Copper Fox Distillery is a distillery that produces American whiskey in Sperryville, Virginia and Williamsburg, VA. The owner and operator of Copper Fox Distillery is Rick Wasmund.
Copper Fox Distillery is a distillery that produces American whiskey in Sperryville, Virginia and Williamsburg, VA. The owner and operator of Copper Fox Distillery is Rick Wasmund.
Before starting Copper Fox, Wasmund apprenticed for six weeks at the Bowmore distillery on the Isle of Islay, learning the art of floor malting. [1] Copper Fox was licensed to begin distilling by the Virginia ABC board in 2005 as a limited distiller (<5,000 gallons), and that year Copper Fox opened its first distillery in Sperryville, VA, in a converted apple packaging plant. [2] Pursuing an additional location, Copper Fox purchased the historic Lord Paget Motor Inn in Williamsburg, VA, in 2015. They opened their second distillery location in July 2016, and both are operational today.
Copper Fox uses barley bred specifically for the distillery and grown in Virginia, and Copper Fox is the only distiller in the United States to do 100% of its own malting. [3] During the malt drying process, fruitwood (including applewood and cherrywood) smokes the grain, similar to peat smoke use in Scotch whiskies. All the wood used for the smoke comes from local orchards. [4] In addition to malting for their own products, Copper Fox sells a portion of their malt to breweries, who use it to make beer. [5]
Copper Fox whisky is distilled in a copper pot still and aged in used bourbon barrels (from another Virginia distillery, A. Smith Bowman, maker of Virginia Gentleman bourbon). Copper Fox utilizes 'chipping' in the aging of their whisky, adding a sachet of small chunks or 'chips' of charred wood to the aging barrel. [6] Using this accelerated technique, Copper Fox whiskies are aged at a minimum of twelve months, compared to the 3 year minimum for Scotch Whisky. In addition to single malt whiskies, Copper Fox produces whiskies made from rye, clear spirits, and a botanical gin. They also plan on releasing a bourbon in the future. All bottles of alcohol produced at Copper Fox are filled and labelled by hand. [4]
In 2018 Copper Fox launched new packaging.
The new packaging and label design better organize the current product portfolio, better communicates the rich brand story at the shelf, and provides a cohesive and recognizable design that helps support our distributor partners and helps consumers shop across products and tiers.
Across the complete portfolio, the front label shape is consistent and each whiskey category has its own unique color in the descriptor section of the face label. The Copper Fox brandmark on the front label has been enlarged and highlighted with copper and silver foil embossing accents which adds to the upscale feel and provides easier brand name recognition on the back bar and retail shelf. Front labels describe our process in detail, back labels tell our story and the closures have been upgraded to a wood bar top to represent our connection to “the wood”. The necker label sayings and batch designations are a way for us to continue to have fun and be creative. Awards, tasting notes and cocktail recipes for each whisky will eventually be provided on hanging neck tags.
Current fans familiar with Copper Fox will no longer see “Wasmund’s” on the labels. Although the label has changed, the “original” spirits are the same. According to founder Rick Wasmund, “in a way, it is somewhat bittersweet, but it’s not about me. The consolidation of our products under the Copper Fox brand reflects our mission and strong commitment and plans for continued growth”
Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden casks, which are typically made of charred white oak. Uncharred white oak casks previously used for the aging of port, rum or sherry are also sometimes used.
Bourbon is a type of barrel-aged American whiskey made primarily from corn (maize). The name derives from the French Bourbon dynasty, although the precise source of inspiration is uncertain; contenders include Bourbon County in Kentucky and Bourbon Street in New Orleans, both of which are named after the dynasty. The name bourbon was not applied until the 1850s, and the Kentucky etymology was not advanced until the 1870s.
Rye whiskey can refer to two different, but related, types of whiskey:
Tennessee whiskey is straight whiskey produced in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Although it has been legally defined as a bourbon whiskey in some international trade agreements, most current producers of Tennessee whiskey disclaim references to their products as "bourbon" and do not label them as such on any of their bottles or advertising materials. All current Tennessee whiskey producers are required by Tennessee law to produce their whiskeys in Tennessee and – with the sole exception of Benjamin Prichard's – to use a filtering step known as the Lincoln County Process prior to aging the whiskey. Beyond the perceived marketing value of the distinction, Tennessee whiskey and bourbon have almost identical requirements, and most Tennessee whiskeys meet the criteria for bourbon.
Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. is a private, American family-owned and operated distillery founded in 1935 and headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky, that produces and markets the Heaven Hill brand of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a variety of other distilled spirits. Its current distillery facility, called the Heaven Hill Bernheim distillery, is in Louisville, Kentucky. It is the seventh-largest alcohol supplier in the United States, the second-largest holder of bourbon whiskey inventory in the world, the largest, independent, family-owned and operated producer and marketer of distilled spirits in the United States, and the only large family-owned distillery company headquartered in Kentucky.
