Smugglers’ Notch Distillery sits on Route 15 in Jeffersonville, Vermont, founded by Ron Lague and Jeremy Elliott in 2006. These guys didn’t follow the typical distillery playbook—Lague brought manufacturing experience while Elliott had a background in construction, and they decided to jump into craft spirits when Vermont was just starting to embrace its distilling renaissance. They set up shop in a converted warehouse space and began producing vodka, gin, and whiskey using traditional copper pot stills and locally sourced grains whenever possible. The operation started small but had big ambitions to create spirits that reflected Vermont’s agricultural heritage and independent spirit. The journey wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. Like many early craft distillers, they had to navigate complex regulations and build their market from scratch, often selling bottles one at a time at farmers markets and local events. Elliott and Lague focused on perfecting their craft rather than rapid expansion, spending years refining their recipes and building relationships with local farmers for grain sourcing. They named the distillery after the famous smuggling route through Smugglers’ Notch, paying homage to Vermont’s long history of moving contraband across borders—a fitting nod for a state that’s always valued doing things its own way. What you’ll find today is a working distillery that feels more like visiting someone’s ambitious garage project that actually succeeded. The space has that authentic Vermont vibe—functional, unpretentious, but clearly built by people who know what they’re doing. You can taste their evolution from those early experimental batches to their current lineup, which includes their flagship Switchback Whiskey and several seasonal releases. It’s not the fanciest operation you’ll visit, but there’s something appealing about seeing a distillery that grew organically rather than launching with massive funding and a marketing plan.