The Virginia Distillery Co. expects to be selling a Scotch-style malt whiskey not far from the Blue Ridge Mountains within five years.
Partners Chris Allwood, Joe Hungate and Brian Gray plan to invest $5 million to build the distillery in Lovingston, Va., by the end of the year. In addition to the distillery, the property will have a visitor's center, warehouse, nature trails and a barley farm. In the meantime the trio is importing Eades Whisky from Scotland.
Located in Nelson County, the distillery will be near several Virginia wineries and breweries.
5 comments:
Any update on the distillery? I hear the product is well received so far... It would be a boon for the region to have a premium beverage with some staying power call it home.
Hi, this is Chris Allwood from Eades Distillery. We are well into the planning stages and the Scottish distillery equipment is currently packed and crated ready for shipping. We anticipate that it will land on US soil in mid to late August. We hope to start building in October and start production in the spring of 2009.
This is slightly later than we hoped but we are looking forward to seeing the development start!
Our Eades Double Malts just won 2 golds and a silver medal (missed gold by 1 point) in a blind tasting by the Beverage Tasting Institute of America 4 weeks ago. Distribution is growing steadily with DC and Maryland just being added to VA and CA 3 weeks ago. PA and MA are in our sights for the end of the year.
New recruit, Brendan O'Neil and I did a customer tasting at The Wine Specialists liquor and wine store in DC last night and all three products were well received. We had the benefit of the first purchase from a young lady who runs a whisky blog site called Scotchchix.com, I recommend all you ladies to check it out.
Many thanks for the interest in our venture.
Chris Allwood
Wow! This is great! Both for the community, and for Scotch drinkers. With the conglomerates buying up all the small distilleries in Scotland, and shutting them down (e.g., Rosebank Distillery in Camelon), this will bring back diversity and excitement. To start a buzz, I've already sent your website address to about 150 people, both in the U.S. and Scotland.
Bunch of questions, and asking them because I am an admirer of Scotch distillation methodology (and Scotches...) and very, very excited your business is in Nelson County:
Will the distillery focus on blended Whiskey, or single malt/non-malt barley, or both?
If you are growing your own barley, will you be malting it (I hope)?
If you will be malting your own, where will you be getting your peat for the smoking process (or will you not be using peat)?
Double distillation or triple distillation?
How will you remove copper waste from the distillate by-products?
What kind of casks will you use for the maturation?
Thanks!
Craig (from Nelson County)
I am a small, boutique wine shop manager in Chiago, IL. I am very interested in the Scottish and Virginia products. Do you currently have distribution in the state? Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!
Cheers,
Rachel
Chris I am with a chemical company that make sanitizers and detergents in the beverage indusrty. Can I send you some of my product for free to see how it works in your distillery. please feel free to contact me....
David @ 1800-533-0027
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