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“If we’re drawing inspiration from mountain terroir, we need to protect it.”

The Azure Road Take

There are a few things that automatically come to mind when thinking about Park City, Utah, like its sensational skiing and alpine views. But this mountain town in one of the country’s most alcohol-restricted states is also where you’ll find some of the best gin in the world being made at Alpine Distilling. 

Along with making whiskey, bourbon, and liqueurs, Alpine Distilling — which was founded in 2016 by Master Distiller Sara Sergent and her husband Rob — has garnered the most fame for its Alpine Elevated Gin. Made with botanicals from around the world and distilled with a proprietary vapor extraction method, this herbaceous spirit took years to fine tune and perfect, and it has amassed numerous trophies and accolades. It won Gin of the Year at the 2021 World’s Most Important Gin Competition Awards and was served at the Queen’s Jubilee. It’s one of the reasons Sara is the most decorated botanical distiller in the United States.

While you can order Alpine Distilling’s prize-winning spirit online, it’s perhaps best enjoyed where it’s produced: up among the clouds of the Wasatch Mountains in central Utah, served as part of a cocktail or tasting at the distillery’s lounge, the Park City Social & Pleasure Club. 

Sustainability Chops

Alpine Distilling is all about quality, transparency, and sustainability, an ethos “foundational to Alpine Distilling,” Sara explains. “We distill in a mountain town where clean water, healthy ecosystems, and stewardship are essential.”

Every aspect of Alpine Distilling factors in its footprint in some way. That includes ethically sourcing botanicals from family-owned farms; collecting spent grains for reuse as fertilizer or energy; and recycling glass, metal, and cardboard. The production space runs entirely on steam, and recycled paper and green ink comprise the bottle labels.

Alpine Distilling received several awards for its efforts, including the 2024 Green Business Honoree in Innovation, 2022 Green Business of the Year by Recycle Utah, and 2021 Utah Green Business Award in Leadership.

The Sip

To create Alpine Distilling’s signature spirit, Sara uses various classic gin botanicals like juniper, coriander, and angelica root sourced from places including Croatia, Egypt, and France. For the distilling process, she utilizes vapor distillation, which elevates each botanical for clarity, balance, and consistency.

To get a feel for Alpine Distilling’s process, visit the distillery’s Park City bar and order the Elevated Gin and Tonic. It brings together the distillery’s Alpine Elevated Gin and Preserve Liqueur, which is a mix of blood orange, black tea, candied raspberry, lemon balm, and ginger. Add some elderflower tonic and dehydrated botanicals, and you have a light and refreshing libation. You can also book a guided tasting of the different spirits

The real standout activity, however, is the custom gin-making experience. Sara guides groups through over a dozen different botanicals, discussing the history of gin and the ingredients as you go. Participants select the botanicals that resonate most with their palate, then Sara creates their custom blend. In just a few hours, you’ll have your own personalized bottle of the aromatic spirit.

Origin Story

Before her pivot to gin production, Sara worked in a number of different fields and roles, including tapping into her artistic side as a creative director. While living in New Orleans, she met and married Rob. After losing everything in Hurricane Katrina, the couple found solace in their community. They’d carry that neighborly spirit with them when relocating to Utah. “With little kids, we decided to move out West, and Utah is a great place to be outside every day,” says Sara.

Sara earned her degree in gin distilling from Edinburgh Whisky Academy in 2019, and in 2024, she was inducted into The Gin Guild, a prestigious international organization, as a Warden Rectifier, one of its most esteemed titles.

The pair opened Alpine Distilling in 2016, with Sara handling the gin and liqueur production and Rob overseeing whiskey production. Their first product was the Preserve Liqueur, which was inspired by Utah’s Swaner Nature Preserve, a nearby 1,200-acre wildlife refuge protecting wetland and shrubland habitats. A portion of the proceeds still goes to supporting the preserve.

In 2018, the distillery opened its first speakeasy-style lounge called Alpine Pie Bar, which they expanded and rebranded into the Social Aid & Pleasure Club in 2022. “We designed [it] to be more than just a cocktail lounge,” Sara says. “It’s an extension of our living room on Main Street.”

Looking ahead, Sara is exploring new flavor combinations inspired by the botanicals of Park City’s high desert.