Some people restlessly move from place to place, while others find themselves, fortunately, placed in an environment that offers work and entertainment to fill a lifetime. Ron Paprocki is an archetype of the second category. Born in Rochester, NY, he went to school there, and went to the University of Rochester as an undergraduate, receiving a degree with high distinction in French Literature. However, his degree was not a good indicator of where he was heading.

A foundation in higher education

Ron stayed put and began working for the University as an advisor, in academic support and counseling positions. Then he moved into administrative work, beginning with budgeting and planning. “It was one thing after another,” he says. “It just kind of evolved.”

And evolved and evolved. He moved through the University’s administration, acquiring an MBA at Rochester’s Simon School of Business along the way. He was vice president for budgets and financial planning, then senior vice president for financial affairs and planning, and finally, in 2000, he was named senior vice president for administration and finance, and treasurer and chief financial officer for the University. He retired two years ago, covered with praise and admiration from his colleagues as reported on the University of Rochester website. The chair of the trustees said, “With his quiet, unassuming manner, [Ron] is always willing to work as hard as necessary to get the job done, and has been outstanding at assembling groups to complete projects of great importance to the University – “ and he adds every project manager’s favorite words – “on time and budget.” University President Joel Seligman praised Ron’s strengths: “His wisdom, sensitivity to the broad scope of our University, and ability to both see the big picture and manage a broad portfolio of responsibility have made Ron my closest associate. The secret to running a successful University is to surround yourself with talented people… Ron long has been a stalwart of our University.”

It’s a big deal. The University of Rochester is a private AAU (Association of American Universities) member. Membership is by invitation, and means that its research and graduate programs are among the best in the country. The university includes the prestigious Eastman School of Music and a highly esteemed College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, but is also heavily medical in its programs and research. It is home to an 830-bed hospital. The University’s budget is about 3.5 billion, and is the sixth largest private employer in the state of New York.

Ron has lived through plenty of change in Rochester, much of it economic. When he was growing up, Kodak, along with Xerox and Bausch & Lomb, were the major engines of the economy in Rochester. In 1986, when Ron moved from Arts and Sciences to central administration at the University, Kodak had 62,000 employees. Two years ago, when he retired, there were 1700. “A lot of the brain trust of Kodak migrated to smaller tech companies” in the area,” says Ron. “It’s a smart city – sophisticated.”

In 2008, the recession forced many businesses to slash payrolls. Ron, as the chief financial officer, was able to steer the University through that time without too much disruption. In fact, it was in 2008 that he presented a master plan providing for the University’s growth over the next 20 years. His conception aimed to fill likely needs for all kinds of space: office, classroom, residential, research, clinical, along with the infrastructure to support even the specialized needs of scientific projects.

Heading into retirement, and a move to Quechee

In February, Ron and his wife, Cathy, will celebrate 49 years of marriage. They were introduced at a high school football game. On vacations traveling with their three children, they have always enjoyed visiting Vermont, and over the years have made many trips to inns. “Somehow we stumbled on Quechee,” says Ron, “and we liked it very much.” In 2002, the couple bought a condo, but a couple of years later they moved into a newly built house. “It’s such a good fit here,” Ron notes. “As a retirement destination, it’s excellent, with an academic health center close by, so there’s great health care.”

Their children enjoy the amenities when they visit, but Ron and Cathy are not golfers or skiers. “We’ve always hiked, and had an affinity for the natural environment. They like to get out on snowshoes, or go fly-fishing. “ Their springer spaniel, Henry – “energetic and loving,” – adds another pleasure to their lives. “I had no outdoor interests as a kid growing up,” he says.

Serving the community, he now calls home

Ron has combined his interest in nature with his desire to serve the community and getting to know people by serving on the board at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS). Mary Davidson Graham, assistant executive director at VINS, is profuse in praise of the energy, ideas, and follow-through he brings to the organization. “Ron is extremely active,” she says. “He’s been involved with VINS for 6 or 7 years, coming to events. He’s always here, and has helpful suggestions. He brings so much expertise to the table! And he’s good with marketing.” Ron, for his part, sees a lot of energy and good projects at VINS. “Environmental education is so important, especially now,” he says. “But I don’t want to talk politics….” He likes to get along with people.

