NEW YORK — A new state law allowing the manufacturers of spirits, cider, and mead to start home shipments should prove to be a major lift for businesses here in Western New York and around the state.
Since 2012 staffers at Buffalo Distilling Company on Seneca Street have successfully produced and offered for local retail sales unique locally blended bourbons, whiskeys, vodkas, and other forms of spirits in regional liquor stores with local down-on-the-farm ingredients.
As General Manager and Distiller Joe Mattimore explains "We use all New York state grains in our products with New York state local honey, local maple syrup. So everything comes from farms around here."
They actually got a taste of wider marketing for their Polish favorite Krupnick and even a Bills Mafia-themed line of spirits during COVID as the state liquor authority allowed them to direct home-ship their product to make up for lost sales during restricted times.
Mattimore says "It was pretty successful you know...the shipping of spirits can be challenging with making sure that people are there to..proper people are there to sign for a shipment. But when you ship with all the top shipping companies - they have policies in place to cover that."
Mattimore said he helped with the lobbying effort in Albany to resume the shipment policy which had ended in 2021.
So Governor Hochul and state lawmakers agreed to once again allow direct shipment of spirits to customers' homes. Mattimore says "Right now we can only sell within New York state borders. So it allows us to get out directly to consumers around the country. So it will allow us to ship to any states that allow shipping - you know - from other states. So it puts us in about 39 states."
And as their distilled products age in a warehouse full of barrels, some are savoring the idea.. Mattimore explains "There's collectors of bourbon. They're looking for something unique and something that their friend doesn't have. And something that's in limited supply. So when they come here they can get the real thing. It's our bottled and bond means it's all made here. It's all our ingredients. It's all distilled here, aged, and bottled."
And there may be expansion as a result. "It may be more than one job depending on the response we get for orders."