Virginia Distillery Co. is a whisky distillery near Lovingston in Nelson County, Virginia.1,2 After a stalled start, it began distilling in late 2015.3,4,5 It released its first fully house-made American single malt in 2020.5,6
John McCray and Pat Jones-McCray were early investors, and site work began in 2007.7 In 2009 the company planned whisky called Eades, named for Eades Hollow; Chris Allwood, with partners Joe Hungate and Brian Gray, was to distil it on 95 acres.1,2 That year two copper stills made in Scotland arrived by boat from Turkey.
The company names George Moore, an Irish-born businessman, as its founder and dates its start to 2011.3,5,9 He bought the assets of the stalled venture, and in early 2013 he was one of a new group of partners with Hunter Reichert and Charles Lundsford.3,5,9 By early 2013 it sold Virginia Highland Malt Whisky, also called Eades Virginia Highland Malt: a 6-year-old Scotch it imported and finished in Virginia wine barrels.7,8 This brought in money before its own whisky was ready.7,8 George Moore died in 2013 before the distillery was finished, and his son Gareth took it over; Angela, Gareth and Maggie Moore later ran the business.3,9,10
Gareth finished the plant with Harry Cockburn, the retired manager of Bowmore Distillery, and by 2017 some casks had rested in its cask house since November 2015.3,4,5 It mashes North American malted barley, malted in the Midwest and milled in a 1920s Boby Mill.11,12 It distils its spirit twice in copper pot stills from Scotland.11,12 It uses spring water fed from the Blue Ridge Mountains.13 Its two copper pot stills had long necks and were heated indirectly by steam from a boiler.5,11 The distillery says the longer the neck, the more refined the spirit.5,11 Its spirit ages in non-climate-controlled cask houses, where Virginia's hot summers and cool winters speed ageing.3,11,12 Gareth Moore first planned climate-controlled warehouses, but the Scottish chemist Jim Swan argued against them.3,11,12 On 4 April 2020 it released Courage & Conviction, its first fully house-made American single malt, after blending its own spirit into its Virginia-Highland whiskies.5,6
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