Top Sonoma distiller shares favorite ‘quarantini’ recipes

As we approach the one-year anniversary of the stay-home order on March 19, many of us are starting to stir out of our winter hibernation and are ready to celebrate the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.

It’s a watershed moment that calls for a special “quarantini,” made from spirits produced by one of Sonoma County’s top distillers. If the idea of concocting a craft cocktail gives you conniptions, however, there are plenty of mixed drinks that don’t require a trip to the store to search for obscure bitters and expensive liqueurs.

Hanson of Sonoma — which distills vodka from organically grown grapes, then adds farm-to-table flavors from hand-cut cucumbers, peppers and citrus fruits — has perfected the art of the cocktail for those who like their alcoholic elixirs simple and stress-free.

“We try to use grocery store ingredients that anyone has access to and really make them simple and easy,” said Alanna Hanson, a Hanson of Sonoma co-owner in charge of marketing and tasting room strategy. “When you need all the bitters and modifiers, you think ‘Well, I don’t have that so I’m not going to make it.’ ”

Hanson of Sonoma was launched in 2014 by the Hansons, a longtime North Bay family of four siblings and their parents, who have created a line of clean, flavored vodkas that can be turned into tasty cocktails in mere minutes.

You can sample those mixed drinks at their Sonoma tasting room, which opened in 2019 in the old Carneros Brewing Co. taproom on Highway 121 next to their distillery, just five minutes from downtown Sonoma.

“There’s a lot of great distillers doing different things, but we distinguish ourselves because we are in the wine world and the distillery world,” Alanna said. “So we try to create a tasting experience that is different. It’s an educational experience.”

Pandemic requires a few pivots

During the early days of the pandemic, the distillery decided to pivot to produce much-needed hand sanitizer for first responders and health care workers.

“We donated a lot of it to nursing homes and hospitals,” Alanna said. That pivot, in turn, increased consumer demand for their premixed, or pre-batched, cocktails.

“We decided to bottle our cocktails so people could pick up the sanitizer and the cocktails at the same time,” she said. “People were really supporting community, and they came out in force.”

However, the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) initially told the family that the pre-batched cocktails in the bottle were not allowed, so they pivoted yet again to create do-it-yourself cocktail kits. Later, the family found out they were able to sell the pre-batched cocktails after all. So they relaunched that program in mid-April alongside their new cocktail kits.

“We created a lot of new products and worked really, really hard to transition and keep evolving and keep changing,” Alanna said. “That’s what everyone has had to do.”

Food always has been an essential part of their tasting experiences — they do a traditional vodka and caviar tasting as well as a vodka and chocolate truffle tasting — but the pandemic pushed them to deepen their culinary program, both in Sonoma and at their second tasting room in Sausalito.

“With COVID-19, a lot of the requirements changed, and we decided we needed to invest in a pizza oven (in Sonoma),” Alanna said. “Now we have a much more culinary-driven experience, both here and in Sausalito.”

For the caviar tastings, the Hansons work with Regiis Ova, a company cofounded by French Laundry Chef Thomas Keller, which sources fine caviars from all over the world.

“We like to showcase caviars from Southeast Asia, South America and from the Sacramento River Delta,” Alanna said. “That shows people the different kinds of eggs and salinity.”

The family also distills a few seasonally released vodkas that are only available in the tasting rooms, including an Espresso Vodka, Ginger Vodka and Boysenberry Vodka.

Meanwhile, the Hansons added a 4-year-old American single malt whiskey in 2019, brewing the whiskey mash, then distilling it and aging it for four years in bourbon barrels and sherry wine casks.

The Hanson Single Malt Double Barrel Whiskey offers flavor notes of caramel and chocolate. The bourbon barrels impart a blend of soft vanilla and sweet barley, while the sherry wine casks create a sweet, subtle flavor. You can enjoy the whiskey neat, over ice or in a classic Manhattan cocktail.

Brothers led family into distilling

The Hanson siblings grew up in Ross in Marin County, a town located at the base of Mount Tamalpais. Brothers Chris and Brandon Hanson were the ones who first came up with the idea of opening a distillery, where Chris now serves as the master distiller.

“My brothers have always had a passion for distillation and spirits,” Alanna said. “One was a mixologist in Los Angeles and the other studied distillation.”

The two brothers approached their parents, Scott and Judy Hanson, about helping them launch the business of making craft vodka from grapes.

“My family dove in, and my other brother, Darren, got into the business as well,” Alanna said. “My parents were in the art industry and had galleries all over the world. We turned the gallery in Sausalito into a tasting room and art gallery.”

For their distillery in Sonoma, the family imported a custom-made pot and 50-plate column still from Germany, specifically designed to distill grape-based vodka. They harvest their grapes, ferment them into wine and then distill the wine. It’s a long and complicated process.

