>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

The distillery’s 6,000-square-foot building is taking shape. The Observer/GARY FLETCHER

Stein Distillery at the north end of Joseph, adjacent to Aspen Grove Gallery, hopes to market beverages such as vodka, gin and fruit cordials by August, first to Wallowa County residents and tourists, then across the state.

The OLCC controls production, sales and distribution of alcoholic beverages, said Austin Stein of Portland. He and his wife, Heather, are the business owners.

The major products, including rye whiskey, of the micro-distiller across the Main Street from Community Bank will take two years to age, said general manager Dan Stein, Austin’s father, who is also the general contractor constructing the building.

Austin and Heather’s goal is move from the Portland area within 10 years to operate the business, and Dan can retire, he said.

Currently Austin installs and maintains Intel computer chips, and Heather is a human relations person for Intel in Beaverton.

Dan’s younger of his two children, Adam, is a general contractor in Joseph and will carry on that family tradition.

“Things are going generally well,” Dan said.

First a 140-foot well was dug and a concrete perimeter was laid outlining the 6,000-square-foot building.

Then the first week in March, three weeks after the foundation cured, 50 loads of back fill were brought in to level up the lot for the concrete slab floor with drains.

The building is now weather tight and they hope to have the underfloor plumbing finished in the next week or two, Dan said.

It will be about three months before the arrival of big equipment like the still made by Bavarian partners, the fermenter and the boiler, he said.

Dan said that he had been thinking of this for several years.

One recent Christmas when leaving town Austin and Heather noticed the two lots for sale.

After they arrived home they called Dan and said that they bought the lots and that he no longer had any excuse — that he needed to get to work on his idea of a distillery about which he’d been thinking for several years, Dan said.

At a February 2006 city council meeting, Dan announced the plans for the distillery.

Austin and Heather did much of the planning and research to get up and running.

This included working with Myron Kirkpatrick of Wallowa County Business Facilitation to develop a business plan.

The plan includes producing about 100 barrels, or 5,000 gallons, of various types of alcohol beverages per year, Dan said.

Customers will be able to view the distilling process behind a glass wall, Dan said.

To be available at the site will be an advertising rack card promoting the business with a logo that includes Wallowa Lake and the wording “Locally Grown Rye + High Mountain Glacier Water = Handcrafted Fine Whiskey and Spirits.’’

Dan started growing his own rye for the distillery last year on his farm on the east side of the east moraine of Wallowa Lake.

This will be the first business in Wallowa County’s enterprise zone.

Established in 1999 to encourage development, the zone exempts for three years from property taxes, businesses built within the incorporated cities.

The distillery website is steindistillery.com.