Bowman Open House

Unfortunately I had to be out of town and was unable to attend the Bowman Distillery Visitor Center Grand Opening last week. However, beer and whiskey writer Lew Bryson made it to town for the event and recounted his experience at the Whisky Advocate blog.

Yesterday I drove down to Fredericksburg, Virginia for the opening of the new Visitor Center at the A. Smith Bowman distillery, the place most of you know as the maker of Virginia Gentleman bourbon. It is an operation that is, to the best of my knowledge, unique. Bowman gets double-distilled bourbon-mash spirit (from Buffalo Trace, as both are now owned by Sazerac), runs it through their pot still doubler — named “Mary,” after the mother of the Bowman brothers who were officers in the Revolutionary War and settled in Virginia — and then ages the whiskey on-site in new, charred oak barrels (mostly; see below).

Lew reports that Bowman is repositioning itself as a micro-distiller, producing small batches of interesting and limited whiskeys. He also gives our local Brew & Gray Brewing Company a shout out, "the Spotsylvania County tourism folks were very excited about a “Grape to Grain” weekend they’ll be doing in mid-June, featuring Bowman, Blue and Gray Brewing (an established craft brewery in the same business park; excellent beers!), and four Virginia wineries, all of them along the old Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac railroad line."

See "A. Smith Bowman opens Visitor Center, turns a page" to read Lew's complete report.