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Entrepreneurs looking to make Tennessee whiskey and other distilled spirits are getting to work now that it’s legal in many parts of the state, although it could be months — if not years — before their locally made potions hit the shelves.

The state’s first micro-distillery under the new law will likely open in Nashville, where distiller Darek Bell is eyeing a location in the Gulch. Because Bell already operates a small distillery in Bowling Green, Ky., it won’t take as long for him to amend his federal license as it could for startups to obtain one.

“Tennessee has a great spirits heritage, be it both legal and illegal,” said Bell, who makes four products at Corsair Artisan Distillery: absinthe, vodka, rum and an award-winning gin.

Bell, 35, a local road construction executive, plans to add a Kentucky bourbon to his lineup of products and will produce a Tennessee whiskey at his Nashville distillery.

At least two other Nashville-area entrepreneurs plan their own distilleries, and a Sevierville, Tenn.-based group wants to capture the area’s mountain heritage by producing an un-aged spirit to be marketed as Tennessee moonshine.

The advent of micro-distilleries is being likened to a similar boom in microbreweries, and advocates envision Tennessee’s craft distillery community turning into the kind of tourism draw that California’s wine country has become.

A Tennessee law passed last month overturned Prohibition-era restrictions on the manufacture of distilled spirits, which for years has only been legal in a handful of counties where residents approved the practice by a vote. Those counties included Moore County, where the Jack Daniel Distillery is located, and Coffee County, where George A. Dickel makes its whiskey.

“It’s about time,” said Bill Owens of the California-based American Distilling Institute.

He considers it an epic shift on the micro-distilling landscape for Tennessee distillers to come onto the scene, saying that artisan whiskeys made here will certainly have the cachet of being Tennessee-made whiskeys, a seal of approval known worldwide.

“There are wonderful cultural roots of whiskey in Tennessee that have been suppressed by old-time laws,” said Owens, who teaches a pair of weeklong classes each year on the art and science of distilling. His institute counts many of the nation’s top craft distillers among its members.

“Your roots on moonshining run very, very deep,” he said. “People have stories to tell, and now those stories can be told on bottle labels.”

The micro-distillery movement has been growing across the country as craft distillers create a variety of small batches using local grains, fruits and water. There are some 156 craft distillers nationwide, up from just 20 seven years ago. Today’s total is considered the most since before Prohibition.

How much it costs

Entrepreneurs can expect to spend $70,000 to as much as $1 million in startup costs, Owens said. On average, micro-distillers are spending about $600,000. It takes about two years to get a product out the door, he said.

At Corsair Artisan, startup costs were less than $500,000, according to Bell. He declined to say what projected first-year revenues would be. He expects Corsair Artisan, headquartered in Nashville and operating in Kentucky since December 2008, to turn a profit this year.

He hopes to open in Nashville in three months, although Metro government zoning issues could delay his plans another three months.

It would probably be easier to win approval in an industrial area, he said, but he wants to locate in a tourist-friendly neighborhood. He is considering property on Gleaves Street near the future location of Yazoo Brewery.

Most distillers hope to attach tasting rooms and retail stores to their operations.

Moving up

Target consumers, Bell figures, are 25- to 40-year-olds who are moving up from cheaper beers and liquors as they discover high-end spirits.

Using sensibilities drawn from working in New York City for MTV Network and in the advertising industry, Bell had a comic artist draw Corsair’s black-and-white logo, three strutting men in slouchy suits.

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Corsair, or corsaire in French, roughly means “gentleman pirate,” Bell said, a word he and partner Andrew Webber hit upon when trying to settle on a nautical-themed name for their rum.

Corsair products are available at local stores, including Midtown Wine & Spirits, Cool Springs Wines & Spirits, Grand Cru Wine & Spirits and the Wine Chap, as well as the bars at The Patterson House on Division Street, Flyte and City House restaurants.

Also planning to enter the craft distillery scene are Nashville home designer and builder Jim Massey of Delta Design and Development and former state Rep. Mike Williams of Franklin, who is executive director of the Tennessee Petroleum Council.

Williams and investors plan to open a distillery in Perry or Hickman county, where he grew up and his family has a 200-year history.

“This is not a get-rich-quick scheme,” Williams said, adding that he’s still about a year away from getting a permit.

Although state licenses are now easier to get, entrepreneurs must first obtain a federal permit, and those won’t be approved unless they already have a location and their stills and tanks are set up, said Will Cheek, an attorney at Bone McAllester Norton, where he leads the firm’s alcoholic beverage group.

Blending old with new

Massey sees micro-distilleries as another way for artisans to tap into Tennessee’s agrarian roots, while capturing the modern-day “locavore” spirit that celebrates locally produced foods.

He plans to use local corn, grains, juniper berries, even persimmons, to make his Massey’s Fine Spirits, he said.

“My dream is that we’ll have enough craft distillers to use local agriculture and keep part of Tennessee’s heritage alive and viable,” while also creating jobs and boosting tourism, said Massey, whose family owns farmland near the Jack Daniel Distillery.

Tennessee already has one micro-distiller, Prichards’ Distillery in Kelso, which has been in operation for 11 years, making rums, including a critically acclaimed fine rum, and a bourbon-based liqueur.

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Prichards’ produces about 20,000 cases annually using molasses from Louisiana, barrels from Arkansas, yeast from Kentucky and local limestone spring water, said Terry Marshall, national sales manager.

Prichards’ products are distributed in 42 states and eight European countries.

The privately held company didn’t really have any revenues until three years into its operation, Marshall said, and it’s still not profitable.

“I think it will be a struggle for them,” Marshall said of the rush to become part of the new breed of Tennessee distillers.

“I don’t see them getting much attention from distributors,” he said. “That will be their most difficult part: getting their product to market. They have no history. Nobody knows who they are and what they make.”

Others disagree and point out that whiskey is actually more popular than ever.

Expanding market

For the past decade, distilled spirits have been taking market share away from beer, said David Ozgo, chief economist at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. The market had been growing about 3 percent a year and appears to be recession-resistant, he said.

Revenue growth in 2008 was 2.8 percent and this year could be 1 percent to 2 percent.

Despite the explosion of micro-distilleries in recent years, though, their market share is only about 1 percent or 2 percent because a few large corporations control the industry.

“If someone does come up with a successful brand, someone will buy them out,” Ozgo predicted.

The Tennessee connection might help sales and create “a little bit of a natural advantage,” he said.

“But you still have to make a good product and have a marketing strategy to get people’s attention.”