“We’re not big joiners,” Ron maintains, but in addition to the VINS board, Ron serves on the Quechee Lakes Review Board. “It’s a way to meet people and get to know the community,” he says, and he has lots of experience, having served on a municipal planning board in New York state.

Ron also serves on the Upper Valley Haven board, where Executive Director Sara Kobylenski is delighted not just with his skills but with his sensitive teamwork. “He’s been a lovely addition to the board over the last year,” she says. “He’s an active member of the board, and he shows great wisdom and insight in building on the strengths of other board members. He’s been on the Finance committee, where he’s been wonderful, working to balance the Haven’s habitual and necessary frugality with spending when it’s really needed. Right from the beginning, he had a willingness to enter instantly into the values and mission of the Haven.”

For his part, Ron is happy to be part of the Haven’s volunteer apparatus. “There are so many dedicated people who are part of that organization which provides services to those in need,” he says, “and they do so much good.” Of course, Ron is one of the people doing good, and weaving himself into the community, as Sara notes, “They [Ron and Cathy] arrived looking for ways they could become community members by entering into important parts of community life. He’s a great example of how the community comes together to make good things happen.”

They say you can tell a lot about a person by watching the behavior of their pets. On that basis, you’d expect Deb and Randy Ries to be sociable and easy to connect with, an expectation that is borne out in conversation in their cozy living room, with cats and beagles begging for a belly rub. (The humans confined their sociability to telling stories.)

The humans are also way more hardworking than the pets. Deb and Randy run Upper Valley Critter Sitters, a business that goes 24/7, 365 days a year (plus one for leap year). The couple, with some assistance from two regular and several fill-in helpers, provide extensive pet care, as well as house sitting and checking, in Quechee and beyond. “I was born in Connecticut and moved up here when I was 12. I spent a lot of time in the foster care system,” says Deb. “Because of the way my parents treated me, I wanted to protect. When I was seven, I would dream of rescuing beagles from laboratories. I was always really drawn to animals – it’s just who I am.”

Deb got an associates degree in social services but decided that “earning $8 an hour for changing diapers” was not appealing. She worked in a feline hospital in northwest Vermont and then as a vet tech for a Norwich practice.

Supporting the rescue of feral dogs in Romania

Deb’s concern for animals has led her to international rescues of feral dogs in Romania. The problem dates back to the mid-1980s, when former president Nicolae Ceauescu had much of the center of the capital, Bucharest, bulldozed to construct grander buildings. Many displaced residents moved to apartments that didn’t permit dogs. Abandoned dogs reproduced, and their numbers grew as people starved in the wake of his leadership. Early this decade the situation made headlines as a four-year-old and several foreigners died of dog bites. Tightening an already tight belt, Critter Sitters donated substantial funds to build a shelter, and in May 2012, visited Romania, touring shelters. They found dedicated people working to save and sterilize dogs, but also cultural attitudes obstructing this effort. “You’d get looks of hatred for feeding strays,” Deb says, and she saw young children beating dogs. Even though the dogs are pests, there is little support for spay/neuter programs.

Of course, she came back with a dog, Ayla. “She was the one who looked like she was going to die,” Deb says. “She was emaciated, about half the size she should have been.” Deb already had two adopted beagles at home.

Adventures in dog sitting closer to home

Over the years there have been many adventures. Some follow classic outlines, like the time Deb arrived at a house in Norwich to take care of three large dogs. “I saw a naked porcupine – no quills – at the bottom of the road,” she recalls. And sure enough, the persistent (if not terribly intelligent) dogs had filled their mouths and faces with hundreds of quills.

Randy reminds Deb of an unusual incident: when she got locked in a chicken coop. The keys were in the door while she worked inside, and the wind slammed the door shut, locking it. Frustrated, she could hear her cell phone ringing repeatedly as Randy tried to check on her. Finally, he drove over. “It was 9:45 at night,” he remembers. “I started walking up to the house. It was wide open, and my mind started to race.” And then he heard a voice from the chicken coop.

