For #ASMWAdvent2024 day 4.

I do intend to do my best to get through a full 24 whiskeys for Advent. However, as is tradition, I’m already a few days behind on the Advent Calendar plan. =P

My palate was having an off night, so instead of tasting notes, I did a bunch of research and writing and decided that this was worth its own post. Not everything has to be attached to a review!

Earlier this year, Virginia Distillery Co. (@vadistillery) split off the Instagram for their Courage & Conviction line into a separate account (@couragewhisky), which gave me a signal that the core lineup of VDC whiskies would likely be expanding significantly beyond the Courage & Conviction line. I kept my ear to the ground for some news and when I saw these whiskies starting to hit the market I reached out for an interview.

You can find that interview at Episode 28 of Single Malt Frontier.

When Virginia Distillery Co. opened, they never wanted to make any white spirits, instead opting for something in line with their mission to bottle great single malts in the state of Virginia. They started by sourcing Scotch, later blending that Scotch with their own mature American Single Malt in a series they called “VHW”. This is one of those cases where the acronym used to stand for something (Virginia Highland Whisky) but doesn’t anymore because the Scotch Whisky Association doesn’t abide the use of the term “Highland Whisky” by any whisky that isn’t a Highland Single Malt Scotch. Note here that, like Scotch whisky, Virginia Distillery Co. prefers the spelling “whisky” with no “e”.

Now that Virginia Distillery Co. has a significant quantity of their own mature distillate (and quite delicious stuff, I might add), they are phasing out any products with a Scotch Whisky component. This means that the blend series VHW needed a successor. They have named this successor series “VDC”. Since their premium line Courage and Conviction already has a strong brand name of its own, it only makes sense to name this new value series after the distillery itself.

The initial release of the VDC series was a trio of cask-finished releases called VDC Cider Cask Finish, VDC Port Cask Reserve, and VDC Cabernet Cask Select. In keeping with the label style used for the VHW series of releases from earlier in the distillery’s history (which blended Single Malt Scotch Whisky with American Single Malt Whisky distilled at Virginia Distillery Co.), these labels retained the “VHW” monogram at the bottom of the label (although the new VDC series is 100% Virginia-distilled ASMW).

The VDC Blue Ridge Select was actually the 4th installment in the VDC series but is the first to bear the “VDC” monogram on the label in place of the old “VHW”. Incidentally, this release also makes the most sense to put first in a tasting lineup because it’s all ex-bourbon and toasted oak, which means you’re likely to more clearly experience the core flavor profile of the Virginia Distillery Co. distillate and distillery style in this release.

In preparation for writing reviews of these whiskies, I asked Amanda if she could give me some additional technical details about them. She replied as follows:

We use brewer’s pale malt from farms throughout North America, and to date have stuck to two-row spring barley, although we may begin including two-row winter barley down the road.

We do a minimum of 72 hours ferment in 10,000 liter jacketed, closed-top stainless steel fermentation tanks and double distill in copper pot stills that were manufactured by Northern Fabricators of Elgin Scotland (a subsidiary of Forsyths).

Our heart cut averages at 73% abv and because of our often humid maturation climate, our barrel entry proof is at 62.5%.

We mature in metal clad warehouses at an elevation of 920ft that are not climate controlled.

For our core VDC line the whisky is first aged a minimum of five years, but typically longer in ex-bourbon barrels (predominantly from Brown Forman distilleries) before finishing for an average of one year, occasionally longer.

We collaborate with Potter’s Cider and Buskey Cider for our VDC Cider release, and both of those ciders can be obtained locally in Virginia.

For the Cabernet Cask, both Jordan Winery’s Cabernet Sauvignon and Chateau Palmer’s wines are widely available.

For the Port Cask, Taylor’s is the most accessible of the brands we work with.

In the interview linked above, Amanda also confirmed that all of their whiskies are Non-Chill Filtered and No Color Added.

Look out for my review of the VDC Blue Ridge Select coming soon as the first installment in my ASMW Advent Calendar 2024.