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Grain to Glass · Colorado Grain

Our Spirits

Hand-crafted, mashed, distilled and bottled in downtown Durango from Colorado grain — and every bottle shares a tale from Durango's past.

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Cut-crystal snifters of amber whiskey on a stone bar against a dark backdrop

The Core Three

Three Spirits, Three Durango Legends

Each of our bottles highlights those who were important in the founding of Durango in 1881.

Soiled Doves Vodka

Pays homage to Durango's Ladies of the Night. At the turn of the 20th century, brothels thrived between Main Avenue and the Animas River — and the fines they paid gave the budding city the income to build its first schools and police department.

  • 80 Proof · 40% Alc/Vol

  • Gold Medal · New York International

Soiled Doves Vodka bottle with its Victorian-era label

Cinder Dick Straight Bourbon

"Cinder Dick" is old railroad slang for a railroad detective. Our Colorado straight bourbon is aged two years in a single new charred American oak barrel — caramel-forward and slightly sweet. The first batch was released on December 1, 2017.

  • 94 Proof · 47% Alc/Vol

  • Gold Medal · 50 Best Bourbons

Cinder Dick Colorado Straight Bourbon Whiskey bottle with a steam locomotive label

Mayday Moonshine

Named after the Mayday Mine in the La Plata Mountains just west of Durango. Colorado passed Prohibition in 1916, four years before the rest of the country — and moonshiners often hid their stills in abandoned mines.

  • 90 Proof · 45% Alc/Vol

  • Gold, Best of Class & Best of Category · ADI

Mayday Moonshine bottle with a mining-cart label

Beyond the Core Three

Our second flagship bourbon, and our first limited release.

Tinhorn Blue Corn Bourbon

Our second flagship bourbon, made with blue corn from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe's Bow & Arrow farms.

  • Heavily wheated, with a little rye and two-row malt
  • Sweeter and nuttier than Cinder Dick
  • Aged, like all bourbon, in new charred oak

McCardell's Private Reserve

Our first American Single Malt Whiskey and our first limited release: 500 bottles in December 2023.

  • Lambic malt from Colorado Malting Company
  • Aged four years in used Cinder Dick barrels
  • Smooth and light, with hints of smoke and fruit

Every Grain Is Colorado Grain

Non-GMO white corn from the Ute Mountain Utes in Towaoc; every other grain from Colorado Malting Company in Alamosa.

1881

The year Durango was founded

Every bottle shares a tale from it

94

Proof

Cinder Dick Straight Bourbon

2

Years in new charred oak

Cinder Dick, aged in a single new barrel

65%

Corn in our bourbons

Colorado grain, mashed in Durango

500

Bottles in the first limited release

McCardell's Private Reserve, December 2023

I wanted to be like a distillery would have been 100 years ago. I wanted to use all regional grains. I wanted to go grain to glass.

— Michael McCardell, Distiller & Co-Owner

1120 Main Avenue · Downtown Durango

Taste Them Where They're Made

Every cocktail in our Tasting Room is built on these spirits.