Virginia distilleries.

• Author: Bailey, Ronald
• Position: FOOD + DRINK - Brief article

Craft distilling is burgeoning in America, with around 800 distilleries making small batch rums, vodkas, gins, and whiskeys. The industry took off after 1980, when the government lifted the requirement that a federal agent be on-site daily at such booze-making operations.

Nevertheless, the spirits industry remains strangled in red tape, especially in Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) monopoly states such as Virginia. In December I visited three Charlottesville-area craft distilleries--Silverback, Vitae Spirits, and Virginia Distillery Co.--to sample their offerings. At each, existing law held me back to a measly three ounces of imbibing. Still, that is a big improvement over last year, when customers could sample just two ounces, let alone the year before, when in-house sipping was rationed at one and a half ounces.

And six years ago, would-be tipplers could only "nose" but not sip spirits at distilleries in the state. There are no such prescribed limits on quaffing at any of Virginia's 262 wineries and 70 breweries; the hard stuff is held to harder standards. The bureaucratic...