Virginia to make whisky with Scotch barley

A new distillery based in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia is set to fire up its stills next month and produce a single malt whiskey using Scottish barley.

The Virginia Distillery Company will start production of its single malt whisky next month

Virginia Distillery Company is based on a 100-acre property in Lovingston and will open its production facility and visitors’ centre, called The Virginia Whisky Experience, next month.

The company’s new signature single malt will use imported two-row barley from Scotland, which will be milled in a machine from the 1920s, distilled in copper pot stills, and aged in ex-Bourbon casks.

“During the two-to-four years the whisky needs to develop, the Blue Ridge climate will help pull different flavors from oak barrels as temperature and humidity vary day to day and season to season,” the distillery said. “The result will be an American single-malt whisky that is distinctly original.”

At full production Virginia Distillery Company will have the capacity to produce 350,000 cases annually.

Currently, the company bottles a Virginia Highland Malt originally distilled in Scotland and finished in local Virginia Port-style wine casks. The whisky is distributed in Virginia, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Washington, DC.

Businessman Dr. George G. Moore initially formed plans to open a distillery in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. However after Moore unexpectedly died in 2013, his son took over the distillery plans and is now the company’s CEO.

“At Virginia Distillery Co., we’re carrying my father’s vision to fruition,” he said. “We’re distilling a single-malt whisky utilising time-tested traditional methods from the old world, but here in the new world Dad called home.”

Last week, George Washington’s Distillery in Mount Vernon unveiled a “Scottish style” single malt whisky made in collaboration with leading Scotch whisky producers.