Snitching Lady Distillery sits at 500 Front Street in Fairplay, Colorado, a historic mining town at 10,578 feet elevation that makes it one of America’s highest-altitude distilleries. Founded by husband-and-wife team Jon and Jill Holcomb in 2019, the distillery occupies a restored 1800s building that once housed mining equipment suppliers during Fairplay’s gold rush days. The name comes from local folklore about a woman who reportedly informed on bootleggers during Prohibition, though the Holcombs embrace the irony by crafting whiskey, vodka, and gin in the same town. Jon brings a background in chemical engineering while Jill handles the business side, and together they’ve created Colorado’s most elevation-challenged distillery operation.
The journey started when the Holcombs visited Fairplay during a hiking trip and fell in love with the town’s authentic Western character and lack of pretense. They spent two years convincing town officials and securing permits, then another year retrofitting the century-old brick building with modern distilling equipment while preserving original wood beams and stone foundations. The altitude creates unique challenges – water boils at lower temperatures and alcohol evaporates differently – forcing them to adjust traditional distilling methods. Master distiller Jon learned through trial and error, consulting with other Colorado distillers and adapting recipes for the thin air.
Visitors get an intimate look at small-batch production in a space that feels more like a neighbor’s workshop than a polished tourist destination. The tasting room features reclaimed wood from local mines, original brick walls, and windows overlooking the Mosquito Range peaks. You’re tasting spirits made at the highest commercial distillery elevation in North America, where every batch requires adjustments for atmospheric pressure and temperature variations that change with Colorado’s dramatic weather swings.
