Nelson whiskey firm eager to expand to single malt

RICHMOND —Lawmakers will consider a measure today that would allow a soon-to-open Nelson County distillery to sell bottles of its Scottish-style single malt whiskey.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, would let the Virginia Distillery Co. sell its high-end spirits at ABC stores, in local restaurants and at its 95-acre distillery off U.S. 29 near Lovingston.
The company, which produces Eades whiskey, expects to start construction of its distillery campus by the end of the summer, with the first locally produced bottles of whiskey coming out by September or October.
The distillery is already offering three varieties of double malt whiskey as part of its “anticipation series,” all of which were produced in Scotland. The idea, said Managing Director Chris Allwood, is to generate buzz about Eades among whiskey connoisseurs and prepare the marketplace for the distillery’s six types of local single malt whiskey that will be released later this year.
Eades’ Highland label of double malt whiskey is available at several local restaurants, including the C&O off the Downtown Mall, D’Ambola’s in Afton, Devil’s Backbone Brewing Co. near Winter-green and Thai Mex II in Nellysford.

Bottles are also available at 66 Virginia ABC stores, including one at Albemarle Square shopping center and two on Emmet Street. Each bottle retails for just less than $70.
Allwood said the whiskey is worth every penny.
“This whiskey is the real deal,” he said.
While the company is already permitted to sell its existing labels of whiskey, it requires the General Assembly’s approval to sell its planned single malt offerings. Deeds’ bill, SB 1213, won the unanimous backing of the Senate and is up for its final approval today in the House of Delegates. If its passes today, as expected, it will head to the desk of Gov. Timothy M. Kaine.
Deeds said he introduced the measure because it would create jobs in Nelson County and it would provide a boost to Virginia farmers, as the distillery estimates it will purchase 700 tons of locally grown barley each year.
“It would allow them to basically create 19 new jobs over four years in Nelson County,” Deeds said. “That may not sound like a lot, but in Nelson County that’s a big chunk of jobs.”

Nelson is already home to 10 wineries and two craft beer breweries, he added. A premium whiskey distillery is a natural extension of that trend and would attract more tourists to the rural county, he said.
“This is a great opportunity for Virginia,” said Deeds, who is one of three Democrats running for governor.
Del. Watkins Abbitt, I-Appomattox, had also sponsored a bill to allow the sale of Eades’ whiskey, but pulled it because he said it was pointless to have two identical versions of the same bill. Abbitt said he supports the distillery’s plans and expects the bill to pass today with no problems. He was also complimentary of Eades’ existing offerings.
“If you’re a double malt [whiskey] fan — and I am — it’s a very good product,” Abbitt said.
Once finished, the Eades distillery will be located across the street from a Jehovah’s Wit-nesses center on Eades Lane. The company currently has a warehouse on the site that is filled with its enormous, authentic Scottish distillation equipment, which Allwood and his partners bought in Turkey. Allwood estimates that the facility will produce 55,000 cases of whiskey annually.

“It’s quite a lot,” said Allwood, a former marketing entrepreneur and restaurateur. “I wouldn’t be able to drink it all.”
Allwood and his partners, U.S. Treasury Department employee Joe Hungate and dentist Brian Gray, have been working to open the distillery for the past five years. They settled on Nelson County in mid-2008, as they liked the region’s Scotch-Irish heritage, the surrounding scenery of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the climate, which they believe is ideally suited for aging whiskey.
Allwood and Hungate became friends in the 1980s while on a truffle hunting holiday in France. They shared a passion for food and drink, particularly Scottish malt whiskey.

Starting in 2000, the duo took vacations to Scotland on “hug a barrel” tours of nine whiskey distilleries over three days.
They eventually decided to join together to open a distillery of their own in the United States. They considered four states, but settled on Virginia. “Virginia checked off the most boxes of what we were looking for,” Allwood said.
Since moving to Nelson County, Allwood has learned that the region has its own established culture of homemade liquor. On 14 occasions, someone has left jars of moonshine on his doorstep overnight.
“It’s not bad,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I’d buy it, but I might just mix it up with cranberry juice or make my favorite soft drink alcoholic.”

Once open, Allwood said, the distillery will offer tours and lessons in whiskey making.
Maureen Corum, Nelson County’s director of tourism and economic development, said she expects the Eades whiskey distillery to fit in nicely with the county’s other agri-tourism attractions.
“It’s another product in our asset inventory, if you will,” Corum said.
The distillery, she added, will be featured on the soon-to-launch tourism Web site brewridgetrail.com, which will feature the Charlottesville region’s beer breweries and two places that bottle hard apple cider.