A new winery and distillery called Tree Spirits is located just down the street from the College. From the outside it appears to be a remodeled barn, but a trip inside reveals a beautiful, clean space that contains all of the machines and tools necessary to create maple and apple spirits and sparking wines. Bruce Olson and Steve Buchsbaum, the creators of the products, shared their story with the Echo.

In the entryway of the winery stands a smooth, wooden bar that one of the owners’ friends crafted for the space. Tree Spirits’ logo is artfully painted on the wall behind the bar. Although Olson and Buchsbaum are not originally from the area, they are longtime Mainers. In fact, Olson, who is originally from Massachusetts,  graduated from the College in 1976. He is married to Karen Heck ’74, who founded the local nonprofit organization Hardy Girls Healthy Women. He loved his time on the Hill, and still remains connected to the institution in many ways, for instance, he serves as the coach of the Ballroom Dance team.

Olson said that he was inspired to make wine about ten or eleven years ago, when he and his wife realized that they, “simply could not afford the quality and the quantity of wine [they] were drinking.” They began buying boxed wine kits and tapping maple trees in their backyard to create wine. He and his wife would invite friends over to taste their creations.Olson said that this was when the idea really took off. He explained that they used maple and apple as the predominant ingredients in their creations because “local products are more interesting and advantageous—it’s really hard to compete with the grape club,” he said.

Buchsbaum didn’t join the endeavor until a few years later, but he too has always been interested in fine wines and spirits: “During a term abroad in Brittany, France, I was exposed to amazing wines, and something called Calvados, which is an apple brandy. France is very proud of its Calvados, but the apple brandy we have here in the United States is so-so,” he explained.

Buchsbaum, a Union College and Harvard University graduate, originally came to Maine to work for the Office of Energy Resources. He also pursued many independent business opportunities, and met Olson when Olson’s company built Buchsbaum’s house in 1984. Later the two worked at EES, Inc., a company that Buchsbaum founded with the intent of focusing on energy-efficient projects. Throughout the interview with the Echo, Olson and Buchsbaum continually finished each other’s sentences, referenced inside jokes, and generally radiated happiness.

After the pair made particularly successful batches of apple wine and brandy in 2007, they realized that they could make their products marketable. However, they were unprepared for the long process on which they were about to embark. The first order of business was finding a location. They surveyed several places in downtown Waterville and nearly rented a space in the retail gallery of the Hathaway Shirt Factory, which has been newly renovated by a graduate of the College, Paul Bogohossian ’76. However, they weren’t completely satisfied with their options.

Olson then got the idea to convert an old barn that he owned in Oakland, Maine, into the desired space. When asked why he acquired the barn, Olson responded, “Having been a building contractor, I had a million tools. I needed a place to store those and my 26-foot sailboat.” The property contained an old mobile home, which Olson rented out at one point. However, once he and Buchsbaum decided that they were going to use the barn as their place of production, they put an ad for the mobile home in “Uncle Henry’s,” a booklet listing classifieds from all over the state. “Amazingly someone called us, came up, and hauled it away,” Olson said with a smile.

The pair began renovating in 2009. Because of all the necessary paperwork, the renovation took about a year to finalize. “[Operating] a winery and distillery requires you to receive both federal and state permits,” Buchsbaum said. Buchsbaum and Olson stressed that the permit process is both complicated and tedious. This tedium in due in part to the fact that individual states have their own laws; while the owners of Tree Spirits can now officially sell their products within Maine, if they want to sell to other states they will have to hire a distributor.

When asked about the seemingly archaic nature of these laws, Buchsbaum responded that Maine is widely regarded as a highly regulated state, and has been since 1851 when it became the first state to ban alcohol. He explained that the state is involved in every aspect of the distribution of spirits. “First we sell to the state, and they, in turn, sell to the distributors, but wine is not as heavily regulated,” he said. “This [distinction] is nice because it allows us to sell our wine directly to local venues like Riverside Market. We have already spoken to them, and they plan on carrying our products soon.”

After a year of paperwork, Olson and Buchsbaum were ready to begin production of their wines and spirits. “[The process] was slower going than we originally thought,” noted Olson. “Luckily, there were no disasters- we hope to have everything ready by next Christmas. Our wines and spirits will make great gifts.”

Almost all of the ingredients for the wines and spirits come from within a ten-mile radius of the farm on which they are produced. The apple cider comes from The Apple Farm in Fairfield, ME- which is run by two graduates of the College- and the maple syrup comes from The Bacon Farm in Sidney, ME. At this point in the interview, Buchsbaum retrieved three glasses of fresh apple wine, though at this point the wine was lacking carbonation. “It’s really yeasty, so it’s really healthy,” Buchsbaum said, chuckling.

Olson and Buchsbaum began to explain how they make their wines and spirits by sharing the basic fermentation process: “It’s all about keeping the yeast happy,” said Olson, a statement said more than a few times. After the fermentation process, the pair adds carbonation and the wine is complete. This mixture also serves as the base for the Knotted Maple and Applejack spirits, although it must go through the distillery in order to be considered a spirit. Buchsbaum and Olson have just purchased a Hungarian bottler machine that they plan to use for the last step of the process. “It truly is better made than a lot of the models we were looking at, and it [is] cheaper,” said Olson. “The only problem is that the instructions were in Hungarian,” added Buchsbaum, laughing again.

While Tree Spirits is not Buchsbaum’s or Olson’s sole business endeavor, it’s clear that they are very passionate about this project. “I’m probably here two or three days a week,” said Olson. Buchsbaum agreed that he spends just about the same amount of time in the winery, “There’s an awful lot of cleaning,” he added, “and there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work that does not take place here.” Although the pair have not made any profits from their business yet, they think they can increase capacity fairly quickly. Besides, as a friend recently told them, “[they] are so far in, there’s no backing out.”

Unfortunately, the state of Maine does not allow for Buchsbaum and Olson to charge for a wine tasting, but you can visit their website, or take a drive down to Oakland and stop in. President of the College William “Bro” Adams is very familiar with Tree Spirits, according to Olson. “Bro is a big fan of our Knotted Maple…nobody makes anything like our Knotted Maple.”