It’s been a long time since we’ve heard about a manufacturer opening in the area, but today it happened. The Virginia Distillery Company intends to start their business with a plant in Lovingston, Erin McGrath and Aaron Lee write in the Nelson County Times. The company is already in business as an importer, but is raising the $5M necessary to start manufacturing. They’ll employ nineteen people. The CEO, in explaining why they chose Nelson, says that “it looks like a piece of the Scottish Highlands has been lifted up and gently dropped down into Virginia.” (Close: try Germany and West Virginia.)
There are ten distilleries, 157 wineries and 37 breweries in the state, with Starr Hill rapidly becoming the area’s 800lb gorilla. Incidentally, they run tours of their Crozet plant (the old ConAgra facility) every Saturday, which I mention only because I’ve been planning to visit tomorrow.
Mmmm, scottish-style malt whiskey. Yum. Count me in. Can’t wait to get a tour and give it a try. For those winely inclined, here’s a nice site about our wineries: virginiawines.org. Man this place is great.