"We first run the wine through our traditional pot still, to remove the alcohol from the wine and to retain a bit of the sweetness from the grapes,“ Chris said. “We then distill it through our second pot still, with a Cognac-style head that promotes a reflux or recycling of the distillate that helps us retain the viscous mouthfeel.”

The alcohol is then run through a 50-plate column still, where it must pass through a separate chamber in each plate to make it to the next window.

“We run it through these columns for hours until we get to 96% alcohol,” Chris explained. “We then only take the cleanest part, or the “hearts “ of this distillate. This long, tedious process allows us to distill very high and to get an exceptionally clean vodka.”

Although organic grapes are much more expensive than the typical ingredients of vodka, such as grains and potatoes, the family feels the end product is worth the extra cost.

“The flavors are really subtle, but they really shine through,” Alanna said. “Then we use local fruits and vegetables and infuse them in the vodkas. ... That real fruit infusion is not seen in our industry. ”

The distillery, which began as a wholesale business, sits adjacent to the Ceja Vineyards wine tasting room. Armando Ceja and his winemaker daughters, Belen and Ellie, help the Hanson family make their wine at their Heirs of My Dream Winery and Custom Crush facility, also adjacent to the distillery.

“We bring in our grapes and we use it to process our grapes,” Alanna said. “We start in early August, using all white grapes, and then we get out of there. It really works for both parties.”

Because their vodka is so unique, the family wanted to open tasting rooms to offer one-on-one experiences and share their passion.

“Every part of our product we try to do in a unique and different way,” Alanna said. “Our goal is to make a real craft vodka with unique infusions that are authentic.”

Chef Martin Riviera, who heads up the distillery’s culinary program, plans to roll out a tapas menu in April for a new pairing with the vodkas.

“He’s worked in all these incredible Michelin-starred restaurants and looks at food in a unique and different way,” Alanna said. “For us, being a spirit in Wine Country, it gives us unique opportunities to offer experiences with food and tastings, vodka and whiskey.”

“The Mandarin Greyhound is an absolutely delicious cocktail,” Alanna said. “We put it on the rocks, and it’s got three types of citrus — the Mandarin Vodka, grapefruit juice and Meyer lemon juice — and agave. It’s super-simple.”

Mandarin Greyhound

Makes 1 cocktail

1½ ounces Hanson Organic Mandarin Vodka

2 ounces fresh-squeezed organic grapefruit juice

½ ounce fresh-squeezed organic lemon juice

½ ounce organic agave nectar

Fresh organic grapefruit twist, for garnish

Build cocktail in the shaker filled with ice and shake.

Serve over ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with a twist of organic grapefruit.

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“The Save the Bees Knees ... is like a traditional lemon drop, but it has a little more flavor,” Alanna said. “We use our Meyer Lemon Vodka, fresh-squeezed Meyer lemon juice and then chamomile-infused honey.”

Save the Bees Knees

Makes 1 cocktail

2 ounces Hanson Organic Meyer Lemon Vodka

¾ ounce fresh-squeezed organic Meyer lemon juice

½ ounce camomile-infused honey (see note below)

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a coupe or martini glass. Garnish with camomile.

Note: To make the camomile-infused honey, combine 2 ounces of dried camomile blossoms into one part hot water and one part local honey. Let cool.

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“This one has habañero vodka, lime, agave and pink hibiscus salt on the rim,” Alanna said. “That’s a play on a margarita.”

Vodka-Rita

Makes 1 cocktail

1½ ounces Hanson Organic Habañero Vodka

1 ounce fresh lime juice

½ ounce agave nectar

Hibiscus salt, for rim

Rim a margarita glass with hibiscus salt.

Add Habañero Vodka, lime juice and agave to a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain over fresh ice in the glass.

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This cocktail is inspired by the classic vodka gimlet, a perfect combination of sour and sweet.

Cucumber Gimlet

Makes 1 cocktail

1½ ounces Hanson Organic Cucumber Vodka

1 ounce fresh-squeezed organic lime juice

½ ounce organic agave nectar

Fresh organic cucumber wheel, as garnish

Build cocktail in a shaker filled with ice and shake.

Strain into a Nick and Nora martini glass (served up) or a rocks glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with a cucumber wheel.

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“We do the Original Vodka, which has a little bit of smoothness, and we add olive juice to heighten the smoothness and two olives,” Alanna said of the Hanson Martini. “Some people like to add white vermouth. ... That’s the way I like it.”

Trincheri Vermouth is made in St. Helena. You can find it at Bottle Barn in Santa Rosa.

Hanson Dirty Martini

Makes 1 cocktail

2½ ounces Hanson Organic Original Vodka

½ ounce Trincheri Dry Vermouth

½ ounce organic olive juice

Two organic castelvetrano olives, for garnish

Chill martini glass.

Add ingredients in a mixing glass over ice. Stir and strain. Garnish with two organic castelvetrano olives.

Staff Writer Diane Peterson can be reached at 707-521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @dianepete56