pappy van winkle: A. Smith Bowman Distillery and Abraham Bowman Limited Edition Whiskey Port-Finished Bourbon

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Daniela and I took a tour of A. Bowman Smith Distillery a few weeks ago. The distillery is located in an old cellophane factory in Fredericksburg, Virginia, a little over an hour drive south of Washington, DC. This is a very special place, where small batch and single barrel bourbons are produced with patience, care and skill.
The distillery tour departs every hour on the hour from 9am to 3pm Monday thru Friday. Hours are limited on Saturday and the distillery is closed on Sundays. I recommend calling ahead 2-3 weeks in advance to reserve a spot. The complimentary tour includes a brief history of the distillery, a museum tour with relics from distilling in the past, and a behind-the-scenes look at the operation of the distillery. We arrived on a beautiful partly cloudy Saturday morning in the middle of Fall.

The week of our visit, the distillery released a limited edition bourbon called Abraham Bowman Limited Edition Whiskey Port-Finished Bourbon. This bourbon was aged for four years at A. Smith Bowman in a single barrel. Next, the barrel was emptied, shipped to a winery in Potomac Point, Virginia, filled with port, aged for two years, emptied again, then sent back to Bowman where it was filled in January this year with a seven-year-old bourbon before being dumped again and bottled in September. “The barrel for this bourbon has some miles on it,” said Truman Cox, master distiller, A. Smith Bowman Distillery. “But it’s yielded some amazing results. The taste of candied apples, dark fruits and figs all come together to produce an easy drinking, all around enjoyable bourbon.”
This bourbon is released in very limited supply, only about 100 bottles from this one barrel. Luckily, I was able to purchase one of these bottles in the gift shop. These limited releases sell out very quickly, so the timing on our trip was just right. We haven't opened it yet, but it should be a nice treat for a special occasion some time down the road.

Abraham Bowman Limited Edition Whiskey Port-Finished Bourbon

Master Distiller at A. Smith Bowman Distillery is Truman Cox. He signs all the bottles sold in the gift shop at the distillery. We didn't meet him on our tour, but we did learn a little about him. His background is as a chemist, he apprenticed at Buffalo Trace Distillery, and recently started in his position here in early 2011. He says that there are plans to release more limited-edition whiskies in the future, “The Port-Finished Bourbon is our fourth release in our limited edition series, and we have plans to ramp that up a little bit each year as we move along.” Cox aspires for each release to be a distinct expression, and with their limited availability, to be valued as a unique collector’s item. On our tour, we got to see a few of his experimental projects he is working on for limited release projects in the future.
Now back to the tour, Mary was our tour guide and she gives one hell of a tour. She has an excellent grasp of the history of the Bowman Brothers, the distillery and the bourbon making process. The original Bowman Brothers were officers in the Virginia Militia in the Revolutionary War, and helped found Fayette County. Their descendant, A. Smith Bowman, began distilling around 1935 after the end of prohibition and produced Virginia Gentleman The family owned a large dairy/granary farm, and needed a use for all the excess grain they produced. The distillery moved to the facilities in Fredericksburg in 1988 due to increasing real estate prices among other reasons.
At the end of the tour Mary allowed us to sample various Bowman products: Bowman Brothers Small Batch bourbon (90 proof and aged 8 years), John J. Bowman Single Barrel bourbon (100 proof and aged 10 years), George Bowman Carribean rum, Deep Run Virginia Vodka, and Sunset Hills Virginia Gin (all of the latter three products are not produced on site). The highlight of the tasting was the John J. Single Barrel, which despite the higher proof is very smooth and truly a sipping bourbon. I highly recommend a visit to the distillery, and you can browse the pictures below.