TwoFingers Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 Yesterday my wife and I took a daytrip to Fredericksburg, VA to visit the A. Smith Bowman Distillery. The tour wasn't bad and pretty standard. One thing they didn't show (or barely spoke about) was their mashing process. I was pleasantly surprised with their tasting. Never had their products, no I wasn't sure what to expect. Trued their small batch bourbon which was nice with caramel and slight baking spice. The single barrel was better with a little more rye spice and a better finish. Didn't get to try their port barrel finished bourbon. Heard some positive things about that. They also had a rye gin which tasted like new make rye, and not my thing. Side note - On the way to Fredericksburg, we stopped off at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico. Very impressive and well worth a visit if you are in the area. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry in WashDC Posted January 20, 2020 Share Posted January 20, 2020 ASB's 80 proof Virginia Gentleman, a VSBW, was one of my introductions to bourbon back in 1970 or thereabouts when the distillery was located in Fairfax County, VA. Your impressions on their current offerings match mine, and they all (with exceptions of their periodic LEs) are readily available to me in WashDC and Virginia. Montgomery County, MD ABC stores depend on the store. ANY of the VA ABC stores along the I-95 corridor carry the current offerings, and the store location and current inventory is available at https://www.abc.virginia.gov Here's a link to my notes on my similar visit to ASB in APR 2014, and the linked .pdf in my post worked as of a few minutes ago. RE: ASB's mashing process - they do not have (unless they recently started) mashing facilities on premises because they get distilled, unaged new make from their parent, BT, by tanker and then redistill then barrel then age then finish on premises. DISCLOSURE - I have no business connection to ASB or the VA ABC, but I do like the products made by the former which can be found at the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoFingers Posted January 22, 2020 Author Share Posted January 22, 2020 Thanks Harry. This makes sense. I think I remember now something about them getting mash from somewhere else. There was mention of the water they use but they didn't talk about mash. Also, I didn't realize they make Virginia Gentleman but there was a photo on the wall of an old bottle of that now that I think about it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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