Their schedule renders many impossible things that some people would find difficult to give up. When a relative or close friend has a milestone event like a wedding or a graduation, only one of them can attend. “One of us stays here,” says Deb. During vacations, their weekly client base of about 40 may swell to 150. They’d like to add a kennel to their operation, but the low margin in the business makes it hard to find an interested bank.

Randy joined Deb full time in 2009 during the recession. “I was already doing this nights and weekends, but then I heard Debra turning business away,” he recalls. He likes being self-employed, so he can improve systems and develop efficiencies without someone saying, “We always do it this way.” The pair has territories, so that they are not, as formerly they were, passing each other on the road. They each have eight to 14 stops a day, and their two employees do between five to eight stops as well.

“Each of our routes seems to attract different characters,” says Randy. An elderly woman whose dog he was walking asked, “Do you walk people too?” With a can-do spirit, he replied, “Heck, yes!” and before long his assistance was “less walking and more social.” Willingness and hard work are Deb and Randy’s trademarks. Stir in their love of animals, and it’s easy to see why they have built such a thriving business.

Years ago, Conrad Richter (probably now best known for his wrenching short novel A Light in the Forest) wrote a trilogy about European settlers in the Ohio valley. The titles reveal the basic story: The Trees; The Fields; The Town. One character, a young girl in the first book, feels the oppressiveness of the dark, too-large-to deal-with trees in whose place the early settlers try to establish fields to grow food. By the end of the third book (which won the Pulitzer in 1951), she begins to plant trees.

Larry Potwin has also lived through “cycles of connection” with the land both for farming and for recreation in the Ottauquechee Valley, though in his case the cycles may resemble braided strands or a double helix, mixing farming and the insurance business. This past summer he built and ran a farm stand on his property on Quechee-West Hartford Road, not far from the intersection with Quechee Main Street.

In addition to the produce that he grows and buys from local farms, Potwin has filled the farm stand with interest ing details, such as an old-fashioned wood cook stove—connecting to his history and Vermont’s. The wide planks that top the counters in the farm stand are from a 50-year-old tree that he cut with his father. He has a pony and some goats, and hopes to expand the animal collection, because, as he says, “I love to have kids come here to have a chance to be with animals, to be outside.” The day after Thanksgiving he’ll be selling Christmas trees and wreaths.

Potwin’s farming roots

Some of Potwin’s earliest memories revolve around his parents rising early to prepare the morning meal and do chores—milking a small herd “of Jerseys” he says with pride. “My dad and mom used to get up at 5 am every day and milk the cows, have breakfast, and then my dad would go logging all day and get home about 6 pm, eat supper and go milk again.” Even as busy as his father was, Potwin remembers the little black pony he had when he was five. His father found time to build a little red sleigh for the pony to pull around the yard.

Potwin soon accepted that his place in the family carried with it an obligation to pitch in. “Kids on a farm learn about life very fast and at a young age,” he says—he was driving a tractor at age eight. “There is never enough help. Farm kids learn a lot about animal care as preschoolers, and everything from mechanical work to growing food, sewing. And most of all, how to put in a good day’s work, which taught me that you can accomplish anything you want.” Farm families were often very large, to provide more hands for the work. Potwin was the only boy among four siblings, while his father, Roger, was one of fifteen children. His mother, Beverly Blood, was one of ten living on the Highland Homestead Farm on Hillside Road, which is still in the family.

When Potwin’s father gave up the strenuous life of a logger in Randolph, Vermont, Roger became a realtor, and so did Beverly. The family moved to Taftsville, while not a great distance, it was a big change for Potwin and his three sisters. “Today my father couldn’t be a realtor because he had no high school degree,” he says. Roger had also been a realtor, at Woodstock’s Strout Realty, driving prospects to farms in his Model T Ford pickup in the ’40s and ’50s.

Potwin learned about selling from his father. “I was always going with my dad, so I learned, as Vermonters say, ‘the gift of gab.’ I knew every property. One day my parents both had appointments to show property and a couple came in that wanted to see a piece of land. Dad said ‘Larry, go with them and show them the [property] lines.’ Sure enough, they bought it! I was so proud. I was about 10 years old.” Most of the farms, he says, ranged from 50 to 200 acres, and they sold for $10,000 to $20,000.

