Sabbatical Distillery and Tasting Room — Local services in Discovery Bay

While only 10 minutes from our Discovery Bay home, the distillery is pretty remote from major population centers. Having said that, some 50 plus cars were in the parking lot, almost all of them doing the UPick blueberry option in the huge field behind the distillery. There was a group tour in progress with what looked like 20 people and these are by appointment on weekends. We asked for the whiskey tasting and were directed to a counter with all whiskeys, gin and flavored vodka on display. The building was crowded but we were the only people tasting the alcohol product. A very pleasant and knowledgeable young lady poured our tastings. These were small but most products are 100% proof and they were adequate to get a good sense of taste and quality. Tastings are free but the bottle prices are $30 to $75. We purchased the 100% proof Bourbon and the Single Malt would be my...

While having lived in wine dominant regions (Livermore, Napa, and now the Lodi region), the process of being a distillery and the amount of work and chemistry (blending of ingredients) in distilling was so interesting in comparison. The distillation process needs such higher shrinkage of produce (liquids and grain additions) to yield high quality product is so much greater than the crush/blending/aging that wines yield - so you may start with 500 gal of mash but only yield a 50 gal (barrel) of quality spirits. Where wine depends on the environment/region and quality of fruit and after-harvest processing/blending is SO different than the chemistry involved to produce the spirits produced by Sabbatical. The tour is SO worth the time to listen and understand what the process is to produce such SMOOTH spirits, bourbon & Vodka & Gin (Gin - the smoothest I have EVER...

Took my Dad here for his 86th birthday, we both really enjoyed the tour and the tasting. Things started off great with a welcome cocktail made from their blueberry infused Vodka. The tour was super informative as the distiller talked us through the entire process and the different tweaks that Sabbatical has made to create their whiskeys. The tasting was awesome, with not just the 4 whiskeys, a vodka and a gin that was laid out for tasting, but they came by and let us taste their brandy and some of the barrel strength bourbon as well. The price for what we gort was really well worth it. We did the upgrade to get the really nice glencairn glasses also....