Set up in 2011, Virginia Distillery Co. is one of a growing number of distilleries working to build the footprint of American single malt whisky, which was made an official product category by the national Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) in the US in January.

The family-owned group’s core range includes the Blue Ridge, Cabernet Cask and Port Cask Reserve whiskies, as well as the brand Courage & Conviction.

Its products are all distilled, matured and blended on-site at the distillery in the middle of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Its barley is sourced from a maltster in the Upper Midwest region of the US.

While the US remains Virginia Distillery Co.’s largest market, the business has international ambitions and is present in South Korea, Taiwan and several European markets.

Just Drinks sat down with CEO Gareth Moore last week at the BCB London trade show to discuss the group’s expansion plans, how Virginia Distillery Co. can compete within broader whisk(e)y and the ongoing uncertainty around tariffs.

Sophie Diaz (SD): What does Virginia Distillery Co. make?

Gareth Moore (GM): We make one thing and that is American single malt. It’s 100% malted barley, copper pot stills, we use used oak. Making something that’s uniquely American is always part of our plan but it fits the global definition of single malt. That category, we’ve been 100% focused on (with the exception of Covid, we made hand sanitiser). Malt is the only thing that has ever gone through the stills.

SD: What is your presence like in the UK?

GM: We don’t have distribution in the UK but we’re hoping with an event like this to get some exposure.

International trade is a bit awkward these days. Understanding those headwinds, but also understanding that these types of relationships for export and getting distribution sometimes take years.

We’re hoping to get distribution here and part of it is the awkwardness of, well, this [the UK] is the grand home of single malt. If we can get here and show what we can do in the States, that would be a great accomplishment.

If you’re looking for an importer and that’s your only goal, that’s not terribly difficult. You’ll find somebody. To find somebody who you know you have a relationship with who’s going to get behind the product, believes in the product, and is actually looking at, a decade of growth with you, that’s harder to do.

Face-to-face relationships are huge for that sort of thing. That’s why we come to this [BCB London], or why we go to Berlin or to Singapore. The primary goal would be to start some relationships and see which one might lead to long-term success.

Fiona Holland (FH): In terms of new markets you might be heading to, is the UK one of your main targets?

GM: We have our foot in each of those markets, the Asian market, and then the European market, and UK is definitely new scale. [It’s] something that we’re trying to get into. It might take a few years, but that would be one of the bigger prizes for export. From there, we really want to see which markets we’re best adopted in. Where are their consumers that are interested in that sort of thing? Then from there, we’ll kind of double down in the market efforts and so on.

SD: Where are your products sold in terms of off-trade and on-trade?

GM: We’re about 15% on-trade, about 85% off-trade. Part of that is the split of our portfolio. We have a shelf price of $69 and up on our premium line, $39 and up our lower price line. That lower price line does better in the on-trade and fits in a cocktail and so on.

We’re primarily distributed in the US. That would be 95% of our business this year. It would have been more [exports] but for Canada. Something happened earlier this year [Canada halting purchases of US products].

FH: I’ve heard this is now changing in some provinces though?

GM: Exactly. The challenge is that, while the actual trade agreements might get into place, what’s really been hampered is consumer sentiment. When the announcements first came up, some of the store owners were clearing the shelves of American products knowing that the consumers didn’t want them, or they’re making a statement that way.

In our product in particular, we’re not a Bourbon but in the category name it says American. We’re American single malt and so we really need to wait for the consumer sentiment to come back to ‘American products are great’.

We’re American single malt, and so we really need to wait for the consumer sentiment to come back to ‘American products are great’.

We’re in 33 US states and Virginia. We’re from Virginia, so that’s our biggest state, but [for] export, our biggest markets are Korea and Taiwan, and we’re only recently in the EU in the last 12 months or so, so just starting to get there: France, Italy, Poland and Ukraine, which is interesting.

SD: What makes someone choose Virginia Distillery Co. over another company’s whisk(e)y?

GM: Firstly, maybe speaking to the category, the global profile for whisk(e)y is malt whisky and America’s normally associated with Bourbon or rye or Tennessee whiskey. The idea of having something that fits the global profile but then is from the US where a lot of cultural things originate, I think makes a kind of interesting hybrid.

Then, in terms of the limited number of American single malts that are out there, they are fairly geographically dispersed… being in Virginia, I think we’re the most traditional in terms of our style. We use only copper pot skills, like in Scotland, we use only used oak. New oak is generally the American tradition, whether it’s Bourbon or rye or Tennessee. I think the drinker that has liked single malt whisky, but has explored around the world, whether it’s Japanese single malts or Indian single malts or Taiwanese single malts, I think they are the type of person that would look at American single malt and [think] ‘Okay, that’s something different and unique that that I’d like to try’. That’s what makes us a little different.

