NEWS
Cape May is known for its flourishing craft beverage scene thanks to the many wonderful breweries & wineries scattered across our corner of Southern NJ. And, in the year that’s passed since we opened the doors here at Nauti Spirits Distillery, we’ve done our best to make Cape May a premier craft spirit & cocktail destination too. In fact, we’re New Jersey’s largest farm-to-bottle distillery, with the most uniquely flavorful and freshest cocktails anywhere! So, here’s an idea . . . why not make your next visit to Cape May a ‘Spirited Stay’ at the Montreal Beach Resort? We’ve teamed up with the Montreal team to offer an awesome package that will make you fall in love with Cape May all over again! ‘Spirited Stay’ Package includes:
- A Nauti Spirits bottle of your choosing (750ml bottle of vodka, gin, or rum) and recipe cards to guide you through the creation of your own spirited cocktail.
- Self-guided tour of Nauti’s onsite distillation facility
- A $20 gift card to Nauti Spirits, good toward enjoying their handmade craft cocktails at their tasting bar or toward a purchase in their retail store.
- A voucher for 2 for Nauti’s “Behind the Stills” VIP tour*.
- $20 voucher for Harry’s Ocean Bar & Grille (tell your bartender to “make mine NAUTI!” while you’re there) for your stay or Deluxe Continental Breakfast each morning (off-season)
It’s been almost a year since we opened the doors of our Cape May farm distillery, and we’ve learned so much about our neighbors and community during that time. One of the very many things that makes Cape May so special to us is the dedication of its community to preserving the rich history and traditions that have molded our little corner of the Garden State into the fabulous oasis that it is today. We have deep roots in seafaring, agriculture & farming, notorious (but fascinating) bootlegging and liquor running during Prohibition, and in being America’s very first–and in our hearts, the best–Seaside Resort. We’re the home (due in part to our liquor-running prowess…) of the USCG Training Center, which is such an honor and a privilege, among many other blessings our remarkable peninsula holds. That’s why we’re thrilled to be a proud supporter of the Historic Cold Spring Village‘s Feasting on History. We hope to see you there, to celebrate our wonderful Cape May region together!
You may have noticed that our eye-catching vodka bottles have undergone some minor changes recently. Rather than “Sweet Potato Vodka,” the label now reads “Spirit of the Harvest.” Why is this, you ask? We checked in with Veronica from our Production Crew to understand this change, and here’s what she told us…
There are 6 general steps we follow in the production of our vodka at Nauti Spirits.
- The first step consists of sorting, washing, and milling the raw ingredients; in this case, sweet potatoes and corn.
- Second, we transport the milled mixture from our processing building into our “mash” tank where we mix it with water, cook it, cool it down, and then add a few enzymes that help break down the starches into simple sugars. This is where producing vodka using solely sweet potatoes was a challenge, as sweet potatoes are difficult to fully break down (but that’s also why they’re good for you), and adding Jersey corn (with starches that more easily break down to simple sugars) greatly helped in that process.
- The addition of corn to the mash also makes our yeast “happier” throughout the third step of the process, fermentation, where the yeast gobbles up the sugars and then produce alcohol.
- After the yeast does their magic, we distill the fermented mash well over 20 times through different levels of micro-distillation (compare that to some who tout their “6 times distilled” vodka…).
- Then we “proof down” that highly refined spirit with purified water to a consumption-level 80 proof vodka.
- Finally, we filter the vodka through high-tech carbon filters, to make it even smoother, while being sure to leave a hint of those all-important farm origins! When it comes to taste, the change in the flavor profile is interesting and subtle.
You likely won’t notice a difference when our vodka is mixed in a delicious craft cocktail in the Tasting Room or at home, but if you give it a try neat or on the rocks, you’ll appreciate the slightly enhanced character and mouthfeel, that still retains that essential whisper of its Garden State heritage – something you can only get from the crew here at Nauti Spirits! Good vodka, no…really good farm fresh vodka, takes a lot of hard work and time, but that’s what sets us apart from the masses. We hope you appreciate and enjoy what we lovingly craft for you right here on our farm!
Want to learn more about our farm, distillation process, and Distillery? Check out one of our Behind-the-Stills Tours!
OUR APRIL TASTING ROOM LINEUP
Our Tasting Room menu is constantly changing and evolving, and this spring you can look forward to more of that!
Recent specials have included the “Cast Your Caraway” featuring carrots and (you guessed it!) caraway, and the “Bloody Rosemary” with tomato, rosemary, lime and chili. Stop in weekly to see what’s new, or if an old favorite has made its way back on the menu!
OUR MARCH TASTING ROOM LINEUP
Photo via PineyBuck Farms
You might wonder, with the thousands of pounds of raw material (whether sweet potatoes, corn, wheat, barley, rye or other grains) that are used in each production run at Nauti Spirits, what happens to the stillage (the spent mash from an alcoholic fermentation after removal of the alcohol in a still through distillation) that remains when the transformation is complete? While most of us prefer to enjoy the finished spirits in the Tasting Room, there is a certain population that turns their noses up to the farm-to-bottle spirits, opting instead for the spent mash: sheep & pigs! We’ve partnered with Pineybuck Farm in Buena, New Jersey to provide our high protein stillage to help keep their animals happy & full, and we’re looking forward to continuing this partnership for many years to come! As our friends at Pineybuck say, if you are a farm to table fan, it doesn’t stop at meat and veggies. Stop by Nauti Spirits to taste our farm-to-bottle spirits weekly Thursday & Friday 3:30-9pm, Saturday noon-9pm, and Sunday noon-7pm.
OUR FEBRUARY TASTING ROOM LINEUP
OUR JANUARY TASTING ROOM LINEUP
NEW WINTER HOURS
Our Master Distiller, Brendan Wheatley has been nominated for an edibleJersey Local Heroes Award! If you believe in us and the work we’re doing to revitalize our preserved farm, please take a moment to show your support for Nauti Spirits.
He has worked and consulted for distilleries spanning both coasts and Hawaii. “My focus is ecologically sustainable farm to glass production with an emphasis in stacked agriculture, tempered by quality first.”
