Portrait of David Klein
i. Biography
Grew up in Queens, New York, David Klein brings a maker’s language to distilling: the feel of a tool in the hand, the logic of a process, the discipline of getting to a usable result. His own description is direct: “I really consider myself a toolmaker; I absolutely love making things,” and that self-understanding shows up in work that stays practical, exacting, and alert to small shifts in method.
The Path
Since 2019, David Klein has been co-founder and head distiller of Ambix Spirits. The role suits a career organized around craft and patience, where attention has to become something tangible. At Ambix Spirits, the work asks for close control and steady judgment, because each choice can surface slowly in the finished spirit. Klein’s path reflects the distiller’s discipline: technician, observer, and builder of processes that have to hold up in real conditions, with real materials and real uncertainty.
The Work Today
At Ambix Spirits, the work stays close to the material, and Klein speaks about it in precise terms. He treats place and agriculture as variables to be read carefully, not flattened into generalities: “The weather variation is dramatic within a distance of miles and sub-miles.” In that frame, distilling starts well before the still, in the changing conditions of the landscape itself. There is also room for trial in the method. Klein allows for the unevenness that comes with working alongside nature rather than trying to override it: “I don’t know how things are going to grow, so some of the trees I test out might be reduced to a couple of token trees, because we’re learning.” That balance between control and curiosity, method and adjustment, sets the pace of the work today. It is a distiller’s language: knowledge built one season at a time, with the process allowed to answer back.
Career - Co-founder and Head Distiller — Ambix Spirits, Sebastopol (2019–present)
Signature
David's signature wines include Pacific Alchemy 1. The name fits the same measured approach that defines his broader work: careful making, attention to process, and the sense that what ends up in the glass comes from a sequence of decisions made with restraint and intent.
In Their Words “I don’t know how things are going to grow, so some of the trees I test out might be reduced to a couple of token trees, because we’re learning.” “The weather variation is dramatic within a distance of miles and sub-miles.”
Acclaim
His defining professional credit is being co-founder and head distiller at Ambix Spirits in Sebastopol, California. It is the position that best captures what he has made of his craft: a practice built on observation, experimentation, and the patience to keep learning.
FAQ How did David Klein get started? He grew up in Queens, New York, and is co-founder and head distiller at Ambix Spirits.
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