Connie Baker | Marble Distilling Co.
“Keeping operations close to home and personal is the ethos that guides Connie Baker, co-founder and head distiller of Carbondale’s 3-year-old Marble Distilling Co. The grain for her spirits is grown by Colorado farms, the beans for her Moonlight EXpresso come from Bonfire Coffee, the water for the award-winning Vodka 80 is snowmelt courtesy of the Crystal River; everything is filtered through local Yule marble.
“As small craft distillers, we can switch it up quickly and try new things and new recipes. The big guys can’t do that,” says Baker. “With our whiskey, we’re shooting for different batches to see how the spirit has changed with different casks. It’s the small producers that are coming up with new and innovative ideas to create spirits that have never been on the market before or are reinventing lost spirits.”
The distillery is zero-waste. Says Baker, “Nothing goes down the drain, from the process water being 100-percent recycled, to all of the energy coming off the stills being captured to heat our building. All silage is recycled to the farms from which it came, and is used as supplementary animal feed. We call what we do ‘grain to glass to ground.’ It’s a beautiful, sustainable cycle all happening within our community.”
The distillery’s newest venture, Aspen’s first spirits tasting room open to the public, is located in the Hyatt Residence Club, Grand Aspen. Baker hopes that, like the flagship, it will become a gathering place that honors community and local flavors.”
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