Loudoun County has long been known as wine country. Now, with the addition of Catoctin Creek Distillery, it will offer local organic spirits and liqueurs, to be sold in ABC stores around Virginia. The grand opening is May 7.

Scott and Becky Harris, the owners and operators of the family company, have lived in Purcellville since 1997. They have two boys.

The distillery is the first legal distillery to open in Loudoun since prohibition. There are only a handful of distilleries around Virginia.

The Harrises had been toying with the idea of a distillery for the past four or five years, but only started seriously planning about two years ago.

“I kept bugging my wife,” Scott Harris said. “She said, ‘Dang it, if you’re going to do it, write a business plan.’ I think she thought that would be the last she’d hear of it.”

Applying for a federal license was an involved process – the final packet that they sent was about 200 pages long. They also had to be licensed by the state.
In order to be approved, they had to put all the equipment they were planning to use in the distillery building. This required a lot of money up front, to purchase all the equipment and make sure it was in good working order, without actually ever beginning to make any spirits or liqueurs. They had to cross their fingers and hope this money spent wouldn’t be in vain, Harris said.

“The start-up costs are really high and the payback takes awhile,” Harris said. “There’s a lot of faith involved, hoping it will work out.”

They were licensed about two and a half months after the initial application.

Harris said Loudoun County, besides being convenient for the family, is an ideal place to have a distillery.

“Purcellville in particular is centrally located in relation to all the wineries,” Harris said. The distillery makes its brandy out of local wines.

The distillery also ensures that its products are kosher, to prove to its customers that it has a commitment to quality, Harris said. It has kosher certification.

“There is a large Jewish community in the metro D.C. area and we can offer them products that maybe aren’t available anywhere else,” Harris said.

Catoctin Creek’s “Mosby’s Spirit” recently won the bronze medal for unaged whiskey at the American Distilling Institute Whiskey Competition in Louisville, KY.

Right now, the Harrises have two major goals for the distillery: to find a Virginia source for their organic grain—particularly rye – and to become licensed as an ABC store so that they can offer on-site tastings.

Currently on-site tastings are not allowed at either distilleries or ABC stores in Virginia, but in July the state will allow ABC stores to offer on-site tastings.
To schedule a tour of the distillery, or for more information, call 540-751-8404 or visit catoctincreekdistilling.com.