Copper Fox Distillery

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Owner Rock Wasmund's Patch of Heaven in the Virginia Mountains

Before starting Copper Fox Distillery, Distillery owner Rick Wasmund apprenticed for six months with Scotch distiller Bowmore on the Isle of Islay. Copper Fox Distillery was licensed to begin distilling by the Virginia ABC board in 2005 as a limited distiller (<5,000 gallons).

The spirits at Copper Fox Distillery focus on the flavoring of the malt using the smoke of selected, smoldering fruitwoods, and hand-cut, toasted fruitwood that add a range of natural flavors in the maturation process.

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 grain malting. [3] Following the malting process, apple and cherry wood provide smoke during the malt drying process in a special room at the distillery. The apple wood used is from a local farm, where after the trees finish being productive (about 19 years), the wood is recovered to the distillery.

Copper Fox whiskey is distilled in a Portuguese small copper pot still and aged in used bourbon barrels (from the other Virginia distillery, A. Smith Bowman, maker of Virginia Gentleman bourbon). Copper Fox whiskey aging is accelerated by 'chipping', adding a sachet of small chunks or 'chips' of charred wood (oak, apple, and cherry are used) to the aging barrel. [5] Using this accelerated technique, Copper Fox whiskeys are aged at a minimum of twelve months. Scotch Whisky is aged for a minimum of 3 years and 2 years for Straight Bourbon. Wasmund once sent a whiskey chip-aged for six weeks to the Scotch Whisky Research Institute, who guessed it had been aged for seven to eight years.[6] All bottles of alcohol produced at Copper Fox Distillery are filled and wax dipped by hand.