Whiskey to flow at George Washington home

MOUNT VERNON, Va. (Map, News) - Whiskey soon will flow from the stills at Mount Vernon, just as it did when George Washington operated one of the young nation’s largest distilling operations.

Starting March 31, Washington’s reconstructed distillery will be fired up. Mount Vernon will be the only place in the country showing the complete 18th-century distilling process, which starts with grain and ends with a powerful drink.

“No operating distillery from the 18th century exists in this country,” said Dennis Pogue, Mount Vernon’s associate director for preservation. “Washington’s whiskey distillery is the first in North America to be systematically excavated and reconstructed, so this is really uncharted territory.”

Washington started his distillery in early 1797 as a way to use some of the grain he was producing. The operation quickly took off and he soon had to purchase grain from other farms so he could produce more whiskey.

“Two hundred gallons of whiskey will be ready this day for your call, and the sooner it is taken the better, as the demand is brisk,” he wrote a nephew in 1797.

The distillery hit its peak production in 1799, when 11,000 gallons of whiskey worth $7,500 were produced. In modern dollars, Washington’s profit from the distillery that year totaled $800,000.

“It was the most profitable economic venture at Mount Vernon,” said State Sen. Linda Puller, D-Fairfax, who successfully sponsored legislation this session permitting the sale of whiskey at the historical site. “Now we can go to Mount Vernon and have a toddy if we want.”

The two-story distillery also features a storage cellar with barrels, an office and two bedrooms where the site manager and assistant would have lived in Washington’s day. It sits on the site of Washington’s original distillery, which is near his famous gristmill about 3 miles from the Mount Vernon mansion.

Washington’s distillery will be a highlighted stop on the American Whiskey Trail, which runs through historical distilling sites in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.

jrogalsky@dexaminer.com

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