Steve H.
Yelp
This place was the surprise hit of the whole day. We stopped in on the return drive from LuRay Caverns (it's a cave), and I have to say the Distillery easily made the whole trip worthwhile.
We stumbled into what must have been a VIP tour, which was almost a 'Whisky 101" course in itself. Peter walked us through the malting (sprouting/turning over the barley), the smoking/heating, mash tun, fermenter, still, casks, and bottling/sealing. As an aspiring whiskyhead, this was quite the thrill.. the smells, grains, flowing spirits..
Most USA places start with either someone else's spirit, or at least their malts, but this was the top-to-bottom start-to-finish process. You don't see that every day, and it kindof makes sense right there in the Moonshine capital.
The tasting was a sweet deal, especially if you go as a couple, because each of you can taste three and share. It's a generous tasting for what, $8?
Right about now, they should have their Sunset Bar open behind the distillery, with cocktails and such, but it wasn't quite ready when we were there.
We raided the shop.. got some flasks, bottles, home barrel kit.. good times. The Rye Whiskey and Single Malt bottles were about $45 each. The special-cask (Port aged) ones were about twice that.
I'll let someone else review the Whiskey itself, or wait until Ralphy gets around to it, but I found them pretty flavorful, rich, smokey (wood smoke, not peat smoke), and a bit young/heady. It's a fun dram.
Shout-out's to Peter and the Copper Fox crew -- they do good work, and seem to have a good time doing it. Well worth pulling over to check it out.