The Potwin family moves to Quechee

“In 1965,” he recalls, “my dad saw a piece of land in Quechee with big red barns and 80 acres for $10,000. He knew it had great potential so he offered to buy it from the owner, Merle Henderson, if Merle would finance it with $1,500 down. My mom said he was crazy, since they owned almost a thousand acres at the time. Little did they know that John Davidson was thinking about starting a huge development right next door at the Quechee Fells Farm. We fixed up the barns and cut all the lumber in the summer of 1969 to build a five-bedroom farmhouse. My dad always said, ‘Don’t buy lumber if you have the trees.’ I was able to run all the logging equipment, and learned a lot from my uncle Harold, my dad’s brother, who was a top-notch carpenter.”

Potwin was delighted to move back to Quechee. What kid wouldn’t want to live in Quechee, he laughs, when all the kids in town could ski for free? He put some of the earliest tracks on the hill, he claims, before the chairlift was running, when he got a ride up the hill in the snowcat. He went to high school in Hartford and took electrical and building courses.

In the mid-1970s Potwin received his real estate license, but the market was bad at the time and he turned to selling cars, and also worked as a financial advisor for MetLife and a district sales coordinator for Aflac. There he became one of the top annuity salesmen. At 19, he married Lynn, and a year later moved with her into a new house he was building himself. “We moved into it unfinished, but we loved it since we had no mortgage, and were both working other jobs.”

Back to his farming roots

Quechee is a microcosm of what some parts of Vermont have become, observes Potwin. He hopes his farming and farm stand venture will become self-sustaining, a model for the future, but he knows his success depends on the support of the community. He’s delighted to share the beauty and benefits of life in Vermont with those escaping overcrowded places, though he recognizes—especially since his family has been so intimately involved with the changes—the potential for the hills to sprout nothing but houses. “Will it prove to be as in past years that Vermont farm land is more profitable for growing houses than for growing vegetables?” says Potwin. “I do think Quechee Lakes was great for Quechee,” he adds. “It put a lot of people to work and resurrected an old mill town. My dad always said these hills and woods weren’t much good for anything else but home sites.”

What do you call an individual who is able to merge form and function in an artistic blend? Is he a craftsman, an artist or an engineer? Whatever your choice might be in North Pomfret they call him Captain Dan Embree, a retired Merchant Mariner who constructs his unique Adirondack guide boats in a small “shipyard” at the end of Bunker Hill Road.

Graduated in 1973 from the New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, Captain Embree spent 23 years in a seagoing career, which culminated in his command of the 55,000-ton vessel American Cormorant. This heavy-lift, semi-submersible, converted tanker was utilized to transport such unique cargo like oil derricks, which were floated onto its decks or barges chock-a-block full of military hardware and explosives. A ship much like this one transported the damaged U.S. Naval guided missile frigate USS Stark after a disastrous missile attack on May 17, 1987.

In 1990 Embree began experimenting with his first boats many of which never met his critical approval and were thus consigned into very expensive firewood. By 1995 he had perfected the boat building process and the first classic Adirondack guide boat rolled out of his barn. Dan had seen enough of the seagoing life by that time and retired to his home in Vermont.

Evolved from a hunting skiff, the Adirondack guide boat has remained virtually unchanged since the 19th century. The boat is known as being the fastest fixed seat rowing boat and was used by sporting guides for their clients who traveled to the Adirondack region from New York City. Seeing as the occupants of the craft are sitting almost on the bottom of the boat the vessel is more stable than a canoe and, unlike a canoe, it is rowed not paddled.

Your initial impression of this gleaming craft is to simply want to hang it from the rafters of a large, rustic house, perhaps set it in your living room as an exquisite coffee table, display it and show it to your friends. These are good ideas – all of which have been tried. However, every boat is a rugged and working machine designed to last a lifetime of rowing and fishing abuse. Each boat is completely unique in its size, shape and engineering, however typically one will be constructed with a stunning blend of spruce, fir and rich cherry wood. Solid cherry oars set into antique brass oarlocks set off the look of the hull while wicker seats where the rower and the passenger face each other for intimate conversation give the interior an old-fashioned and Victorian feel. The whole package just makes you want to grab a fly rod, a picnic basket, or your best girl and set out on the lake for a Norman Rockwell Sunday excursion. Oh yes, and don’t forget your parasol and straw boater in order to be the very height of fashion.

