Think globally, drink locally

Are you a socially conscious swiller of hooch? Do you dream of a day in which getting nicely blotto will somehow be beneficial for Burma? Do you give giant trash bags full of your empties to the less fortunate, so that they can collect more nickels from the recycling center?

Most of all, do you wish there were a way to combine your physical and emotional dependency on hard alcohol with your desire to support local business? Well, wish no more, you Lushes of Utah, you Boozehounds of the Mountain West! It turns out that there are many fine distilleries a mere stone’s throw away from your house, offering delicious beverages to the good citizens of Our Lovely Deseret.

Take, for example, High West Distillery and Saloon in Park City. Combining his love for the Mountain West of Yore, his skills as a biochemist and his passion for bourbon, David Perkins built the first distillery in Utah since the 1870s and quite possibly the world’s first ski-in distillery. You know,  because the only thing safer than getting hammered on the side of a snowy mountaintop with two boards strapped to your feet is No Tears Baby Shampoo – and Johnson & Johnson do a lot of things well, but crafting a decent bourbon is not one of them. So it looks like High West Rendezvous Rye Whiskey might be your only option.

That’s not really a bad thing, though. High West was the 2008 winner of the Double Gold San Francisco World Spirits Competition. It turns out Perkins & Crew are no one-trick distillers. High West Vodka 7000, made from mashed figs and oats, is the recipient of a Gold Medal from the International Review of Spirits. Local booze makes good.

For more information, visit www.HighWest.com