Virginia Distillery Co. — Attraction in Amherst

Did the VIP tour and single cask tasting. Tour guide was a little soft-spoken (hard to hear in some of the louder areas of the tour), but overall, it was a really cool experience. I came into the tour knowing absolutely zero about whiskey. I learned a lot about how whiskey is made and the process used. Everyone we met at the facility was super knowledgeable and kind. The extra $20 for the VIP tour is 100% worth it.

The tasting itself was pretty cool too. For the single cask tasting you get about 0.5 oz of four different types. There is one "blended" single-cask where they essentially combine some of each of their three single-cask types, then there are one of each of bourbon single-cask, cuvee single-cask, and sherry single-cask (Don't worry if you don't know what this means, they explain all this during the tour/tasting). My personal favorite was the sherry, although the cuvee and blended were pretty good too. The rest of our tour group (a friendly, experienced, and chatty bunch) seemed to prefer the sherry, blended, and the cuvee to a lesser extent, as well. (Sample size of ~10 people)

All in all, for $45, it was a very worthwhile experience and I am glad I ponied up the extra $20 for the tour, which I was very hesitant to...

So I have been to about 100 distilleries and never been greeted with such negativity at the front door. My buddy was finishing a beer as we walked in and about ready to throw it away but you would have thought he was trying to burn down the building. One of the workers aggressively targeted him lecturing him as he finished it and saying she couldn’t believe he brought that in. Did we know the rules at that point being from out of town? We are all military families and were being respectful and had a driver. Because I haven’t seen these friends in years, we were willing to stick with it. We were the ONLY customers and you would think that they would be a little nicer at presenting the rules. I was so embarrassed for my buddy and his wife. As we were trying to share our flights they aggressively came over again and said you can not drink over 3 oz which is hard to calculate if you take a sip of different ones. She said he can not take another drink. It was so over the top. Regardless of the whiskey I would never go back.

Reply: understand there are rules…but there is a way to go about it. It’s called being cordial. Trust me… we are very...

This place focuses on single malt distilling that is aged 3 different ways. They have a cider Barrell, sherry, cuvee (red wine), bourbon, and port barrel finish. All were in the 90 proof range. So if you're looking for the 'flavored' spirits then this is the wrong place to go. If you're interested in a traditional Scottish single malt then you definitely need to stop by.

3/9/2025: Just a quick update. The overall layout of the place hasn't changed, but over the past 2 years they really expanded their offerings. In general the finishes I mentioned before are their core, but they've also added some limited different finishes, which can vary. They are also offering some pretty high proof single barrel, which are still relatively smooth. Hands down my favorite this trip was the single barrel sherry finished...