Chattanooga’s Gate Eleven Distillery is being recognized on a global stage. Its flagship gin was recently named among the world’s best by the Beverage Testing Institute and featured in Forbes. The spirit was awarded an exceptional rating of 93/100, on par with some of the world’s finest. Gate Eleven’s recipe delivers “a complex and subtle balance between floral and herbaceous, citric and earthy notes.”
Gate Eleven is a small batch distillery out of Chattanooga, Tenn. founded in 2018 by former chemical engineer, Bill Lee. Wanda Lee, retired school teacher and wife of Bill, is the genius botanical formulator and distiller of Gate Eleven Dry Gin. Her recipe includes six botanicals: juniper, orris root, lemon verbena and three top secret ingredients you’ll have to taste for yourself.
The Beverage Testing Institute uses a blind taste test by an expert panel of judges to provide fair and consistent scoring. Their panel of judges describe Gate Eleven’s gin as displaying “aromas and flavors of juniper, anise, black cardamom and pumpernickel.” It has a warm and complex finish, “imparting accents of ginger, biscoff cookie, bergamot and mesquite. A delicious journey of juniper, spice, citrus and ginger with an underlying note of hearty pumpernickel.”
In addition to creating Gate Eleven’s gin, Wanda Lee has spearheaded the distillery’s recent ventures into absinthe. Both spirits will be featured at our Spring 2026 Farm Dinner Saturday, May 2 at 5 Porch Farm and we could not be more excited!
