Spirits · Los Angeles (Arts District), California

The Spirits Guild

Los Angeles distillery making vodka and gin from California clementines.

Founded: 2012
Founded by: Miller Duvall, Morgan McLachlan
Based in: Los Angeles (Arts District), California

Making it since

2012

Their story

The Spirit Guild is a small distillery and tasting room in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles, on ground that once held some of California's first commercial vineyards and orange groves. It was started in 2012 by husband and wife Miller Duvall and Morgan McLachlan, who taught themselves to distill as a hobby before turning it into a business.

Duvall wanted California to have a spirit that reflected its farms, and the pair landed on citrus. McLachlan served as founding distiller, and Andrew Lardy took over as head distiller in 2019.

The flagship bottles are Vapid Vodka and Star Keeper Gin, with occasional small releases such as a persimmon brandy made from Murray Family Farms fruit.

How it's made

Clementines are pressed, fermented and distilled into a brandy base, which then becomes the vodka or the gin. The team makes all of its own base spirit rather than buying neutral grain alcohol, and nothing is filtered. The gin adds botanicals such as juniper, grapefruit and clementine peel, pink peppercorn, sage and orange tree leaves.