Then, in terms of the production process, it’s not so much the production process, but the maturation environment that really differentiates us from Scotch and a lot of other places around the country. It gets very hot. In Virginia, it gets very humid as well. We get up to 98% humidity… I think our cask houses the record temperature’s 106F (41C).

On the other hand, we also get snow and we’ll get quite cold. It’s never gone below freezing inside the cask houses because the casks insulate themselves in a way. We get four feet of snow outside the cask houses and it’s very dry so the impact is that the casks are expanding and contracting at much higher rate.

The angel share is much more aggressive in Virginia and we’ll see about 4% a year for our first four years or so. That might take 12 years to get to that same level in Scotland. That’s the good and the bad of it. We get some deeper flavours out of the wood in a shorter period of time but it’s not the most economic endeavour because we have so much losses.

SD: What are your annual sales and profits?

GM: We are still under $10m in the US in terms of top line and that is both a combination of our branded sales as well as contract production. For a new distillery… being able to get additional revenue sources is big, so we do contract distillation and bottling and that sort of thing for other brands, which kind of helps us pay the bills.

FH: Which brands do you do contract work with?

GM: We have a subsidiary that’s called American Contract Distilling Group (SCBG) and, we only started that about a year ago, just to help market that business… We have Bear Fight Whiskey, which is a celebrity brand [actor Gabriel Macht is an investor].

Our largest contract product is export only. It’s in Korea and it’s called Virginia Dare, and then there’s one called Winglore, which is a military oriented one that we use our own juice [in]. We also do a Bourbon for them… we’re often a component of the blended whiskey, so we have a few of those.

SD: What is your outlook for American single malt whisky? It’s still quite niche. How do you think you will compete?

GM: Of all the different subcategories of American whisk(e)y, it’s the fastest growing but that’s on a very small base.

We’re very bullish on the category and the adoption that’s happening. We really sit in the conflux of a few different trends. Premiumisation has obviously slowed a lot but exploration for different brands continues. Forty years ago, people would be very brand loyal, and whatever their grandfather drank is what they’re going to drink. But there’s a lot more exploration and discovery brands and younger consumers are into those types of things and understanding the story of where something came from and how it’s made and where it’s made. Also, that it doesn’t have to be from a couple hundred years ago to have great value, great quality.

The category is definitely going in the right direction and we’re investing a lot into distribution to get our name out there because we really believe in the trajectory and where we’re going. We’re quite bullish.

SD: Are there any challenges with growing in this segment?

GM: Tariffs are a challenge; I think about it both as inbound and outbound. On our supply chain, we use a medallion that goes on the bottles, a little decoration, and then we have on the Courage & Conviction series, a tube, a tin that it goes into. We say tin, but it’s actually aluminium. We get that from China. [A] 159% tariff, it really changes that very quickly because it’s an expensive part of the packaging, and so the tariffs go up, and then they’re temporarily down. They’re going to go back up and that lack of certainty has been really challenging for us… Just as a business owner, you have to do the most responsible things, not taking political guesses or viewpoints into the decisions.

One thing we started doing [was look at a] local supply chain and American producers making these tins for us. The challenge that we faced was that a lot of the vendors just don’t want to engage because they’re kind of in a wait-and-see mode, of ‘well, we don’t know what our inputs are going to cost us, so we can’t show you a price’. Also, in a sales process like that, it takes time and some expense from their end when they’re manufacturing samples, doing the marketing with you and showing the process.

Then the export side, of course… we had the EU with tariffs on American whisk(e)y that were supposed to go into place on 1 April of this year. We shipped over a full container over to Amsterdam in advance of that date and then they were delayed. It certainly creates a lot of uncertainty for an importer, of what’s going to happen with tariffs coming and going, one way or the other.

Also, as we were saying earlier, to Canadian consumers and sentiment to American products, a group of us earlier were chatting… and that seemed to be the common thing, [it] was ‘What do you think people are going to say? What’s sentiment going to be like?’ both on that technical level of tariffs but then, also, sentiment about buying America in general, has it been impaired? How much has been impaired?

At the same time, consumer sentiment takes a long time to build, it takes people a long time to change. In general, American products are something that people are interested in. People know that not all American products are representative of the current administration… But you play the hands that you’re dealt and we’ll see what sentiment is like.

FH: With the tariffs situation, are you presently sold in Canada at all?

GM: We were growing nicely there. Virginia is a control state. It’s where the state government sells you the product.

As a producer, we sell it all to the state government, one warehouse in Richmond, and then goes to 404 state-owned stores and their government employees there. But Canada’s the same, and so it’s by each of the provinces.

We were in Prince Edward Island, we were in New Brunswick. We were in Alberta, and then we were just getting into British Columbia in January, when the purchase order got cancelled, we were in line for Ontario… We’re on shelves but we have had no shipments we haven’t had any shipments in 2025, [they’re] probably running through their stocks. Hopefully it’ll change.