Courage & Conviction

"Have the Courage of Your Convictions"

With the courage to create our own traditions, and the conviction to remain true to ourselves and our home, Courage & Conviction sets the new standard for American Single Malt whisky, rivaling the finest in the world.

Using the highest quality malted barley and fresh spring water fed from the Blue Ridge Mountains, our spirit was developed to leverage Virginia’s climate, allowing the broad temperature shifts to add depth to our whisky. Hand-hammered copper pot stills crafted in Scotland are used to distill our spirit using time-honored techniques. What makes us a distinctly American whisky, and defines our signature taste, is our unique combination of casks aged in Virginia’s climate. Aging in exceptional casks adds intensity and complexity to the spirit.

The whiskies of Courage & Conviction, developed under the tutelage of Dr. Jim Swan, feature three core cask types:

• Bourbon casks: These barrels formerly held Kentucky bourbon from well-known distilleries. Aging in American oak bourbon casks add notes of vanilla, caramel, butterscotch, oak, smoke and cinnamon.
• Sherry casks:  The distillery uses Sherry cask types, including Fino, Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez. These casks give the whisky notes of tart cherry, golden raisin, fig, caramelized plum, brown sugar and spice.
• Cuvée casks:  This innovative barrel is sourced from premium European red wine producers. After the wine is removed, the cask is broken down, the interior shaved, re-toasted and re-charred, and then put back together again. The re-toasting and re-charring of the cask energizes the wood sugars and brings forward barrel spice, bright red fruit and toasted pecan.

The flagship offering of Courage & Conviction American Single Malt Whisky showcases each of these cask types with the target recipe of 50% Bourbon Cask, 25% Sherry Cask and 25% Cuvée Cask. This whisky is bottled in batches with the inaugural release hitting shelves in 2020.

New offerings in 2021 include solo bottlings of each of the core cask types: Courage & Conviction Bourbon Cask, Courage & Conviction Sherry Cask and Courage & Conviction Cuvée Casks.

An Award-Winning American Single Malt Whisky

Since its release in 2020, Courage & Conviction has received numerous awards and accolades from well-known and accredited publications.