10th Mountain Whiskey and Spirit Company

10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirit Company is the Vail Valley, Colorado distillery founded in 2014 by Ryan Thompson and Christian Avignon, named for the storied 10th Mountain Division — the U.S. Army's WWII alpine-warfare specialists who trained at Camp Hale in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and went on to become one of the most decorated American military units of the European theater. The brand's identity is built explicitly around honoring that lineage: the company donates to Vail Veterans Program, the Wounded Warrior Project, and the 10th Mountain Foundation, and the editorial framing across product packaging and tasting-room storytelling consistently invokes the alpine-soldier heritage of the Division's Camp Hale training era.

The operation runs across two Vail Valley locations: the public-facing tasting room at 227 Bridge Street in the heart of Vail Village (one of Colorado's most-visited ski-tourism destinations), and the working production distillery and rickhouse at 500 Trail Gulch Road in Gypsum, roughly 30 miles west of Vail in the Colorado River corridor. Ryan Thompson, who developed his whiskey appreciation working as a Vail-area bartender before founding the company with Avignon, leads the production side; the Gypsum distillery produces approximately 7 barrels of whiskey per week and ages all barrels on-site.

The product range covers 10th Mountain Bourbon Whiskey (the flagship, distilled from a corn-rye-malt mash bill aged in new charred American oak), 10th Mountain Rye Whiskey, 10th Mountain American Single Malt Whiskey, Colorado Clear Mountain Moonshine (100% corn unaged moonshine), and a range of seasonal and limited releases including barrel-finished and cask-strength expressions. The brand has built a meaningful presence in the Vail Valley ski-and-summer tourism economy through restaurant partnerships, on-mountain bar placements, and event programming tied to the 10th Mountain Division historical narrative.

The Vail Village tasting room sits in the pedestrian heart of one of Colorado's most-visited ski towns, walking distance from the Vail Mountain gondola, the Vail Village restaurant cluster, and the year-round event programming that anchors the town's tourism economy. The Gypsum production facility offers separate tours by appointment for visitors who want to see the working still and rickhouses. For visitors building a Vail-Beaver Creek ski or summer trip around the broader Eagle County tourism corridor, 10th Mountain is the natural craft-spirits stop — and one of the few American whiskey brands where the historical-military-heritage framing is operationally executed through ongoing donations and program support rather than just marketing language.