Jettywave Distillery: Coastal Californian Spirits
Not far from the surf break in Half Moon Bay that inspired its name, Jettywave Distillery is firing up its stills to produce aromatic craft gin, bourbon, single malt, absinthe, and liqueurs, while bartenders pick fresh herbs from the garden surrounding the Swell Lounge for the day’s cocktails.
The idea for Jettywave materialized over dinner one night during the pandemic, when Mishelle and David Westendorf floated the idea of purchasing a distillery to their friends, Tanya Slye and her husband. Between them and another friend of theirs, Lucy Gillies, the group possessed an impressive skill set—marketing, product development, logistics, landscape design, and sustainable agriculture. The four friends shared a passion for cooking and mixology, and all of them were looking for a new project. Perhaps this was the side-hustle they could pour their combined talents into, building something meaningful for their retirement.
Flash forward almost four years later and the four founders opened their own distillery along with two bars and a restaurant, all while continuing to work full-time jobs. “Every minute I spend working at Jettywave is overtime and unpaid,” chuckles Tanya Slye, but the smile on her face makes clear this is a true labor of love for her and her fellow co-founders.
California Botanical Gin is Jettywave’s flagship, and Slye spent countless hours researching gin production, learning about flavor profiles, selecting the right combination of herbs and aromatics to make something she describes as unexpected, and uniquely reflective of California agriculture. Slye handed over a recipe to the head distiller at the time who tested it, tweaked it, and tried several variations. In the end, the first batch was the best batch, and Slye’s original recipe prevailed. In addition to traditional botanicals like juniper, black pepper, and coriander, Slye’s recipe includes shiso leaves, pistachios, fresh Meyer lemons, ginger, and nasturtium blossoms gathered from her lovingly tended onsite garden.
A combination of maceration for the sturdier botanicals and steam for the more delicate ones creates layers of flavor not unlike the top, middle, and base notes in a perfume. The Meyer lemons are so oily that head distiller Blake Kelleher actually siphons off some of the oils to preserve the bright perfume of the lemons without overpowering the other botanicals, while the shiso and pistachio add earthy base notes and an unctuous mouthfeel on the finish.
When Kelleher joined the Jettywave team after leaving his head distilling post at Seven Stills in San Francisco, he brought with him the expertise to expand and improve Jettywave’s line of spirits. The Jettywave Small Batch Bourbon began in truly small batches, aged in five-to-fifteen-gallon barrels. The grain is 100% California-grown—corn from Adam’s Grain in Woodland and malted barley from Admiral Maltings in Alameda.
Kelleher carefully numbers the days the bourbon spends in its new American Oak barrels; three hundred and fifty days for five gallons of bourbon. “We are careful not to overdo it with the wood sugar and tannins,” says Kelleher. “With the steady, cool temperatures of Half Moon Bay, we don’t get as much expansion and contraction of the barrel, so younger is better.”
The cool temperatures and relatively static barrels also mean Kelleher uses only the “heart-heart” cuts from the distilling runs. Small format maturation comes with higher extractive and lower oxidative barrel action, so these heart cuts are essential in creating the bourbon’s rich and rounded flavor profile. “The result is a truly Northern California bourbon,” says Slye.
The Jettywave team is hard at work spreading the word about their craft spirits while creating a welcoming, relaxing, and delicious experience at their picturesque tasting room. Projects are in the works for several types of bitters, including blackberry cacao and cardamom orange, and a batch of gin distilled entirely on juniper harvested from the historic Filoli Estate in Woodside promises to be an exceptional expression of California’s bounty.
Spirits should be enjoyed as an expression of the raw materials, region and people that produced them, and Jettywave delivers on this—supporting a transparent, local supply chain for consumers who care where their food comes from.
