The Lees of Gate 11 

The cacophony of the colossal locomotives that rumbled passengers and cargo through Gate 11 at Chattanooga’s Terminal Station died an inglorious death in 1970 due to the building’s disrepair and disuse. But in the early 1990s, the Station was resurrected into a beaux-arts style hotel, restaurant, museum, and gardens, and the site is now known as the Chattanooga Choo Choo. The huge complex hosts a variety of fashionable shops and chic venues. Among these is Gate 11, Chattanooga’s newest craft distillery, which is named after, and resides upon the exit point used by the passengers from the train into the Station.

Gate 11’s owners William A. “Bill” Lee and Wanda Lee toured the area in 2009 with the vague idea of constructing a distillery and quickly reasoned that other Tennessee craft distillers had both the tourist, moonshine-oriented spirits and the familial heritage industry covered with great success. Instead, the Lee’s decided their enterprise would focus on total spirits involvement by making more than one product type. They also sought a setting to capitalize on offering a different experience, such as a full cocktail bar rather than just a tasting bar and a live music venue. After overcoming other hurdles and with much fanfare, in 2019, Gate 11 was launched to the delight of Chattanooga’s live music and bar scene.  Unfortunately, the new proprietors almost immediately ran into a huge hurdle: A newly created 2018 Tennessee law that required bars located within distilleries to sell only their own house-crafted spirits. Rather than give up on cocktails, the Lee’s resolved this issue by opting to create their in-house alcohol-based syrups for mixing, which include Aperol, grenadine, Kahlua, orgeat, and Triple Sec.

Bledsoe County native Bill Lee, now 72, a chemical engineer by trade, has worked all over the U.S. At his last gig before exiting the workforce, Lee spent 15 years at a plant in Minnesota that produced food alcohol as well as ethanol-based biofuels. After retirement in 2009, the Lee’s decided to retreat to the South, finding themselves back in the Chattanooga area. “Fifteen years of Minnesota winters were enough for us”, laughs the couple. Bill is a descendant of 7 generations of Sequatchie Valley farmers and a Chattanooga Baylor School grad. He met his wife, Wanda, when both were students at the University of Tennessee. The two quickly wed and have now been married for over 50 years. Mr. Lee has been making vodka for over two decades and helped start Shakers and Prairie organic vodka in Minnesota, as well as Foundry Whiskey in Iowa. So, starting his own distillery seemed like the natural thing for a slightly bored, recently retired chemical engineer to do.

Gate 11 now utilizes a custom artisan-built still system, which is a scaled-down version of the same principles Bill used in industry. In fact, he helped design and build the pot and column still and small batch reflux system that Gate 11 employs.

Nowadays, Wanda, a native Memphian, works as Gate 11’s botanical distiller and formulator, creating both the gin and absinthe products. Wanda’s gin has won gold and two double golds at San Francisco in both 2021 and 2022 and is one of only two U. S. gins to be awarded gold in consecutive years. Gate 11 gin was also named the best gin in Tennessee and then promptly won another gold medal at the Gin Masters competition in London. Wanda shyly confides, “Some people think gin tastes bitter, but not mine.” Without disclosing too many secrets, Mrs. Lee reveals that in addition to some citrus botanicals, she adds oris root to her gin, which removes the bitter aftertaste. Oris root, which is derived from the iris bulb, has a special meaning for Volunteer-state native Wanda since the iris is Tennessee’s state flower. 

Bill serves as Gate 11’s Master Distiller and oversees the distillation of all the other spirits that Gate 11 offers. He proudly recalls that perhaps Gate 11’s greatest recognition came as the distillery was named, ‘One of the top distilleries in the United States’ by USA Today. This was only one year after it opened. He is pleased that Gate 11 has never sourced its juice. As to its status as a small batch producer, Bill boasts, “Science meets taste – small batch equals big flavor.” He is especially excited that in September of 2024, Gate 11 was able to release a bourbon.

Larkin Bridges straight bourbon whiskey has a mash bill of 54% corn, 34% malted barley and 12% rye and utilizes only Tennessee-sourced grains. The bourbon is then aged for 2.5 years in 30-gallon barrels at a level #3 char in, an old boxcar-turned barrelhouse, which Lee explains produces robust thermal cycling. As for the name, Larkin Bridges was an early pioneer in the Kentucky Territories and was an ancestor of Wanda Lee. Other spirits that Gate 11 also very recently released include Thomas Young dark rye whiskey and Ross McClatchey single malt whiskey, both of which are now available to the public, but only in very limited quantities. There is also an as yet-unnamed Tennessee whiskey which is undergoing aging, and Mr. Lee hints that a brandy is not out of the realm of possibility for the future as well.

Currently, Gate 11 can only make enough spirits to barely keep up with demand at the bar, leaving little juice available for the open market. That is expected to change soon as the Lee’s are working on increasing column size, grain storage, and improving the steam condensate return system. Bottling capacity is also being upgraded. Gate 11 currently distributes statewide, with a strong presence in Chattanooga-area bars and restaurants, and lesser availability in other Tennessee cities.  The Lees' goal is to further expand toward a regional focus in Atlanta and Birmingham. This is certainly welcome news for any non-Chattanoogans lucky enough to be able to get their hands on a rare bottle of any of Gate 11’s multi-award-winning juices.

Contributed by: Tracy McLemore, Fairview, Tennessee

with support from M. J. (Michael) Jacobs, Tennessee Whiskey Section Editor, Smyrna, Tennessee

References: Barry Courter, Chattanooga Times-Free Press, 2022

 Dave Staley, WDEF.com (Chattanooga), 2022.