When Lars Williams left his role as head of R&D at Noma to start Empirical Spirits in 2017, the first decision he made was the hardest one: not to make a gin. Or a whisky. Or anything anyone in the trade would recognize as a category.

That decision was structural, not aesthetic. The whole business model, what kind of bartender would pour it, how a sommelier would talk about it, where it would sit on a backbar, turns on it.

The koji bet

Empirical's spirits start with koji fermentation, the same fungal process that powers sake and miso. Williams was using koji in a culinary R&D context at Noma; bringing it into distillation meant building a workflow Western distilling literature largely doesn't address. The fermentation produces umami and nutty notes that don't survive traditional pot or column stills. Which led to the second structural call.

Vacuum distillation at 41-59°F

Most distilleries run hot, heating the wash to drive off alcohol and aromatic compounds. The cost is what you lose: delicate volatile aromatics evaporate or transform under heat. Empirical built a custom vacuum system that distills at ambient cold temperatures, around 41-59°F. The result is spirits that carry through the original ingredient's smell in ways that conventionally distilled spirits never could.

This is why *The Plum, I Suppose* tastes like marzipan and marigold instead of "distillate." The plum kernels and marigold petals are macerated, vacuum-distilled, and blended without ever being cooked.

Why this matters for the trade

For a bartender, Empirical isn't a base. It's a finishing tool. You don't pour Ayuuk like you pour mezcal, you pour it as the smoky-savory layer in a drink that's already half-built. Soka isn't sorghum vodka; it's a green-apple-and-cut-grass note for a daiquiri-shaped serve.

The implication for service is that Empirical lives on the top shelf in volume terms but the working shelf in usage terms. Bars carry it because every weekly menu refresh wants one of its bottles in a featured drink.

The line we represent

In our portfolio, Empirical anchors the "category-refuser" end of the catalog. Pair it with January Spirits (small-batch Greenport gin and amaro) and Muyu (perfume-driven liqueurs) and you have a top-shelf section that turns a backbar into a conversation.