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Boris Vodka
How many javelinas do you know
that have had a bottle of vodka
named after them? If the answer is
none, then obviously you have
never met Boris.
Boris the javelina lives at Sun
shine Place, a 19th century-styled
site overlooking the banks of the
Mission River way out in the
"boonies” of South Texas, near
Bayside. Sunshine Place is also the
home of the Bay River Company,
the first state licensed distillery and
bottling plant in Texas history.
The Bay River Company is mar
keting Texas’ first line of liquor
products, called Texas Spirit, so
named becuase of “the little bit of
Texas put in every bottle.”
And here’s where Boris has to
agree, because he’s about as
Texas as you’ll find and one of the
Texas Spirit products, Boris Vodka,
is named just for him.
Texas Spirit’s other two products
are named to represent bits of his
tory. “Homestead” Bourbon Whis
key preserves the heritage of the
Texas homesteaders and “Scrim
shaw” Scotch refers to the ivory
carvings the sailors used to carve
on long voyages.
The Bay River Company is
owned by four people — Lawrence
and Richard Wood, and Marie
Wood Farley, all members of a
South Texas pioneer family, and Bill
Demaree, who manages the plant.
Before the Bay River Company
came along, no one in Texas had
ever applied for a liquor distilling
and bottling license. The company
obtained the license in 1978, but has
been working on the plant for about
three years.
Demaree said they came up with
the idea of the liquor plant while try
ing to decide what to do with a crop
of grain, that because of heavy
rains, was too wet to export. They
discovered the grain could be made
into liquor, but found Texas had no
place to process it. So they decided
to do it themselves.
“We said, ‘We’re pioneers, so
let’s go pioneer.’”
The project cost about $1 million
to set up.
The plant itself and the surround
ing area, called Sunshine Place
after a John Denver song, is not
what you’d expect from a distilling
and bottling plant. Instead of the
usual steel and concrete masses
centered somewhere in the indus
trial part of a busy city, it is located in
the country, at the end of a caliche
road.
The bright orange mailbox at the
end of the driveway presents a strik
ing contrast to the surrounding
mesquite brush and farmland.
All the buildings at Sunshine
Place, except for the plant building
which is new, are old board and bat
ten houses that have been moved
to the site and restored. An 1891
schoolhouse is used as a receiving
lounge.
Two man-made lakes designed
to catch rainwater, which Demaree
said is mixed with the raw liquor
spirits, are surrounded by paths,
and a small park can be found down
on the banks of the Mission River.
“We feel the plant enhances the
environment,” Demaree said.
Though the Bay River Company
has a license to distill its own liquor,
right now it is only doing the bottling.
It gets raw spirits from out of state,
and then adds only one ingredient,
rainwater, before filtering and bottl
ing the final product.
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Demaree said the company
hopes to distill its own liquor in the
near future. Except for the scotch
which wouldn’t be authentic unless
the raw product is from Scotland.
Demaree said one of the things
the company is trying to stress is the
“Texas-ness” of Texas Spirit. Even
though the raw spirits are from
Iowa, Kentucky and Scotland, ev
erything else from the bottles made
in Palestine, to the rural emptoyees
are strictly Texas.
“Our approach is that if you don’t
drink, you shouldn’t start," De
maree said. “But if you do drink, you
should keep your money at home.”
Demaree said the company has
had little opposition to operation of
the plant.
Bayside, the precinct the plant is
located in, was originally a dry
county. So an election to decide
whether to allow liquor into the
county was held. And in a precinct
of 300 people, 94 percent voted and
liquor law was repealed.
Bill Fricks, Bayside mayor, said
those that opposed the pland did so
due to a dislike of change.
“But I think the plant has given a
lot of publicity to the town,” Fricks
said.
One resident said,” The town
people usually keep hush. They
probably won’t say anything. Me, I
don’t see no harm in it.”
Another said it didn’t bother him
and “it’s a little recognition on the
map.”
Presently Texas Spirit is being
marketed by Glazer Distributors
and has only been introduced in the
San Antonio and Corpus Christi.
Demaree said he hopes to enter
the Dallas market sometime after
the first of the year.
Ed Buhidar, owner of a chain of
liquor stores in Corpus Christi, said
Texas Spirit was selling “So-so.”
“They want me to get out and sell
the stuff and I won’t do it,” he said.
“They need to advertise more.”
Several other liquor store owners
and managers agreed and said
most of the people that bought it
already had some prior knowledge
of the product and didn’t just pick it
up off the shelf.
Another store owner said he was
“put on the spot” when people
asked why it said “Product of Iowa”
on the bottles of Vodka when it was
advertised as a Texas Product.
Photos
and
story by
Rhonda
Watters