Hi, we’re Bellemara Distillery.
After years of research, study, and tasting every spirit we came across (tough life right?) we are finally turning our dream into reality and launching our own distillery, Bellemara. We’ll be making a variety of spirits, with a focus on single malt whisky, using processes rooted in old world traditions and updated with uniquely American techniques. The distillery is currently under construction (finally) and we look forward to opening later this year in Hillsborough, NJ. For the next few months, we’ll be using the Bellemara Distillery Blog to cover our startup journey and a variety of other interesting topics related to distilling, whisky, and hard liquor in general.
As with any story, it’s best to start at the beginning.
We’re a husband and wife team. Camden, the Head Distiller, co-founder, author of this first post, and esteemed dad joke teller, and Christina, Head of Marketing, Co-founder, and esteemed eye-roller at the aforementioned dad jokes, created Bellemara Distillery to bring new spirits to the world.
Christina and I met in the fall of our freshman year at Cornell University where Christina majored in biological engineering and I was pre-med, majored in Psychology and did Navy ROTC. We were friends in school but much like a good whisky, our relationship took years to mature to the point that we started dating. I was in the middle of my time on active duty as a Submarine Officer and Christina was living and working in Central NJ where she had been since graduation. A couple years of dating later, we got engaged and decided I would leave the Navy and we’d settle down in New Jersey.
My now fiance made it clear that I had to find something to do other than sit about reorganizing our home over and over again. I had been following the craft brewing movement for years and prided myself on my ability to produce extremely mediocre homebrews. I loved the science behind beer making and started to look seriously at what it would take to open my own craft brewery. After doing some research and talking to some brewers it was pretty clear that I would need to up my game so I I signed up for a year long Masters program in Scotland to study the art and science of brewing and distilling. Two weeks after Christina and I got married, I shipped off to Edinburgh for a year to start my adventure!
I had studied abroad at St. Andrews as an undergrad so I already knew I would love living in Scotland. That time around my focus was on golf, and during that trip I went from a pretty ordinary golfer to a pretty ordinary golfer who played more often! I went to school a bit too I guess. This time though, as a more mature, married man, I swore I would focus 100% on alcohol…
Climbing Arthur’s Seat, an ancient volcano in Edinburg, Scotland. This was one of our go-to hikes whenever we needed to get outside (photo credit: Christina).
But seriously, the program at Heriot-Watt University allowed me to immerse myself in my studies and get a real look at the industry. I went over there for brewing but as I learned more about distilling my focus began to change. I loved the production process and distilling takes a lot of the same steps as brewing but then adds more. It was during this time I started updating my future dreams and my business plan from brewing to distilling. The culmination of my time over there was my masters thesis where I worked with a strawberry farmer organization to take surplus and low grade strawberries that would normally go to waste and instead turn them into a strawberry spirit.
When I returned to the US, Christina and I continued to refine our plans for opening our own distillery. Through a variety of twists, turns, dead ends, setbacks, and a lot of luck we met Ed and Sue Clerico and decided to locate the distillery at their beautiful Carriage Farm property in Hillsborough, NJ. It took a lot longer than we expected to get this project off the ground but like a good whisky, some things just take time. We cannot wait to welcome you to the distillery soon!
If you have any questions, comments or just want to say hi, feel free to leave a comment below and be sure to follow us on Instagram for updates!