Scott and Becky Harris are the husband-and-wife owners of Purcellville-based Catoctin Creek Distilling Co., just west of Leesburg. They founded their microdistillery in February 2009. Their first product, a rye whiskey, hit shelves at Virginia ABC stores in May.
“We spent a long time on the business plan, to make sure we had the right financing, that we could manage it, and that we could sell enough to be cash-flow-positive,” said Scott, who has nearly 20 years of experience in the business world. His wife is a chemical engineer by trade, and both love fine spirits. Their backgrounds gave them everything they needed to start the business.
DISTILLERIES DOT THE STATE
Catoctin Creek is one of a handful of craft distillers in Virginia. Many, if not most, have started selling their products in the last five years. Right now, 10 or so distilleries can be found throughout the state; and more are likely on tap in the future.
There’s one in just about every corner of the state: Parched Group in Richmond produces a potato vodka, Cirrus. Chesapeake Bay Distillery in Virginia Beach makes a corn-based vodka called Blue Ridge. The Virginia Distillery Co., south of Charlottesville, will complete construction on its facility this fall. And Copper Fox Distillery, north of Charlottesville, is one of the oldest of the new guys, founded in 2000 and bottling Wasmund’s Single Malt Whisky since August 2006.
You can even buy legal moonshine — “Virginia Lightning,” as the corn whiskey is known — made by Belmont Farms Distillery in Culpeper, which has been making it since the 1980s.
At Mount Vernon, though, the most famous distillery, George Washington’s, is now just for show. They only distill water at the first President’s home. But just wait. A specialty batch of rye whiskey is expected to be available this summer to those who are willing to pay: $85 for a 750-milliliter bottle.
A NICHE FOR EVERYONE
“When you look at the whole group of Virginia distillers, we’ve got some really good products and a good cross section of offerings at good prices that just about anyone can enjoy,” says Chris Richeson, founder of Chesapeake Bay Distillery. “It’s pretty cool how everyone’s developed their own niche.”
These smaller Virginia distilleries have joined the ranks of the state’s larger liquor makers, such as Laird & Co., which for decades has made an apple brandy near Charlottesville, and A. Smith Bowman, the Fredericksburg-based maker of Virginia Gentleman bourbon and other spirits. ABC officials say the craft liquors have been well-received by customers.
Look around a liquor store or bar, and you’ll see mostly internationally distributed brands produced in factory distilleries by a small number of conglomerates. “Fast-forward a decade, and you will see locally produced, high-quality, handcrafted spirits on those same shelves,” says Andrew Faulkner, judging director at the American Distilling Institute. Nationwide, he says, a couple of new distilleries pop up each month (there are currently more than 210 craft distilleries in the U.S.). “Think globally, drink locally,” Faulkner says, recalling a phrase he read on a distillery’s advertisement.
VODKA-MAKING A DEMANDING BUSINESS
A few years ago, while out one night having cocktails with friends, Paul McCann was perusing the selections of vodka at the bar and noticed that most of the premium brands were imported. So, he decided to make his own premium vodka.
He makes running a distillery sound simple. It ain’t.
“It’s fun because I enjoy it, but it’s not easy work,” says McCann, a former state policy analyst. He founded Parched Group in early 2004 and began selling his first product, Cirrus, in May 2006. That year, it won a gold medal at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
“It takes patience. It’s very demanding. It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of science, a lot of focus on sales — it’s just like any other business,” said McCann, 52. “There’s a lot more to it than what people think of being a backwoods still.”
In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Virginia Distillery Co. hopes to complete its facility in the fall and have a single malt whisky aging in barrels shortly thereafter, spokeswoman Patricia Jones says. The fine booze will have to age four years before the company is willing to release it. Cask sales of the single malt are offered to those interested for $6,000; but for those thirsty for the company’s product now, Virginia Distillery offers Eades Double Malt, a double malt whisky developed in and imported from Scotland, now available at Virginia ABC stores.
‘THE NEXT BIG WAVE’
At Catoctin Creek, Scott Harris is hoping Virginia’s laws will ease up someday so distilleries can offer on-site tastings of spirits. That would allow him and other crafters to forge bonds with their customers. (A new state law will allow samplings in ABC stores, which is a rather un-intimate setting, distillers note.)
Virginia has been good about promoting the growth of wine and beer industries in the past few decades, he notes, but Harris wants to see the focus on the responsible development and distribution of state-made liquor.
Virginia spirits, he says, “is the next big wave to come.”
Jeff Kelley works in media relations and does freelance writing on the side. E-mail him at
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