![]() ![]() With the style of gin settled upon, the couple turned to choosing the botanicals, the essence of this California story. Gray Whale’s base distillate is made from corn that Marsh distills six times in order to create an ultra-clean blank canvas for the seventh distillation, when dried and fresh botanicals are added. London Dry gin is unsweetened, and its botanical flavors must be imparted through distillation. “The smell of old-school London Dry makes me remember my grandfather and his little dog,” he says. Raised in the United Kingdom with British-Persian heritage, Marsh had grown up with London Dry style gin. They landed on London Dry, which is a process designation meaning a base spirit of agricultural origin and a strength of at least 95% alcohol by volume. So, what, exactly, does California taste like? Before figuring out the “flavor of California,” the Mokhtaris first had to sort out their preferred gin style. You can taste the whole of the state in gin, not just Napa,” Marsh responds. We thought it was a wonderful way to represent California in a glass. Gin soon became the answer to their “what’s next” query. Marsh went back to Chicago, where he and Jan had met, to learn the art of distilling from the founder of Koval Distillery. The potential development of a unique spirit sparked their interest, so a pot still was purchased. There were jaunts to Napa from their home in Manhattan Beach to drink wine and experience uniquely Californian products. It took some time to figure out exactly what that might look like, but the flame had been lit. “We wanted something that gave back to preserve the ocean.” Using Jan’s background in product development and graphic design and Marsh’s science and food experience, could they build something that would do some good for the world? “We had built up these skill sets, but weren’t using them to better the world,” Jan says. The couple questioned their work, their role in preserving for future generations the beauty they had just witnessed and a larger “what comes next.” ![]() Whale Sighting Launches New Career Pathĭespite their time-consuming careers, the couple did make time to expose their two daughters to the great outdoors, and it was that one particular whale sighting off the Big Sur coast that they credit with sparking a “big life talk” conversation on the family’s drive home. Marsh, who holds a medical physics degree, spent time in technology sales before becoming an actor (you may have seen him as the host of Food Network’s “Extreme Chef,” in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, or as host of Nat Geo’s “Perilous Journeys,” among others) while Jan developed a creative career in advertising and entertainment at 72 and Sunny, Fox Entertainment and Disney in Los Angeles. The Mokhtaris, founders of Sebastopol-based Gray Whale Gin, had always been outdoor enthusiasts, but their busy working lives meant that they did not get as much time by the sea as they would have liked. ![]() It was on a family camping trip in Big Sur that one such not uncommon gray whale sighting had an uncommon impact on the future of Jan and Marsh Mokhtari. The eastern North Pacific population of gray whales (or “West Coast gray whales”) summers in the Bering and Chukchi Seas between Alaska and Russia before heading south to its winter home in Mexico, hugging the western coast of the United States on its semi-annual 12,000-mile round-trip journey.Īs a result of their shore-hugging path, the ridges of sharp bumps on the backs of gray whales are commonly spotted all along the California coast during migration season. It is the state’s official marine mammal, after all. There may be no animal species more closely associated with the California coast than the gray whale. ![]()
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