Sugarfield Spirits defines "keeping it local"

Hidden in a small business park in the city of Gonzales, Sugarfield Spirits is more than a distillery, more than a cidery, and more than a bottle. Sugarfield is an experience crafted from distilling the southern soul of Louisiana into a glass. When you taste Sugarfield Spirits, you are truly experiencing authentic local products using Louisiana ingredients including local oranges, strawberries and honey.

From odes to backyard citrus season to Agricole-style rum, Sugarfield crafts each of their spirits with an eye toward culinary arts, giving each batch the same attention to detail as a fine wine.

Photo byTina Howell

Sugarfield founder Thomas Soltau's dream of opening a distillery dates back to 2016 after participating in the LSU Business incubator, Thomas partnered with his brother Andrew Soltau. They purchased the land in Gonzales for the distillery 2 years later and by October 2019, they were distilling on-site. Sugarfield hosted their grand opening in January 2020 and their products are available for purchase at stores all throughout Louisiana including Rouses, Total Wine and Hokus Pokus. In 2023, Sugarfield Spirits became the Official Vodka of LSU Athletics.

Photo byTina Howell

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to meet with Thomas and tour Sugarfield's facility and tasting room. It was truly fascinating to learn about the unique process behind making their products.

TH: What are some of the plans that you have in mind for Sugarfield Spirits over the next year?

TS: We have a lot of super interesting products coming in the next several months. We are moving more of our products into barrel aging so will have a barrel aged spiced rum, a barrel aged honey liqueur, and some barrel aged whiskeys. On the wine/cider side we have a bunch of wines coming including a Sauvignon blanc and our new batches of blueberry mead, crab apple cider, and this year's strawberry cider.

TH: Louisiana has its fair share of local breweries and distilleries, what do you think sets your products apart from the others?

TS: We love and respect the effort all the other brewers, wine makers, cider makers, distillers and mead makers put forth in this state. Everyone is making a great effort at making Lousiana into a great destination for high quality products. Our products are different because of the science behind them. Our team is made up of scientists. So many of the people working on our products have chemistry, biochemistry, biology, and engineering back grounds. I want to continue to work toward better and better products here at Sugarfield. We are always happy with out products, but we are never satisfied. Continuing to work on making our products better.

Photo byTina Howell

If you’re interested in learning more about their spirit-making process, you can also schedule a tour of Sugarfield's distillery to learn about the science behind the making of their products and try one of their spirits or cocktails in the tasting room. The tasting room at the distillery is also available for private parties and events. For more details go to https://www.sugarfieldspiritsla.com