A Distiller Among Us

It’s not often that you ask someone about when they became interested in distilled spirits and they begin their answer with, “Back when I was five…” But that’s exactly how Shoreline resident Eric “Skip” Tognetti, owner and distiller at Letterpress Distilling, begins his.

 “Back when I was five,” he says, “I used to get to sit in my grandfather’s liquor store in Rome. People would come in to fill their wine bottle for the afternoon meal or to pick up a little grappa or limoncello to take home and share with their family. And they’d always stop for a minute to chat with my grandfather, tell him about their day or their family. It was then that I learned about wine and spirits as a thing to be shared, a thing of family and community. That’s really where it all began for me.”

When the laws changed back in 2008 to allow for craft distilling in Washington, Tognetti immediately began putting together his plans. “Three years. Yeah, it’s a long time. It started with a very long process of research and writing and re-writing my business plan,” he explains. “And then there was fundraising, licensing, sourcing equipment and raw materials, finding a location…just a lot of details. Like any business, really, but with distilled spirits there’s another level, an extra challenge of dealing with very detailed state and federal regulations. I just wanted to be sure that I did all my homework along the way. But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel now and I’m hoping to have the first bottle to sell some time in late summer.”

So, what about the name? Why Letterpress? Tognetti, it turns out, studied art as one of his main disciplines in college and worked for a couple of years on a press. “When I was still in the early stages of planning, I was digging through an old box and I came across a piece I’d letterpressed back in college. I looked at that piece and immediately knew that it represented exactly what I want my distillery to be: a place where things are carefully crafted by hand in small batches. When you hold a letterpressed card in your hand, you immediately feel the difference in care and quality. That’s the feeling I want people to have when they have a sip of one of my spirits.”

Tognetti plans to start out making vodka and limoncello in his SoDo distillery, located just a hundred yards or so from the southwest entrance to Safeco Field.  Shortly after that, he’ll be producing gin. “And then I’m looking to start putting bourbon in barrels some time in mid-2012,” he says.

Letterpress Distilling will have a tasting room right in front of the distilling space. Once open, he’ll be allowed to pour small tastings for visitors. “That’s the best part!” he explains enthusiastically. “It goes back to that five-year-old sitting in his grandfather’s store. I don’t just want to make this stuff. It’s not just about making it; it’s really fundamentally, for me anyway, about sharing it.”