Caitlin Bartlemay

“Tradition, Process, Progress”

Established in 1934 and headquartered in Oregon, Hood River Distillers is the Northwest’s largest and oldest importer, distiller, producer, and marketer of distilled spirits.  About 40 years before that distillery’s founding, Caitlin Bartlemay’s great‑great-grandfather acquired a large acreage of Oregon farmland and began cultivating cereal grains. By the time she was born in 1987 to parents Larry and Laurie Bartlemay, the bucolic Pacific Northwest wheat farm had already shaped her family. After all, by then the farm had been in operation for nearly a century, and so driving a tractor, monitoring the weather, and harvesting wheat quickly became second-nature to Caitlin. Around the time she was in middle school, Caitlin’s parents diversified the farm by planting a small vineyard and starting a quaint winery, giving the pre-teen her first exposure to fermentation, viticulture, and the science of making spirits. Bartlemay now credits those years with sparking her fascination with fermentation and distilling.

Once Bartlemay was old enough for college, she decided on Oregon State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Technology, with a focus in fermentation, and a minor in chemistry. In her final semester, she took an initiative that set the trajectory of her career: she wrote letters to every distillery in the Pacific Northwest (then numbering about a dozen), leaving a weak but determined-sounding resume and offering her services. Meanwhile, nearby Clear Creek Distillery, which was founded in 1985 by Steve McCarthy, received Bartlemay’s credentials, and, seeing something no one else noticed, McCarthy told her to drop by. The week after graduating in 2010, she secured a position as logistics coordinator at Clear Creek.


“Caitlin’s vigilant commitment to excellence in every facet of her job is one of the qualities that has made her such an exceptional member of our team,” said David Ballew, President and CEO of Bartlemay’s appointment. “Her passion for quality and craftsmanship is evident in each product that she touches. It’s only fitting that as we celebrate our 90th anniversary, we recognize Caitlin for her leadership in helping Hood River Distillers and its brands continue their heritage of quality.”

“It has been a thrill to be a part of the Clear Creek/Hood River Distillers team and to have had the opportunity to share so many wonderful brands with our customers,” responded Bartlemay.

Since attaining her new role, Bartlemay has used that platform to push McCarthy’s single-malt as a core, peated American whiskey. She also supervised and rolled out several cask-finished limited releases, such as PX, Oloroso, and rum-barrel expressions. Bartlemay has expressed that she seeks to expand Hood River’s cask program in an effort to improve the visibility of their cask offerings going forward. She also seeks to continue to shed light on the essential role that female distillers have had in American whiskey production.

Still a young 38, Caitlin Bartlemay has become the quiet strength behind a whiskey program that feels as personal as it is professional. Every day in the rickhouse, she carries her mentor Steve McCarthy with her, the voice that once guided her still shaping the choices she makes. The farm girl who once learned resilience from the soil now channels that same grit into every barrel she tends, into every employee she mentors, just like she herself was mentored not that long ago. Her ambition is fierce, but her heart is steady: to make whiskey that honors McCarthy’s memory while telling her own story, one bottle at a time.

Sources

  1. Hood River Distillers webpage home, “HRD Names Caitlin Bartlemay Master Distiller”, hrdspirits.com

  2. The Spirits Business, “Hood River Appoints Master Distiller”, Rupert Hohweiler, April 29, 2024

  3. oregonbusiness.com, Interview with Caitlin Bartlemay, Christen McCurdy, September 2, 2022, 

  4. Columbia Gorge News-Hood River, Oregon, “Bartlemay Promoted…”, Noah Noteboom, June 11, 2024

Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee

Four years later, Clear Creek was acquired by Hood River Distillers, joining the two oldest operating distilleries in Oregon, allowing Hood River Distillers to return to its original plan of creating fruit brandies, while Clear Creek was tasked with all other spirits production. The next few years went by with Bartlemay learning all she could about commercial distilling and just about every other facet of the spirit-producing world that she could as well. She and McCarthy became close, and though he retired in 2015, she often leaned on him for advice. The hardworking Bartlemay was subsequently named Head Distiller in 2021. Then, in April 2024,  one year after her mentor and comrade McCarthy had passed away from Parkinson’s, Hood River Distillers elevated her to the role of Master Distiller, giving her oversight over their full slate of brands, which by then included absinthe, vodka, and various brandies. Most notable, however, are Hood River’s whiskey line, which now includes McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt, Sinfire Whisky, Easy Rider Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, and Trail’s End Finished Small Batch Bourbon.