For proprietor Andy Koenig, the idea to establish a distillery in Southwest Idaho has roots in Europe, where he lived for three years in his father’s hometown of Lustenau, Austria. There, pears and apples and plums were transformed into clear, distinctive spirits through the age-old art of distillation. At home in Idaho, some of the Northwest’s finest fruit was being grown on the Sunnyslope, near where his mother’s family had homesteaded and made wine during the Great Depression two generations earlier. The concept of traditionally distilling this high-quality fruit into world-class brandies provided the foundation on which Andrew built Koenig Distillery.
Koenig Distillery is truly a family-owned and operated small business. Andrew and his brother, Greg, have worked every corner of the 77 acres that make up the Distillery as well as the surrounding orchards and vineyards. Greg and Andrew started together with a winery and distillery operating side by side in the original building that the two designed and built. As both businesses grew, the space was simply not enough to operate together. So, in 2009, Greg moved his winery a few miles away to its current location on Hoskins Road. Jill Koenig joined Andrew in 2000 after the two were married. They manage the business side by side, each with their own area of expertise.
