David Fishering

David Fishering was born in October of 1982, and was five years old when his family moved to Montrose in Western Colorado’s Uncompahgre Valley, and that is where he was raised. He graduated from Montrose High School in 2001, but left Colorado to attend the University of Southern California. Initially interested in physics and aerospace engineering, he changed direction after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. That act left Fishering concentrating on international relations. After USC, he continued his education at King’s College London, where he studied intelligence and international security and graduated with distinction. His dissertation examined Anglo-American intelligence and Soviet chemical and biological warfare during the Cold War.

London also proved important to Fishering personally. While studying there, he met Sarah Piper, the woman who would become his wife. After completing his graduate studies, he returned to the United States and joined a defense consulting company in San Antonio, Texas; he and Sarah married in 2008. But when Sarah later accepted a position with the University of Maryland’s terrorism research center, the couple moved to the Washington, D.C., area. Fishering subsequently became a Department of Defense analyst and spent time in Afghanistan in 2011. His broader national-security career also included service connected with the Navy, Department of Energy and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

It was during the Washington years that whiskey became more than an occasional drink for Fishering. He became interested not only in its flavors, but also in whiskey’s place in American history. In 2012, he and Sarah traveled Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail, returning to DC with their tiny Honda Fit heavily loaded with whiskey purchases. Later that same year, during a trip to visit Sarah’s family in Britain, they traveled to Scotland. Exposure to both Kentucky bourbon and Scotch whisky in the same year deepened Fishering’s interest considerably, while day trips to local craft distilleries showed Fishering that small independent American producers could build successful businesses around spirit. The possibility of someday owning a distillery began to take shape.

In 2014, as David and Sarah considered starting a family, they decided to leave Washington and return to Montrose to be closer to relatives. In Colorado, Fishering went to work for his father, Greg, whose telecommunications business had developed through years of changes in the industry. Three years later, father and son acquired a large downtown Montrose property associated with the former Montrose Fruit and Produce Association, including an adjoining warehouse and parking area. The purchase covered roughly three-quarters of a city block and immediately raised the question of what to do with it. Fishering supplied an answer: put a distillery there. Greg Fishering supported the idea, so David began learning the trade on an eight-gallon hand-hammered copper pot still purchased from Portugal. For roughly six months, he experimented in his father’s garage, eventually comparing his own new-make spirit with commercially available unaged whiskey. Permitting was completed in 2017, larger professional equipment followed, and the stills were fired in early February 2018. Storm King Distilling Company opened to the public that June, becoming the first distillery ever licensed in Montrose County.

The company’s name was geographically significant. Storm King is a mountain peak east of Montrose at the beginning of the Cimarron Range, and its profile became part of the distillery’s logo. That local identity also carried into Fishering’s approach to whiskey. Rather than simply making whiskey in Colorado, he wanted to make whiskey from Colorado, using Colorado grain whenever practical and allowing the agricultural character of the state to become part of the product. But whiskey was not Storm King’s first commercial product. The young distillery initially produced agave spirit, gin and vodka, all of which could reach the market without the years of barrel aging required for mature whiskey. Nevertheless, from the beginning, Fishering regarded Storm King primarily as a whiskey distillery, so he began experimenting aggressively with grain.

Fishering’s equipment also gave him considerable freedom. Storm King employed hybrid pot-and-column stills, including a 264-gallon still created primarily for whiskey manufacturing. Fishering also experimented with barrel sizes and char profiles. Small 15-gallon barrels provided an early indication of how particular mash bills might mature, while larger barrels provided whiskey intended for longer aging. One bourbon released in 2023 combined two 53-gallon barrels made from a mash of 65 percent corn and 35 percent red wheat. Storm King also developed a 100-percent rye whiskey, initially using Colorado-grown Elbon rye. That rye has since become one of Storm King’s principal grain expressions. The distillery’s Colorado Straight Rye Whiskey is made from 100-percent Colorado-grown Elbon rye from Burlington, Colorado, and matured for at least two years in new charred American oak. Storm King also developed a Colorado Straight Wheat Whiskey made from equal portions of red and white wheat. Its whiskey portfolio also includes straight bourbon, bottled-in-bond bourbon and American single malt, giving Fishering a broad field in which to explore the flavors of individual grains.

In 2023, Storm King Side Gig Whiskey, a small-batch whiskey with no fixed mash bill, was named World’s Best American Whiskey at the World Whiskies Awards. The competition’s global judging involved more than 200 judges evaluating more than 1,400 whiskies from more than 40 countries. The award placed Fishering alongside established producers from major whiskey regions and brought immediate attention to Storm King. Fishering later recalled selling through an entire batch of Side Gig in roughly10 days following the spotlight. Subsequently, Batch No. 7 received 91 points and a Gold Medal from the Beverage Testing Institute.

Meanwhile, Storm King’s straight rye, wheat whiskey, bourbon and American single malt and the attention that those expressions have generated demonstrate just how far David Fishering has progressed. From the eight-gallon copper still in his dad’s garage, David Fishering has shown that a small, Western Colorado distillery can grow grain, mash, distill, blend, and bottle a whiskey that critics from all over the country recognize and appreciate.

Sources:

  1. Storm King Distilling Company official website, stormkingdistilling.com

  2. Thirst Colorado, “Storm King Puts Montrose on the Whiskey Map,” Emily Baker, December 26, 2023, thirstcolorado.com

  3. Whisky Magazine, “Whisky Magazine Awards 2023 Global Results Revealed,” March 30, 2023, whiskymag.com

  4. Tastings.com, “Storm King Distilling Co. Side Gig American Straight Whiskey Batch No. 7,” June 22, 2023, tastings.com

  5. City of Montrose, “Storm King: Changing the Character of Downtown,” 2019, cityofmontrose.org

  6. West of 105, “Divine Spirits: Explore the World of Colorado Distilleries,” October 25, 2023, westof105.com

  7. LinkedIn, “David Fishering Profile”,  linkedin.com

  8. WKRP Montrose Colorado, “David Fishering and Storm King Distilling Company,” Dennis Lankes, June 17, 2024, wkrpmontrose.com

Contributed by Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee