A. Smith Bowman Distillery of Fredericksburg VA is one of the oldest running distilleries in Virginia. Although their original distillery and farmland was in Reston VA and later relocated, their history and prominence in the northern Virginia area is one of warmth and welcoming, just as their tour was for me.

When you walk in, you notice just how enormous their distillery is. They use this front area for more than just distillery merchandise (of which they have a lot!) - it is an integral part of their tour and bottling. Once a month they have live bands play, with different food trucks offering their wares (July 23^rd is the next one).

After the pleasantries and an in-depth history of how A. Smith Bowman (we’ll use ‘Bowman’ for simplicity from now on) became a distiller, we work into the magic of what makes their bourbon, rum, gin, liqueur, and vodka special. Their bourbon barrels are made from the standard American oak, but they only use oak that is between 60 and 80 years old and from the Ozark Mountains.

On the scale of char, they run around 4 out of 10. Shown here is an unused stave.

The brown line in-between the wood is from a 14 year bourbon they made, showing just how much the spirit pushes into the wood over time.

An old school evaporation scale, to show year by year how much has been lost within a given year.

Moving on to the distillation area, it is humid and dark, with tubes, barrels, vats, fermenters, and distillers everywhere. It is the science area of this place for sure, and as I listen to Ralph, my tour guide, he embodies a deep feeling of passion for the science and art of distilling, filling my unquenchable mind with his vast knowledge of spirits.

The first, the workhorse of the two, is Mary. Mary is a 2000 liter passive reflux still that is their main turner of bourbon.She works wonders with her “tiara” reflux area, that spiral tube area that is unique to this distillery.

Recently Bowman has decided that if they wanted to experiment more, and bring a higher verity to their in house options, they would need another still, one that could be controlled with finite ability, and give active feedback to the master distiller on where in the processes the spirits were. This was achieved with the addition of George. George is a 500 liter pot column still with a massive active reflux. This beauty would give any distiller chills at the amount of precision one can achieve with their cuts and reflux control.

Pulling me along, Ralph takes me into the storage room where the bourbon is held. The dampness of humidity and sweltering heat is only overshadowed by the sweet aroma of bourbon being aged to perfection. Although this room is giant, Bowman only stacks their barrels four to five high. They believe that by storing at a lower height, they reduce the variation in temperature between low and high barrels. They also believe in this practice as it safer for their workers. Also, they store their barrels standing up, as they believe that this is also safe practice, and that it ages just as well (if not better) as on its side.

Once the bourbon has been aged to the satisfaction of the master distiller, it will be brought into this area to be dumped into a trough. This trough will catch all the left over charcoal and impurities that come out of the barrels. They will choose 8 barrels, and then dump them all at once to create the closest thing to the taste profile that is expected of the current batch of spirits. This is an incredibly difficult thing, as they need to know exactly what to look for in each barrel to make create that perfect mix of consistency that the customer has come to love.

It will then be piped into a cold chiller to extract the fatty acids that create that cloudy look in your whiskey when put on ice or brought cold. This does not happen with all spirits, only those that they believe should go through the processes of having the fatty acids removed.

The final step involves bottling and shipping. The bottles are brought in from Italy, where they found glass makers that create the exact shape and clarity they were looking for. Before these beauties go into any packaging slot, they will be checked for clarity, proper markings, any impurity, and a gambit of other nuances that make sure that the product you are getting is exactly what makes Bowman’s spirits a mecca of perfection.

After leaving the production side, I was ready… ready to try the goodness that I had spent the last hour learning about. So let’s get to some spirit reviews, shall we?

First, I wanted to try the one thing they have their name on that is not made here at the distillery, but is made to the specification and quality checked. That is their dark Caribbean Rum. This is a 40% Alcohol by Volume (ABV) blended rum made from dark molasses, which is the initial smell which rolls into a sweet candy-like smell towards the end. The color is rich brown, aged in the heat of the Caribbean islands to bring it the spicy and alluring look of good dark rum. On the first taste, it hits you with a dark fruitiness and as it moves to the back, that spiciness hits the palate powerfully leaving a long finishing aftertaste.

It was now time to move on to the bourbons. The first was the small batch. At 40% ABV, this is the standard content for base whiskey. Do not get this misconstrued as a base whiskey: just because it is a generalization of ABV does not mean that the complex aromas and tastes cannot be found within this bottle. On the contrary, like a robust bourbon, the aroma is complex with spice and fruit, hinting at apple or pear. On first taste, you get a completely different profile than from the smell, with heavy rye, low corn, and less sweet than I expected from the nose. It is of medium body and leaves a semi-dry feeling in the mouth, not a very long aftertaste yet very earthy, hinting at its contents of rye in the mash bill.

Now on to the older, bigger brother of the small batch. Bowman’s Single Barrel bourbon is bottled at 50% ABV and has a hefty kick compared to its younger brother. Unlike the small batch, and as it name implies, this came from one barrel. What this means to the customer overall is that unlike creating a flavor profile from multiple barrels, this needs to be aged and controlled specially to a standard that creates this taste. This is the same mash bill as the small batch so, as expected, the sweet aroma is there, yet it is more pronounced even though it was cut with less water. I tried it both straight and with a bit of water to bring it down to around 40%, and was surprised that the flavor profile did not change as I had experienced with some others. Both of these whiskies are drinkable and have a unique characteristic that requires one to understand their tastes to know if they will like it, though I would recommend trying them even if you are not a rye bourbon kind of person.

As someone who is normally not a gin drinker, I found Bowman’s gin to be very appetizing. I say this because I typically do not appreciate a gin that has a very overbearing one note kind of infusion. Bowman’s gin is anything but this. On the nose, I got a citrus aroma with a hint of juniper which was not overly strong. The first taste was surprisingly light, with floral hints and even further development of the citrus taste. As it moved to the back of the mouth, I was surprised at the lack of burn from such a clear spirit. This thoroughly quenched my thirst and would make a great addition to any cocktail, in my opinion.

Before I left the distillery, I was able to catch the master distiller, Brian Prewitt, and pick his brain. The one lasting thing that made me feel that this place is left in great hands was when he said, “The best bourbon has yet to be made,” in reference to the constant experimentation that is going on in his head and then into those stills. This is the type of men and women we need in the distilling industry - those who are not afraid to challenge the established status quo, to push our understanding of what a spirit is. I look forward to see what comes out of that genius mind of Brian’s as I am sure it will be something for all of us to ponder over a good glass.

For more information A. Smith Bowman Distillery visit: http://www.asmithbowman.com

For more spirit reviews check out: www.TheSpiritedNovice.com