Now don’t get me wrong on this, these are not sissified craft. Au contraire mon ami! Dan’s personal boat has been rowed for an estimated 3,000 miles over the last 20 years. It is still as reliable and solid as the day it rolled out of the shipyard and every single craft meets the same exacting standards.

The handcrafted guide boats do not come cheaply as one might suspect given the solid materials and upwards of 300 man hours to construct. Seven thousand and five hundred dollars for a 12-foot boat is a reasonable estimate. Allow a little extra time for launching the eye-catching dark blue hull from your favorite site since you will quickly discover that you are the envy of every individual on the lake as you answer myriad questions and receive dozens of compliments.

To contact Dan Embree and see his boats being built call 802-295-5959 or email at embreed@sover.net or write to P,O. Box 331 N. Pomfret, VT 05053. I am sure you will be impressed.

See you on the lakes!

Cap’n Ron

It’s a program you probably don’t know about if you or your family and friends have avoided legal trouble, but for certain troubled youth, others who have committed a crime and their victims, Valley Court Diversion Program (VCDP) locally headquartered in White River Junction, Vermont, can change lives.

“Restorative justice” highlights the aim of healing that is a core mission of these programs. Even minor crime harms victims, the community, the participant’s family as well as the participant.

Windsor County is one of the largest geographical counties in Vermont. VCDP’s commitment to being community based is demonstrated by the staffs’ willingness to travel and facilitate restorative panels in several locations including Ludlow, Springfield and White River Junction. In addition, Windsor County coordinators Maureen Bogosian and Alicia Johnson are apprentice addiction professionals supervised by VCDP’s clinical director, Sara DeGennaro. This enhances VCDP’s ability to work closely with participants struggling with issues of substance misuse.

Also, over the last six years, VCDP has expanded to the New Hampshire side of the Upper Valley. Lyndsay Porreca is the NH coordinator and facilitates court diversion in six lower Grafton County communities.

Regina Rice Barker, executive director, and Meagan Swahn, program coordinator for the Hartford- and Springfield-area Balanced and Restorative Justice (BARJ) program, explain the program.

Court Diversion Instead of Court

In Vermont, a person’s option to participate in court diversion program is initiated by the state’s attorney, who may recommend that a person accused of a crime go through the program instead of the traditional court process. The participant must then commit to certain requirements, including admitting the crime, apologizing to the victim (in person or in writing, which the victim chooses), and providing restitution or otherwise repairing the damage. If the participant does not complete their contract, they are returned to the court system.

Rice Barker explains, “The whole goal is to repair harm.” The victim-centered program requires the case manager to listen to the victim’s story, and to discover what would make them feel whole again. If the victim does not want to meet with the participant, the participant communicates (an apology, for example) in writing. “We have guidelines for how apologies should be made,” says Rice Barker, “and we read them to be sure they are appropriate before they’re given to the victim.”

An incentive for VCDP participants to complete diversion is avoiding a criminal record if they complete their contract and stay out of trouble for two years. Keeping a clean record is certainly a worthwhile goal; a criminal conviction can lead (among other things) to loss of professional licenses, and can close access to housing, student loans, military service and many jobs.

VCDP saves the community money up front; participants pay some of the costs, which are in any case less than a court proceeding. Since over 80 percent of participants do not commit further crimes, money and stress are saved in the long run many times over.

“Sometimes the incident is the least of a participant’s problems. They might suffer from depression, or maybe their parent is ill,” says Rice Barker “We screen everyone who comes in the door for addiction, health, mental health and family issues.” If a participant is under 18, parent(s) must be involved, but often, family behavior contributes to the problem. Case managers learn to thread their way carefully through a participant’s situation and they may recommend counseling.

