Bainbridge Organic Distillers

Bainbridge Organic Distillers is Washington State's first and only distillery producing 100% USDA Certified Organic spirits entirely from grain to glass on-site — a grain-to-bottle standard that most craft distilleries do not attempt, sourcing their base spirit rather than distilling it themselves. Founded in 2009 on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound, the distillery has spent fifteen years building a production model where the organic certification covers not just the grain source but every stage of production.

The Yama Mizunara Cask expression — American organic wheat whiskey finished in Japanese Mizunara oak — is the most critically decorated release in the portfolio. At the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, it scored 97 points, won Best American Grain Whiskey, and took Category Winner — a sweep that placed Bainbridge at the top of American grain whiskey in the competition's most rigorous evaluation. The Battle Point Barrel Proof scored 95 points and won Platinum at the same competition. These are not incremental achievements; they are the scores of a distillery operating at the front of its category.

The Mizunara cask finish is itself a statement about the distillery's ambition: Japanese Mizunara oak is among the world's rarest and most expensive cooperage, used by Yamazaki and other prestige Japanese distilleries for its distinctive coconut, sandalwood, and incense notes. Applying it to USDA Certified Organic American grain whiskey produces an expression that has no direct equivalent in the market.

For Free Bacchus, Bainbridge is the American organic whiskey reference: the distillery that answered the question of whether USDA Certified Organic grain whiskey could compete at the absolute top of its category, and answered it with a 97-point sweep.