Copper Fox Distillery, Sperryville, Virginia

Copper Fox Distillery. Open Monday through Saturday–check website for tour times and information

Truth be told, I don’t like whiskey. But I love discovering the unexpected, and that is what happened when my husband and I made a quick left turn at the small “Whiskey Distillery” sign while on our way to the Blue Ridge mountains. In an unobtrusive wooden structure down a gravel road just off the Lee Highway, (Route 211) in Sperryville, is a commercial whiskey distillery producing single malt and rye whiskeys and spirits–all 100-percent Virginia produced, hand bottled and labeled. Even the barley is grown in Virginia.

As you approach, you are invited to “ring the bell” for entry. Since 2000, Rick Wasmund, the Master Distiller, produces Wasmund’s Single Malt Whiskey, which is, according to the company website– “the only distillery in North America to hand malt our own barley, and the only distillery on the planet to use apple and cherry wood smoke to flavor the malted barley.” Monday through Saturday, Copper Fox offers free tours, and even though I am not a whiskey drinker, I much appreciated the smell of smoking barley and distilling spirits. If you don’t know Sperryville, it’s a quaint town at the foot of the Blue Ridge, about and hour and a half from metro DC and well worth a day trip. If you can’t make it to Copper Fox in person, you can buy their products in Virginia ABC stores and many liquor stores in DC and Maryland.

One caveat–Under Virginia law, you can’t sample, but you can smell. There is a small gift shop, which sells the alcoholic products, whiskey candy, and very popular barrel kits, which allow you to age your own whiskey to specification. A great gift idea for any whiskey lover.