A. Smith Bowman Distillery

En route to Charlottesville, we stopped in Fredericksburg for a distillery tour. Learned a few things we hadn’t learned while traveling the bourbon trail. This distillery stores their barrels on end, so that more surface is exposed to the charred barrel as evaporation occurs. Also, we learned that Kentucky and Virginia are great locations for distilleries because of the opposing high and low pressure systems that move through the area. The high pressure systems force the alcohol into the charred barrels and the low pressure systems pull it back out with all the tasty goodness they’ve gotten from the barrel. They do a variety of experimental liquors. When they’re gone, they’re gone. They distill bourbon as well as vodka, gin and rum. Hoping we can locate some at home since they were unable to ship and our luggage is too full to tuck in bottles.Read more