Our Process

The barley is harvested and malted in the Midwest and shipped to Virginia, where it is stored in two 36-ton malt bins on site at Virginia Distillery Company. The malt is transferred from the bins to the 1920’s Boby Mill to be milled.

The Boby Mill, one of a handful in the U.S. splits the grain into three parts and produces the grist, which is combined with water at varying temperatures to start the production of whisky. Yeast is added, producing “wash”, which is similar to an unhopped beer of approximately 8 % alcohol by volume.

The wash gets transferred to the first of two copper pot stills to begin distillation. Copper is used because of its ability to conduct heat and remove sulphur-based compounds. These compounds can lead to the whisky having an off-flavor so copper is critical in producing a quality spirit.

The copper pot stills at Virginia Distillery Company come from Scotland and were handmade by a specialty fabricator. The shape and height of the still influence the flavors produced in the spirit. The longer the neck, the more refined the spirit.

After distillation, the liquid moves through the spirit safe, which allows the distiller to make appropriate cuts between heads, hearts and tails. Ours was created in Scotland in the style of a traditional spirit safe. 

After making its way through the distillation process, the finished spirit is casked and stored in our cask houses for aging. Virginia’s hot summers and cool winters allow our spirit to age at a rate faster than our counterparts in Scotland. Our main cask houses hold up to 5,000 casks each.