Driving Our Economy Forward: Gate 11 Distillery
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — Gate 11 Distillery started five years ago. It’s located inside the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Let’s see how they are driving our economy forward.
Owner of Gate 11 Distillery, Billy says the craft distillery has a big cocktail bar, but they make their own spirits.
The company makes vodka, gin, rum and agave spirits.
“The Chattanooga Choo-Choo is the most iconic of Chattanooga venues and we’re here in the back of the dome lobby and we love it. It’s great. We’ve got a lot of activity starting to develop in the gardens,” said co-owner Bill Lee.
The company offers a tour of their hand-built distillery and cocktail tastings.
The co-owner says they have five stills. Four nights a week, the distillery offers live music.
“We’ve got a big support of local live music. Monday night blues jam, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We’ve got live entertainment here. We decided to build a distillery in Chattanooga. We looked at a number of the locations, but we were really drawn to the Choo Choo,” Bill Lee said.
“So, I distill the gin and the absinthe and build distills everything else. Our gin is very special. I worked on this for about three years. I’ve got nine different botanicals. I will tell you, one of them is juniper, because I have to have juniper in it to call it gin,” said co-owner Wanda Lee.
“I’ve won gold and two double golds at San Francisco. I’ve won some other awards recently. I got named the best gin in Tennessee. I got a gold medal across the south. And then my pride and joy also is, I got a gold medal at the Gin Masters in London. This is what our bottle has looked like for the past five years. We’re now kind of doing an upgrade because we feel like the gin needs a little bit of upgrade since it’s doing so well. This is what it’s going to look like in the future,” Wanda Lee continued.
“This year, Gate eleven is expanding its whiskey production. So, we have made bourbon, rye and single malt whiskey. We also have some Tennessee whiskey aging in our barrel house,” said Bill Lee. “Now, another thing that’s unusual, our barrel house is actually a box car. So, we’re here at the Chattanooga Choo Choo train station. We’re aging all our spirits in a box car right here at the train station.
“We’re very much a small business. We are distributed statewide though, now, and we’re starting to focus on growing our market in Nashville, Knoxville and Memphis. Beyond the Chattanooga area, I think the most important thing to know about gate eleven is that we are a hand-built craft of distillery that really embraces the notion of craft. And we intend to make all those spirits and make them very good. So, we encourage people to come out and taste for themselves,” Bill Lee added.
