How two Department of Defense chemists made Southfork Vodka the darling of California’s cocktails-to-go revolution

Bottles were pouring with pride as California announced it was keeping a new cocktails-to-go program for at least another half decade. Last fall’s decision to make the pandemic-triggered ordinance more permanent was a boon to Jon Dorfman and Dan Kennerson, two budding distillers whose Southfork Vodka has become something of an obsession with mixologists from Lake Tahoe to San Francisco.

The pair took a curious path to producing a bottle that bartenders reach for in the largest state in the union: Prior to 2018, Dorfman and Kennerson worked as ethanol researchers for the U.S. Department of Defense. That job led them to revelations about extracting fusel oil from fermented corn, which they eventually channeled into a gluten-free, zero-GMO vodka that tastes as pure as the driven snow.

The business partners knew it was a leap to trade their microscopes for still columns. What they couldn’t have known was how fast California bartenders would recognize their chemical breakthroughs, taking it on themselves to introduce the vodka to scores of customers through cocktails even before Southfork won a gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition, another gold at the New York International Spirits Competition, a top nod at the Bartender Spirit Awards for 2020 and USA Today’s readers’ choice for Best Craft Vodka Distillery.

“We’re just excited to see all the different levels and types of innovations we can pursue,” Dorfman said. “We’re not exactly traditionalist.”

Dorfman and Kennerson grew up in Nevada County, a historic goldmining community about 60 miles north of California’s capitol. That’s also where the two began working for a research firm in 2009 that was contracted by the U.S. military apparatus to study fuel dynamics. The lab partners were specifically tasked with amplifying techniques for ethanol impurity reduction from a strategic, fuel-based positioning. Seven years later, after the friends had become virtual experts on alcohol purity, their boss made an unexpected proposition.

“Dan and I were basically offered the opportunity to purchase the assets of our old research firm, so we kind of bought the skeleton of our dream lab,” Dorfman recalled. “We had a couple of opportunities that we thought we could exercise on in order to start paying off the note on the equipment and facility, and one of those was to create our own personalized distilled spirits.”

Their alternative idea was experimenting with different ways to sequester methane from bovine discharge. That would have required the researchers to be constantly drudging through manure-mud on 2,000-cow dairy farms as they tried to work with reluctant cattlemen. The more Dorfman and Kennerson thought about it, the more the idea of making something special for cocktail culture had an appeal.

The decision to create Southfork Vodka was cemented in 2016. Though the company could be located anywhere, the Nevada County natives chose to build their distillery in the rural community they’d come from.

“We wanted to be at home,” Kennerson stressed. “We knew we could produce this spirit anywhere, but we’re from Grass Valley and Nevada City, and that’s where we wanted to do this.”

While that decision bucked conventional wisdom about nesting a start-up in California’s Bay Area or Silicon Valley, in retrospect it was the catalyst for getting high-visibility bartenders to champion Southfork’s cause. The hilly, tree-lined pastures of Nevada County may be far from a population center, but they make for one of the north state’s most attractive tourism destinations. Visitors come from as far away as Europe to glimpse the well-preserved Victorian architecture and looming, rusted mining relics. Just a year into Southfork Vodka’s run, the territory’s busiest bars were featuring it in their premier cocktails.

The trend soon caught on with mixologists in the Sacramento area. Before long, Southfork was popping up in stores and bars across California’s Bay Area. The success seems directly attributable to Dorfman and Kennerson’s chemistry and physics-based approach of reducing fusel oil and excess compounds from what they’re bottling. Fans say the method equals a vodka with an immaculately pristine pinch on the pallet. They also attest, anecdotally, that a hang-over from Southfork-centric cocktails is almost unheard of.

One early believer was bartender Nick Fedoroff. During Southfork’s initial launch, he was in charge of the bar at Nevada County’s 160-year-old Holbrooke Hotel. Now mixing cocktails for private functions, Fedoroff continues to prefer Southfork for a number of drink combos. He was also extremely impressed by a limited run of a small-bottle, gin-like spirits Dorfman and Kennerson put out earlier this year.

“They’re great,” Fedoroff said of the former military contractors. “And they’re using all this equipment to do things that are not just vodka and gin: They’re making this other fringy stuff. When you learn about their background, working with jet fuel, you understand they’re really different … It’s the kind of thing you’re excited to show people.”

Until recently, Dorfman and Kennerson were selling Southfork themselves directly to stores, bars and restaurants. In June of 2021, they signed a distribution deal with Classic Wines of California, which brought the vodka to virtually every corner of the Golden State. While that was a major step forward, Dorfman says the company is still relying on beloved restaurants and bartenders to help tell its story.

“We could not have done what we’ve done without local support,” Dorman emphasized. “So, it’s really important to us to be present and authentic. We want to take the time to grow the brand organically. We don’t just want to throw product at people, we want to get them familiar with who we are … Dan and I are pouring our hearts into it – it’s all precious to us.”

— Scott Thomas Anderson is a veteran reporter based in California.  While his main job over the years has been overing the drug world, environmental crime, urban poverty and long-term investigations, he’s lately balanced his hard news focus with culturl writing and travel journalism, filing piece on time spent in Greece, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Scotland and Southern France.  He can be reached at standerson1@gmail.com.