George Washington's Distillery & Gristmill — Attraction in Virginia

Just a little under 3 miles from George Washington's Mount Vernon lies his merchant gristmill. After exploring Washington's mansion, you may want to consider hopping in your car (or the shuttle) to explore this gristmill and distillery.

The smart man that General Washington was, he quickly switched from tobacco to wheat since tobacco was heavily taxed. First erected in 1770, this gristmill produced 5,000-8,000 pounds of flour and cornmeal a day. Washington's wheat crops were turned to flour for sale, and it was used to feed his staff.

The tour is much more extensive than I'd thought it'd be. Our guide first provided some historical context and then led us into the gristmill. From there, we were told about the milling process and the guides will even turn on the fully functioning gristmill for you to see the action. Next, we were led to the also fully functioning distillery and given a background on its history and the distilling process. Washington entered into the whiskey business in the late 1790s and it was actually the largest whiskey distillery in America at the time. You can sample some of their made-on-site rye whiskey at the Mount Vernon Inn Restaurant.

Open April 1 to October 31. Admission is included in the general Mount Vernon admission or if you're not going to the grounds, you can purchase separate tour tickets...

Meh. If you're into craft distilleries, pass if that's you're main reason for going.

The grist mill is awesome from a historical perspective, and if you're into woodwork or engineering, even more so. It's pretty cool to see runnning.

The guides at the mill were also knowledgable and nice.

Was not impressed with the distillery.

Cool that they run and bottle it the old fashioned way. But there really wasnt a lot to see, they don't demonstrate anything, and the guides' talk was underwhelming and misinformed in terms of historical distilling.

Oh... and no samples.

So if you're into the historical aspect like me, then yeah, it's worth the short stop. But if you're just looking for whiskey from the man that supressed the whiskey rebellion... Might as well pick it up at the Mount Vernon gift shop, starting at $30 for the gift size, and $98...

Pretty disappointed with the whiskey tasting and the value for the money. I cannot recommend this in good faith. See below for details.

We purchased tickets for whiskey tasting at $60 per ticket. Upon arrival, one of the guides instructed us that we could pick 3 of the 6 tastings and that we should all get 3 different ones and the share IN A PANDEMIC! So they want you to wear a mask, and then share tasting cups?!?!?!? The tasters are extremely small, and they fill them with 0.5 oz of liquor, so for $60 you get 1.5 oz of liquor.

That being said, the 4 year old whiskey was nice, the not aged one was a bit rough, and the rum was forgettable, no rum taste, just smoke.

Lastly, a bottle of the 4 year old whiskey is $225, the rum was …. wait...