Laws Is Ready to Debut Its Church-Like Whiskey Sanctuary

When Laws Whiskey House set out to revamp and upgrade its distillery tasting room and tour program in 2022, it wasn't just aiming to open a place where consumers could buy a bottle or sip on a cocktail. Instead, founder and president Al Laws designed a space where whiskey could be a revelation, even a religious experience.

The new 4,000-square-foot Whiskey Sanctuary, complete with hand-built wooden pews and two-story Gothic windows, is set to open at noon on Saturday, December 21.

Laws says he wanted to apply a company mantra and build off the somewhat church-y feel of the distillery's old tour program “exponentially” to offer the best brand experience he can.

“It’s a place to come and figure out Laws Whiskey. It’s a very cool place, and goes along with something that we always say, which is, ‘Make it exist, and make it better,’” he notes. “My stepfather and I built the pews. It has breaker boards that come up in front of the windows where we give the [talk], ‘Here’s how you make whiskey, and here’s what Laws is about.’ It feels like a church inside. It’s very elegant.”
Located at 80 West Arkansas Avenue next door to the distillery in the Overland neighborhood off of South Broadway, the whiskey church experience replaces the previous tour program. Tours will begin at the sanctuary, cross the courtyard where the distillery’s grain silos sit, wind into the production facility, and come back to a separate room in the new space specially built for small, guided tastings.

“I think the coolest part of the building is this guided tasting area,” Laws says. “It’s a dark room with underlit bottles. I think that’s the most interesting room in the place.”

After the tour tasting, or when simply visiting the sanctuary for a drink, visitors take a spiral staircase up to the second floor. The staircase is built to look like the inside of a barrel, Laws says, with the walls textured to look like char. The bar itself is “very classy, as well,” he adds. “It’s very intimate; it’s not a huge place where you can get 200 people. I think it’s 48 people max on the second floor, a place to bring your date or meet a friend before dinner or after dinner.”
Offerings at the bar will include classics such as an Old Fashioned, a Black Manhattan and a Whiskey Sour, as well as a few more modern takes like the Peach Basil Whiskey Smash. The distillery focuses on producing terroir-driven whiskeys made from Colorado-grown grain, including its four-grain bourbon and San Luis Valley rye, wheat whiskey, corn whiskey and different iterations in aging and cask-finishing. Those will all be on offer as pours or flights.

The distillery also has an agave spirit and an aged rum, which allows it to broaden its cocktail offerings. The bar will offer bites such as small plates of various cured meats, cheeses and nuts, as well. It’s a dramatic expansion compared to what Laws was previously able to offer: whiskey poured into a glass.

“I think it’s a big improvement from what we had before,” Laws notes. “We didn’t even have a license for ice before. Before, if you wanted to do a flight, you could do a flight. Now there’s this whole range of drinking experience with what we make.”
The space is also built with an eye on the ability to make it better again in the future. Laws says the next expansion is likely a few years away, but it was built with a rooftop deck in mind.

The Whiskey Sanctuary at Laws Whiskey is located at 80 West Arkansas Avenue and will be open from 3 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, 2 to 10 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 1 to 11 p.m. Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday, and noon to 9 p.m. Sunday starting December 21. Tours can be scheduled at lawswhiskeyhouse.com/the-distillery.