Volunteers trained by the program are key to VCDP’s success. They serve on panels to hear cases and work with all parties to design a contract for the offender, who participates also, says Rice Barker, “volunteers often offer thoughtful and creative ways to make things right. We want participants’ contracts to be relevant to the charge, time-bound and achievable.” Volunteers find the work fascinating and rewarding, she adds, “and once they do it, they want to do it for life.”

The White River program works with about 500 participants each year. Ages range from 10 to 85, says Rice Barker, adding “There’s never a dull moment in this building. As soon as you think you’ve seen it all, something else happens.”

Getting “Kiddos” Back on Track

“I love the youth I work with,” says Meagan Swahn. She works with children up to age 18 who are truants or on probation. Sometimes the Department for Children and Families (DCF) refers a child to her in an effort to prevent growing trouble by helping the child develop certain socially necessary skills.

Swahn has worked with VCDP for just over a year. “I had a degree in Criminal Justice, and I needed an internship. I literally walked in the door here and worked as an intern for about two and a half months. Then they hired me,” she says.

She affectionately refers to her clients as “kiddos.” Helping is often a matter of paying close attention and being a sounding board to help them develop their own plans. She screens all youth charged with a delinquency with the Youth Assessment Screening Instrument (YASI), an instrument that helps to determine whether the youth is at low, moderate or high risk to reoffend. This method let’s her see exactly where the most support is needed. In her one-on-one mentoring, she encourages youth to set three goals, and helps them think of steps and systems for accomplishing them. “I say to them, ‘It’s all about you.’”

Focused attention and respect are often rare commodities in these children’s lives, and her efforts meet with great success. Her work with truants might involve calling every morning and arranging rides to school if necessary. Swahn works with the schools, of course, but she’s outside the school system, a selling point with these youth who resist school. Her persistence models behavior as she encourages “kiddos” to work with her. “I make it clear, I’m not going anywhere,” she says. “I’m pretty enthusiastic and positive.”

A Success Story

Recently Swahn worked with a young person with addiction issues, a small-scale drug dealer, who sought help after being scared by a friend’s overdose. The child completed a rehabilitation program, and began work with Swahn. Over the course of weekly visits, the young person accomplished a turnaround—180 degrees—working a job for 25 hours a week and getting on the school honor roll. At one point Swahan confessed, “You know, when we first met you kind of scared me.” The young person laughed with her and said, “I guess I’m one of your success stories!”

“I’m a firm believer in second chances,” says Swahn. “A bad choice is not what defines them.”
If you’re interested in learning more about the Valley Court Diversion Program or to volunteer please visit: www.vcdp.org.

When I first walked into the Vermont Spirits Distilling Co. production and retail shop in Quechee Gorge Village, Quechee Spirits’ employees Jeremy Herrell and Mimi Buttenheim greeted me with smiles and asked if I wanted to do a spirit tasting.

I paused for a moment and realized, while I had done plenty of beer and wine tastings in my life, I had never done a spirit tasting before. Apparently I’m not the only one.

“I think spirit tasting is new for a lot of people,” Buttenheim told me as I sampled a few of the distillery’s products, including the No. 14 Bourbon: a whiskey bourbon distilled with maple syrup that I was quite fond of. The distillery is part of a new wave of craft spirit companies in the state with many of them—including Vermont Spirits—now offering tastings so visitors can sample the products they make.

Vermont Spirits recently moved from its original location in Barnet, Vermont to Quechee in March 2011 and is now doing all production, bottling and packaging at the new facility. The distillery is known for creating high quality spirits made primarily with local Vermont ingredients. The distillery currently offers eight products including its popular Vermont Gold Vodka distilled with maple sap, and Coppers Gin which is distilled with hand-picked wild Vermont juniper berries. Now, with its new location in Quechee, including a wide-open view of the distillery, the company is able to educate the public about the distilling process, and offer tastings to further promote its brand. It is one of 18 distilleries in the state that is licensed by the Vermont Department of Liquor Control to have a tasting room.

