Clear Creek Distillery is a distillery based in

Hood River, Oregon The city of Hood River is the seat of Hood River County, Oregon, United States. It is a port on the Columbia River, and is named for the nearby Hood River. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 8,313. It is the only city in Oregon whe ...

, United States, and formerly in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

. Founded in 1985, it has been owned by

Hood River Distillers Hood River Distillers is an importer, producer, bottler, and marketer of spirits based in the U.S. State of Oregon. History Established in 1934 in Hood River, Oregon by Ted Pooley and Ned Marshall, Hood River Distillers received the first state d ...

since 2014. It is most well known for its ''

eau de vie An ''eau de vie'' (French for spirit, §16, §17 literally " water of life") is a clear, colourless fruit brandy that is produced by means of fermentation and double distillation. The fruit flavor is typically very light. In English-speakin ...

'' produced from Bartlett pears, though today it also makes a variety of other

fruit brandies In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particula ...

, aged

spirits Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...

, and liqueurs.

History

Clear Creek Distillery was founded in 1985 by Stephen McCarthy. The McCarthy family had owned orchards in Oregon since the turn of the century, although Stephen had been running the family's alternative business of manufacturing parts for hunting guns. This endeavor required travel to Europe, where he encountered the

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

tradition of producing pear ''eau de vie''. He decided to begin making ''eau de vie'' from the Bartlett pears grown widely in Oregon after concluding they were similar to the

Williams pear The Williams' bon chrétien pear, commonly called the Williams pear, or the Bartlett pear in the United States and Canada, is the most commonly grown variety of pear in most countries outside Asia. It is a cultivar (cultivated variety) of the s ...

s that were often used for ''eau de vie'' production in Europe. He produced the first batches of the spirit in 1985. The production of European-style

is relatively unusual in the United States, and the Clear Creek Distillery is one of the best known American ''eau de vie'' distilleries. The beverage is still a

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

product not consumed by most U.S. drinkers. The company was sold to

in 2014.

Products

Based on the traditional ''eau de vie de

Poire Williams Poire Williams is the name for eau de vie An ''eau de vie'' (French for spirit, §16, §17 literally " water of life") is a clear, colourless fruit brandy that is produced by means of fermentation and double distillation. The fruit flavor ...

'', Clear Creek Distillery's pear ''eau de vie'' is its most popular product, and it also sells a limited edition version with a pear grown inside the bottle. It also makes other traditional varieties of fruit brandy such as an aged apple brandy made from Golden Delicious apples, grappa from Oregon wine grapes,

framboise Framboise () is a Belgian lambic beer fermented with raspberry (''framboise'' is the French word for raspberry). Beer In English, ''framboise'' is used primarily in reference to a Belgian lambic beer that is fermented using raspberries. It ...

Mirabelle plum Mirabelle plum (''Prunus domestica'' subsp. ''syriaca'') is a cultivar group of plum trees of the genus ''Prunus''. It is believed that the plum was cultivated from a wild fruit grown in Anatolia. Description The mirabelle is identified by it ...

''eau de vie'',

kirschwasser Kirschwasser (, ; , German for "cherry water") or kirsch is a clear, colorless brandy traditionally made from double distillation of morello cherries, a dark-colored cultivar of the sour cherry. It is now also made from other kinds of cherries ...

, and

slivovitz Slivovitz is a fruit spirit (or fruit brandy) made from damson plums, often referred to as plum spirit (or plum brandy). If anyone else has a dictionary of some Slavic language that translates your word for slivovitz as "plum brandy", please a ...

. More unusually, Clear Creek produces an ''eau de vie'' that includes some of the spring buds of the Douglas fir tree. Clear Creek also makes a variety of fruit-based liqueurs and McCarthy's Single Malt whiskey.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://clearcreekdistillery.com
Eau De Vie Pear Brandy: A Personal quest
video documentary on Clear Creek Distillery Distilleries in Oregon American companies established in 1986 1986 establishments in Oregon Food and drink companies established in 1986