Woodford Reserve is a brand of premium small batch Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey produced in Woodford County, Kentucky, by the Brown-Forman Corporation. It is made from a mixture of copper pot still spirits produced at the company's Woodford Reserve Distillery, and column still spirits from the Brown Forman Distillery in Shively, Kentucky. Each 45.2% alcohol by volume bottle bears a unique batch and bottle number. The brand was introduced in 1996. Domestic sales of Woodford Reserve surpassed one million cases in 2021.
Bottled in bond is a label for an American-produced distilled beverage that has been aged and bottled according to a set of legal regulations contained in the United States government's Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits, as originally laid out in the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897. As a reaction to widespread adulteration in American whiskey, the act made the federal government the guarantor of a spirit's authenticity, gave producers a tax incentive for participating, and helped ensure proper accounting and the eventual collection of the tax that was due. Although the regulations apply to all spirits, most bonded spirits are whiskeys in practice.
Alberta Premium is one of the few remaining 100% rye grain rye whiskies produced in North America. The brand is owned by Beam Suntory
American whiskey is whiskey produced in the United States. American whiskeys made from mashes with at least 51% of their named grains include bourbon whiskey, rye whiskey, rye malt whiskey, malt whiskey, wheat whiskey, Tennessee whiskey, and corn whiskey.
Small batch whiskey is whiskey produced by mixing the contents of a relatively small number of selected barrels. Small batch whiskeys are commercially positioned for the upper-premium market. The term is most commonly used for American whiskey but is sometimes used for other whiskeys as well. For example, the Bowmore distillery in Islay, Scotland, has produced a single malt Scotch whisky labeled as "small batch".
Nelson's Green Brier Distillery is a popular whiskey distillery located in downtown Nashville, Tennessee that produces different varieties of Tennessee whiskey and bourbons. The distillery, located at 1414 Clinton St. Nashville, Tennessee 37203, offers daily tours and tastings as well as a large mercantile shop with bottles, barware and apparel available for purchase. As of summer 2023, Nelson's Green Brier Distillery will open a restaurant and bar as well as several private event and dining spaces available to rent for corporate functions, weddings and celebrations of varying sizes.
Willett Distillery, also known as Kentucky Bourbon Distillers (KBD), Ltd., is a private family-owned and -operated company that produces bourbon and rye whiskey. Over the years the company has bottled whiskeys that range from 2 years of aging maturity up to 28 years.
It has been common practice in the whisky industry for more than a century for distilleries to sell barrels of whisky to blenders and independent bottlers as a means of making additional income. In fact, some distilleries exist solely to serve independent bottlers, and do not market any brands themselves.
Willett Pot Still Reserve Bourbon is brand of a bourbon whiskey produced in Bardstown, Kentucky by the Willett Distillery. It is a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey brand introduced in 2008 and bottled at 47% abv, with 8–10 year aging. It is sold in glass 750 ml and 1.75 liter bottles. The company is identified on the product label as the Willett Distilling Company, which was the original name of the company until its name was changed in 1984 to Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, Ltd. (KBD). In October 2012, the company announced that it would return to using the Willett name as its primary business name. Recent bottlings are identified on the labels as a small batch bourbon, whereas it was originally released as a single barrel bourbon.
Benjamin Prichard's Tennessee Whiskey is a brand of Tennessee whiskey produced in the small community of Kelso, Tennessee in the United States. Although it is produced by one of only two distilleries operating in Lincoln County – and its unaged variation is named Lincoln County Lightning – Prichard's is not produced using the Lincoln County Process. Due to a special grandfathering exemption under a Tennessee law enacted in 2013, the Prichard's distillery in Kelso is the only producer allowed to label its product as "Tennessee Whiskey" without using this process. Prichard's whiskey is produced entirely using pot stills rather than column stills.
ASW Distillery is a manufacturer of liquor located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the second legally licensed distillery in Atlanta since the end of American Prohibition and distilled the first single malt whiskey in Atlanta history. In 2018, the distillery's Duality Double Malt Whiskey became Georgia's first-ever Double Gold Medal Whiskey, as judged by the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
The Boone County Distilling Company is a distillery originally formed in Petersburg, Kentucky, and operated from 1833 until shutting down in 1918. It was later re-established in Independence, Kentucky, in 2015, by owners Jack Wells and Josh Quinn.
Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is a brand of Tennessee whiskey produced by Uncle Nearest, Inc., headquartered in Shelbyville, Tennessee. The whiskey is named after the formerly enslaved man, Nathan "Nearest" Green, who taught a young Jack Daniel the craft of distilling.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to whisky: