant contact. Bartlemay was hired the day after she took her last final exam.
“I’m very, very, very fortunate to not only have gotten a job immediately [out of college], but to also have gotten a job in my field,” Bartlemay said.
In 2010, she started out as the logistics coordinator at Clear Creek and stuck with them through their sale to HRD in 2014 and their move to Hood River in 2017. At that time McCarthy had owned the distillery for close to 30 years and decided to retire. In 2021, Bartlemay was promoted to head distiller, where she led the day-to-day operations for three years before another step up to Master Distiller on April 30.
“It’s been kind of crazy,” Bartlemay said on the transition to Master Distiller. “Because we’re so small, I’m still focused on some of the day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month stuff, whilst also trying to throw my brain ahead on the two-to-five-year side.”
Two of the original 60-gallon Arnold Holstien hybrid pot stills at HRD. They are the original Clear Creek stills and have been the workhorses behind all of the Fruit Brandies and McCarthy’s American Single Malt.
Noah Noteboom photo
Bartlemay said she was running the distillery alone for four months when the previous master distiller, Joseph O’Sullivan, moved on to another opportunity last July.
“And so now, we have distillers here and we’re fully functioning, and I have the opportunity to actually spend time looking out at the two-to-five-year range. It’s been actually kind of a joy to experience what that next step looks like,” Bartlemay said.
For Clear Creek the next steps include more of what they’re known for: Fruit brandy. Their award-winning, flagship drink is the pear brandy, which was created by McCarthy. The brandy is “unaged” to bring the fresh fruit flavors to the forefront. Each 700 milliliter bottle of the pear brandy requires 20 pounds of pears.
In 2019, they launched their Clear Creek Vodka, which is 100% fruit-based and fermented and distilled with apples grown in the Pacific Northwest.
“We’ve just spent a lot of time reformulating and adding a bunch of new products to our premium portfolio to add on top of our already outstanding value brands,” Bartlemay said. “With our premium brands, we’re trying to over deliver on the quality for the price.”
She explained that a 750 milliliter bottle of Timberline Vodka, for example, is listed on their website for $26 and has been compared to other spirits that cost upwards of $40.
Want to see for yourself? The HRD tasting room is located on Oak Street in downtown Hood River at 304 Oak Street, Suite 3. The tasting room is open Thursday through Monday from noon to 6 p.m. The Portland Tasting Outpost is located on 426 SW Broadway in Portland and open daily from 1-7 p.m. You may also purchase select products online at HRDSpirits.com.
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