Sperryville is a truly astounding place!
While I knew it was a gateway to the Shenandoah National Park as well as a picturesque little Virginia town, and I should have known it had so many wineries in the vicinity, my extracurricular activities after today’s hike took me to Copper Fox distillery and Mt. Vernon farm.
At the Copper Fox, they make Wasmunds’s single malt and Copper Fox rye whiskey. Their equipment is a cross between your grandfather’s science project and a hillbilly still. They keep referring tongue in cheek on the tour to their ‘state of the art’ equipment but really, what does it matter? Make the mash, heat it up, catch the condensate, and age it. And add art to the process. This place is great. Some Virginia law prohibits them doing tastings, so they do ‘nosings’. They apparently are on the menu in lots of upscale downtown restaurants. And it’s right here in Sperryville. http://www.copperfox.biz/
Around the next corner, I was drawn down a gravel road to Mt. Vernon farm, advertising grass fed meats and some other organic items. It was not a waste of time. The store is one room in an outbuilding with a couple of freezers for the meat and some shelves for jams and eggs (when they have them). The young lady who owns the farm with her husband is also the photo editor for Flavor, a regional food magazine which, again, is based out of Sperryville. Her husband used to be a chef at the Inn at Little Washington. I picked up a couple of steaks, a dozen free range eggs, and a jar of blackberry jam.