The craft spirit movement

“The craft spirit movement is pretty new,” said Buttenheim, who, as general manager, oversees much of the marketing and daily business operations at Vermont Spirits and has been with the company for three years. “So the idea that you can make vodka from apples, or from whey, or from maple…it’s pretty foreign to a lot of people. But, I think people are very receptive to it. And they’re excited that we’re using Vermont products to make our spirits.”

Vermont Spirits was originally established in early 1999, but didn’t release a real product until 2004. Between 2005 and 2008, the company saw some ups and downs but was completely revitalized when current president and CEO Steve Johnson, a former investor in the company, stepped in in late 2008. Johnson, a Columbia University graduate who has lived in Connecticut since 1992, says the company is doing better than ever at its new location.

“Moving to Quechee Gorge Village was the smartest move we have made,” said Johnson. “The location could not be better for tourists to visit our distillery, and for our shipping and supply needs. I did not expect the business to grow as rapidly as it has since we moved here.”

Herrell, Vermont Spirits sales manager who has been with the company since its move from Barnet, also views the move to Quechee as a positive one.

“Before, there was no retail aspect; no visitors coming in. Being here has given us the opportunity to have people try something before they buy it and get them to understand what they’re buying,” he says.
Using local Vermont ingredients

Vermont Spirits’ key selling point is its use of local, Vermont agricultural products as well as its careful distilling process using custom-made equipment, which is spearheaded by two distillers, Joe Buswell and Harry Gorman. With a small operation, the distillers are able to give the products the attention and care they need.

“Everything we make comes from something grown in Vermont: maple for Vermont Gold Vodka, corn for our bourbon, apples for our brandy and Crimson Vodka, and fruit for our line of liqueurs,” said Johnson. “We start from scratch whenever possible, to create the base alcohol and then work from there. Vermont agriculture is excellent and we use it to distill what we hope our consumers think are excellent distilled spirits.”

With use of Vermont products, support of local businesses and having “Vermont” in its name, Vermont Spirits is fully representing its home state. Its smart utilization of the Vermont brand has been very beneficial for the company.

“I do a lot of traveling to other states and Vermont has a great brand and great brand recognition,” said Buttenheim. “People have really fond memories of traveling to Vermont. So when they can associate a spirit with a place and the fact that we’re using Vermont sugars essentially to influence our spirits, that really resonates with people.”

Buttenheim came to the company from the vineyard wine industry in Napa, California. While the process to make wine and spirits is similar, said Buttenheim, spirits are more marketing-driven and brand recognition is key.

“To get people to hang onto something there’s a lot more that goes into it in terms of marketing,” she said. “When you see the brand, you’re more likely to order it at a restaurant. If you’re sitting at a bar and you don’t know a spirit, unless it’s in a cocktail, very few people are just going to take a chance on it.”

In addition to the brand recognition from the Quechee store, Vermont Spirits promotes its brand in other ways, including offering tastings at festivals and Vermont liquor agency stores, and also frequently sponsoring events. This year, it sponsored events with the Vermont Ski Association and also plans to sponsor Vermont Restaurant Week. Vermont Spirits is also a member of the Distilled Spirits Council of Vermont which now offers a stampable “passport;” similar to the Vermont Brewers Association passport. The company does business with wholesalers in Maryland, Washington DC, New York City, Boston and more.

As the company continues to succeed at the new location and increase its brand recognition nationally, Johnson is already thinking about expanding the company. Johnson says he’s looking to open a second Vermont Spirits facility by early 2015 to accommodate new stills and product inventory. He’s also planning to hire three to four new employees. Currently, the company has six full-time employees and a few part-time bottlers.

“We are growing and will add new production capacity, storage and employees all very soon…not soon enough,” said Johnson.

Both Buttenheim and Herell said they were excited to see returning visitors this year and they hope the trend continues.

“We’ve seen people who came last year and then returned this year and this is now a regular stop for them. It’s great,” said Herell.

Locally, people can find Vermont Spirits’ products at nearby liquor stores including the Vermont Liquor Outlet, Woodstock Beverage, and Jake’s Market & Deli in White River Junction, or at local restaurants including Simon Pearce, The Parker House, Carpenter & Main in Norwich, and Canoe Club and Salt Hill Pub in Hanover.