At long last, Bently distillery tasting room to open Feb. 9

MINDEN, Nev. — The fences are down and the Bently Heritage tasting room will open to the public on Saturday, Feb. 9.

The distillery is expecting a high volume of traffic on its opening weekend, with tours offered through the reservation system at bentlyheritage.com. The cost of a tour is $20; tastings are $10.

The tasting room hours of operation will be 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursdays, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Sundays. Tours will generally run 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

The distillery's home, which is currently pursuing LEED Gold certification, was the site of the century-old and historic Minden Flour Mill, a local landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Owners Christopher and Camille Bently have restored the historic building to state-of-the art standards.

Bently Heritage Estate Distillery uses 100 percent of its grains from those grown on the operation at the Bently Ranch. Winter rye, oats, wheat, corn, and barley are milled on-site and malted in-house on the malting floor.

The distillery's Mill Building creates single malt whisky using handmade Forsyths pot stills that were imported from Scotland.

The distillery's Creamery Building distills vodka and gin, using carl pot stills imported from Germany. Bently Heritage has also begun the process of oak barrel aging their single malt, bourbon, and rye for future releases.

Three spirit offerings are included in the first Bently Heritage release: Source One Single Estate Vodka, Source One Vodka Rested in Oak Sherry Casks, and Juniper Grove American Dry Gin.

All products are sold in 750ml bottles for between $32 and $40. Bently Heritage whiskies are currently aging in barrels and will be available in the future.