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Chuck Miller starts a new batch of corn whiskey yesterday at his Belmont Farm Distillery in Culpeper County. Miller recently obtained an ABC license to sell his own products at the distillery. Before he could sell only through ABC stores.
Gordon Lightfoot applies labels yesterday to new bottles of Virginia Lightning, a corn whiskey produced at Chuck Miller's Belmont Farm Distillery in Culpeper. Lightfoot has been working with Miller at the distillery for more than two decades.
Chuck Miller stirs a mixture of corn and water at his distillery. He recently obtained a license to sell his own products at the distillery.
Chuck Miller signed a label on a bottle of Copper Fox Whisky for customers in the shop yesterday at his Belmont Farm Distillery in Culpeper County. |
Only Chuck "Moonshine" Miller could pull it off.
He's now selling homemade whiskey from a shed out behind the barn. And doing it legally, mind you.
One July 1, Miller's Belmont Farm Distillery became Virginia's only licensed on-the-farm liquor store.
"We've been dreaming about this for years!" exclaims Culpeper's most famous modern-day moonshiner.
As of last Saturday, Miller and his wife, Jeannette, are duly licensed by the Virginia ABC Board to sell either of their two products--Virginia Lightning (real moonshine) and Copper Fox (Virginia whisky)--at the gift shop in the front of their distillery.
It didn't take an act of Congress to get the job done, but it did take special legislation by the Virginia General Assembly.
"We got the idea from [county Supervisor] Steve Walker," says Miller. "He said that we should be treated just like wineries. Walker said that since we grew the corn for our whiskey right here, we should take the 'value-added farm' approach."
Miller, who has been making whiskey and selling it through ABC stores since 1987, says he thought the idea had merit and approached Del. Ed Scott, R-Culpeper, about getting special legislation passed.
Scott, who will back almost any agricultural effort--even one that is 90 proof, also liked the idea. But he figured the prospect of a back-yard liquor store might not sit well with the ABC Board.
"This was a small business that was growing and bringing in tourists," Scott says. "Folks could come by the gift shop and buy T-shirts and mugs, but they couldn't buy the product he was making."
Before pushing his plan further, Miller approached A. Smith Bowman in Fredericksburg and Mount Vernon Distillery, the two other small legal distilleries in the state, to see if they would help him in Richmond.
"At first, they were excited and thought it was a good idea, but they thought it was impossible to get done," says Miller. "Then I was all alone."
That didn't scare Miller, a 61-year-old retired airline pilot. With Scott in his corner, he set out to do the impossible.
After Scott introduced the legislation, which was written by the ABC Board lawyers, the measure slowly worked its way through the system.
"There were subcommittee and committee meetings and Chuck and Jeannette were right there for every one," says Scott. "They answered questions and put a face on what Chuck was trying to do."
To everyone's amazement, the bill sailed through both the House of Delegates and the Senate with little opposition.
"About the only question came from one senator who asked, 'Did you bring some samples with you?'" laughs Miller.
Still, after the General Assembly passed Miller's bill, the job was not finished.
"The governor had to sign it and he was busy with transportation and then he even went to Iraq in the middle of everything," recalls Miller. "I was sweating it out."
Eventually Gov. Tim Kaine signed the bill into law. And when the new fiscal year began, Belmont Farm Distillery became the only legal backyard liquor store in Virginia.
"We're store No. 34!" Miller says proudly of his gift shop, which opened last October.
When word spread that Miller would be allowed to sell moonshine out behind the barn as of July 1, there was competition to see who would get the first bottle.
"We had people lined up Saturday," Miller says. "There were two men at the beginning of the line and I didn't know how I was going to handle the situation. Then one guy's dog got loose and started running around and while he was trying to catch it the other fellow bought the first bottle."
The "other fellow" was Larry Corbin. He had Miller autograph the label.
If the Culpeper moonshiner thought this was a one-time deal, he was wrong. Now, every visitor who buys a bottle of whiskey at the gift shop is not satisfied until Miller comes in from the distillery and writes his name on the bottle.
Miller takes his celebrity in stride. His wife says he even wore his old beat-up cowboy hat when National Geographic came calling last week to do a feature story on the distillery.
He is never too busy, however, to give a tour and is always ready to joke with the customers. He is as at home in the spotlight as a pig is in a mud hole.
Besides, the tourists (a busload of sightseers from Richmond even showed up last week) now bring an added dimension to Miller's enterprise. Now they can plunk down $12.55 for a fifth of Virginia Lightning or $17.90 for a pint of Copper Fox before they leave.
"This has done wonders for my business," says Miller, who still wholesales to the ABC stores.
And tourists can get a big kick--literally--out of seeing how whiskey is made and then being able to take home a sample.
To reach DONNIE JOHNSTON:
Email: djohnston@freelancestar.com
| 'Folks could come by the gift shop and buy T-shirts and mugs, but they couldn't buy the product he was making.' Del. Ed Scott, R-Culpeper |
