Gianforte Visits Helena Distillery to Spotlight Montana-Grown Agriculture

Governor Greg Gianforte walked into Gulch Distillers on a sunny St. Patrick's Day in downtown Helena, picked up a glass of Burrone Fernet, and made the case that a bitter herbal liqueur could be an agricultural policy statement.

The March 17 visit, timed to National Agriculture Week, brought the governor to the manufacturing facility and tasting room of the distillery co-owned by Steffen Rasile and Tyrrell Hibbard. Gianforte toured the operation and heard directly from the owners about how a $25,000 award from the Montana Department of Agriculture through the Growth Through Agriculture grant and loan program had reshaped the business. That funding helped Gulch move its tasting room and bottling system to a new downtown location, freeing space at the original site to increase distilling capacity.

"It's made us more visible and we get more traffic in the tasting room," Hibbard said during the tour.

Founded in 2015 as what the owners describe as a side project, Gulch Distillers now produces nine grain-based spirits. Nearly everything in the bottle traces back to Montana soil: barley, wheat, and rye sourced from in-state producers, with locally grown fruit used to flavor products like apple brandy. Sugarcane for rum stands as the sole exception. The distillery has earned several national awards since its founding and sits within walking distance of the Last Chance Gulch walking mall, a location that amplifies foot traffic to the tasting room.

Rasile described the company's guiding philosophy in terms that go beyond the production floor. "We love this state, and however we can help tell the story of Montana, for us it's putting that flavor and those stories into a bottle and helping to experience Montana in a different form," he told MTN. "Being able to use Montana-grown agriculture products and value-add that into a spirit has been a very rewarding process for us."

Hibbard echoed that commitment: "We're proud to craft our spirits using Montana-grown grains and to do it right here in Helena. From day one, our goal has been to create high quality products while supporting Montana agriculture and sharing that story with everyone who walks through our doors."

Gianforte framed the visit around both entrepreneurship and agricultural economics. "Montana is a tremendously entrepreneurial state, and we love celebrating entrepreneurs wherever they are," he said after the tour. "Small businesses like this are the backbone of our economy and particularly because it's National Ag month, we wanted to celebrate someone who's using Montana ag products to serve the public."

In remarks tied to the state newsroom release, Gianforte positioned Gulch within a broader argument about Montana's top economic sector. "Montana agriculture is our number one industry, supporting jobs, communities, and our way of life. Businesses like Gulch Distillers highlight the strength of value-added agriculture by turning Montana-grown grain into award winning products."

The Growth Through Agriculture program, administered by the Montana Department of Agriculture, targets exactly that conversion: raw commodity into finished product, with the state absorbing part of the risk to help small producers scale. For Gulch, the $25,000 moved the needle from a tasting room tucked away from foot traffic to a downtown storefront drawing new customers steps from one of Helena's most-visited corridors.