WILLIAMSBURG — As part of the festivities of the Williamsburg Whiskey and Wine Weekend, visitors can also celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Copper Fox Distillery.
Copper Fox, which has a Williamsburg location at 901 Capital Landing Road, opened in Sperryville in 2005. Founder Rick Wasmund got the idea from his love of the smoky smell of campfires as he was growing up, and wanted to infuse that smell into the taste of whiskey. Returning from a trip to Scotland, where he interned at a distillery, he began to make his dream come to life.
After much success in Sperryville and desiring to expand, he opened the Williamsburg location in July 2016 at the site of the former Lord Paget Hotel.
“We wanted to find a location that had a lot of tourism going on. Williamsburg was one of the first names that popped up. They visited the area and really liked what they saw,” explained Scott Campbell, Chief Financial Officer.
Both locations are among the few in the nation to have a malting floor. A malting floor is used in the production of beer and whiskey so that the grains are spread out and regularly turned to encourage even sprouting and enzyme development.
Throughout its 20 years, Copper Fox has participated in projects including making the bottle of whiskey used at the U.S.S. Arkansas christening ceremony at Newport News Shipbuilding, and a partnership for a World War II-style bourbon for the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach. Its whiskey is also available at all Virginia ABC stores.
During the Williamsburg Whiskey and Wine Weekend, Wasmund and the distillery team will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the company. On Saturday, June 28, and Sunday, June 29, Copper Fox will be open all day.
On Saturday, the Cousins Maine Lobster Truck will be on site from noon to 7 p.m. and CK Band will play from 3-6 p.m. On Sunday, Moto Crepes food truck will be on site from noon to 6 p.m. and The Generations Trio will play from 2-5 p.m.
Throughout the weekend, the distillery will also be open for free tours at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tours last about 45 minutes and will take guests behind the scenes of the distilling process. Tours will end in the Speakeasy tasting room, where guests can enjoy tasting flights and handcrafted cocktails.
Looking forward at the next 20 years, Campbell hopes to embrace the Williamsburg community in new ways.
“I’ve always been a big shop local guy,” Campbell said. “We really want to enrich the community that we’re in. We want to partner with other community events, museums. We’ve made it this far and we’re really proud of that success, but we still have a long ways to go.”
For more information on the Whiskey and Wine Weekend, visit williamsburgwhiskeywine.com. To learn more about Copper Fox, visit copperfoxdistillery.com.