Copper Fox Rye Whisky

A rare pearl for Rye Whiskey devotees.

After spending 6 months in Scotland working as an apprentice at Bowmore distilleries, Rick Wasmund returned to the U.S. in 2000, full of energy, ideas, and skill, to open up the Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, a small village in the Virginia countryside. True to his education he chose to use the Scottish spelling Whisky for his spirits instead of the American Whiskey.

The Copper Fox distillery is special for a few reasons. For one, they uniquely use apple wood and cherry wood to dry the malted grain and malted barley—with the smoke of selected, smouldering fruitwoods instead of peat as is done in Scotland. Secondly, they are the only distillery in the U.S. to malt their own grain and barley, in a traditional and “low tech” way. And finally, they use progressive aging method, where they introduce toasted apple and oak into the barrel to accelerate the aging and give the Whisky unusual and new flavor dimensions.

Copper Fox Rye Whisky is a Rye Whiskey, which is double-pot stilled and progressively aged for 15-20 months using apple wood toasted chips inside a used Bourbon barrel. The mash bill is 66% Virginia Rye, and 33% Virginia Thoroughbred hand-malted barley, kiln dried with apple wood and cherry wood smoke.