The mountain story
Named for a creekthat isn’t on the map.
Devils Creek is a mashup of Devils Postpile and Mammoth Creek — borrowed from Luan Mendel’s novel Yard Sale, set in a fictional ski town of the same name.
The Devils
Devils Postpile
Columnar basalt west of town — half the name. They did not publish a landscape of it, so the ridge sits here as type, the way it sits on the bottle.
The Creek
Mammoth Creek
Snowmelt off the lakes, running through town toward the Owens — the other half. The water is in the whiskey, not in a stock photograph.
Family
A second act,grain to glass.
The Mendel family started Devils Creek in 2017 to make an authentically California grain-to-glass whiskey — transparency and meticulous craft.
John brought more than 40 years in the automotive world. During fourteen years at Honda he immersed himself in Japanese manufacturing. When Automotive News called the next chapter a “spirited retirement,” monozukuri came with him.
Chapters
Four marks on the mountain.
2013
Los Angeles, left behind
Parents John and Luan Mendel — avid skiers, hikers, and outdoor lovers — left Los Angeles for a second act in the rugged Eastern Sierra Nevada.
2015
Into the still house
A lifelong appreciation for fine wines and spirits, and a venture that would involve the entire family, brought them into craft distilling in late 2015.
2017
First whiskey
John had retired from more than forty years in automobiles — Ford, then American Honda — taking with him monozukuri: the art, science, and craft of making things.
Now
Clayton at the still
Distiller Clayton Mendel stays with those principles from grain to barrel. The whiskeys rest a minimum of four years in Kelvin Cooperage oak.
The water and the grain
Alpine lakes,California fields.
Snowmelt harvested from alpine lakes in the Eastern Sierra. Native-grown grains from Adams Grain Company and craft malt from Admiral Maltings. Distilled at 7,760 feet, then four years in Kelvin Cooperage barrels.
Step off the beaten path and experience the unexpected; Devils Creek whiskeys reward those with a sense of adventure.