Distillery
our process
Seed-grown.
Ranch-harvested.
Desert-distilled.
growing
Everything begins in the field.
We're planting nearly 4,000 agaves—many grown from seeds we’ve collected ourselves. This is a slower, more deliberate path, allowing the plants to adapt to the land, and ensuring we have genetic diversity in our crop.
We leave a portion of our plants—more than 5%—to grow to full maturity and flower. These blooms support pollinators, including bats, and play a vital role in the broader desert ecosystem.
The high desert shapes everything: soil, climate, elevation, and time. What we grow in our field reflects those conditions, and the years it takes to mature.
harvesting
While our agave fields mature, we are working with local ranchers to harvest native plants from their land. Each agave harvest will be selective and intentional, guided by respect for the plant and the landscape it comes from. For every agave we harvest, we will plant five more—an approach meant to support long-term regeneration and ensure that what we take is balanced by what we give back.
While agave will be our most complex and long-term harvesting endeavor, it’s not our only focus. We are also planting a Citruse Garden and a Gin Garden, growing the herbs, flowers, and botanicals that define and infuse our herbal spirits.
distilling
We custom-designed a 200L, ultra-squat, pot-bellied, jacketed copper pot still. We’ll primarily run it as a simple pot still with a shotgun condenser, but it also has the flexibility to accommodate a reflux column and gin basket. It’s a true jack-of-all-trades—a kind of Swiss Army knife—that we’ll use to refine our technique and help define our next stills. We work in small batches to bring out the character of each ingredient.
century spirit
Palmeri's signature agave spirit, Century Spirit, is harvested, cooked, smashed, stirred, fermented, and distilled to preserve the uniqueness of Arizona agave.
sky islands rum
Our Sky Isands Rum is distilled using 100% organic molasses–grown and produced in the US. Sky Islands Rum is fermented and distilled to retain the depth and character of high-quality molasses as well compliment the delicious funk familiar to rum heads world wide.
sonora wheat spirit
Our Sonora Wheat Spirit follows a similar philosophy to all our spirits—distilled to preserve the grain’s natural expression, rather than pushed to a neutral vodka proof. Running the still “dirty” allows more of the grain’s oils and flavor to carry through, resulting in a spirit with structure and identity. A spirit truly unique to Arizona.
dry desert gin
Our Desert Dry Gin begins with our Sonora wheat spirit, and is distilled with botanicals that reflect the landscape. It is highly aromatic, while maintaining balance and clarity. We use local juniper, cucumber, corriander, peels of lemon, orange and grapefruit, and black pepper.
citruse
Our signature botanical spirit, Citruse, requires a different approach. Inspired by charteuse—a long time favorite drink of co-founder Jascha, and a world-renowned Alpine liquor—requires distilling, steeping and infusing 45 different flowers, herbs, roots, and plants. Citruse is then is blended to a final composition designed to unfold in layers. It's utterly delicious.
No additives, No syrups
We start with real ingredients—never bulk alcohol or agave syrup. Our spirits are distilled from what they are: whole plants, native grains, and organic molasses. We preserve the natural character, instead of stripping it away.
We do not add sugars, artificial flavors, or post-distillation adjustments. What you taste comes directly from the ingredient and the process behind it.
Nothing added, and nothing covered up.
