"george washington" news and stories

Peach brandy may not seem like the most masculine of spirits, but it was one of George Washington's favorite cocktails. And who's going to argue with the Father of Our Country?

Not the five American distillers who met in Mount Vernon last week to brew a batch of this original American dram. Standing around buckets of bubbling peach juice, they occasionally stoked fires warming the high-proof liquid, much like George Washington's distiller may have done more than two centuries ago.This particular batch of peach brandy will be aged, bottled and sold similarly to the limited-edition rye whiskey that disappeared in a quick three-hour public sale this summer.

Lance Winters of St. George Spirits, in California, cut peach slices while David Pickerell of Whistlepig Rye dipped his fingers into a stream of brandy trickling into a wooden bucket. "We started with about 300 gallons of peach juice and will end up with about a fifth of that in brandy once it's ready for barreling," said Pickerell. This is almost the exact amount of peach brandy recorded in the Mount Vernon distillery's production ledger in 1799.

Not long after he wrapped up the Revolutionary War, George Washington headed back to his 8000-acre plantation known as Mount Vernon, where he hoped to further develop a self-sustaining agricultural business. A few years later, with the arrival of a Scottish plantation manager named James Anderson, ole George was convinced that in order to increase cash flow, he needed to start making whiskey. So he built a distillery.

He started distilling in 1797 and within a year his operation was one of the largest in the new nation. Distilling whiskey was a natural fit for a plantation that already milled its own grain and operated a cooper shop making barrels. In 1797 the operation produced 600 gallons of spirit; in 1798, the production grew to 4,500 gallons. By 1799, Mount Vernon had nearly 11,000 gallons flowing.

Washington died not long after, and without his leadership, business slowed considerably. In 1814, the distillery burned to the ground.

A liquor order made by George Washington in August, 1776, was recently put on display at a whiskey trade show in Chicago. The list, which belongs to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, includes orders for cases of claret, muscat wine and cordials as well as a keg of brandy and a request for "2 cheeses—old—58 lb.," according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The Sun-Times quotes a spokesman at Mount Vernon Estates and Gardens who says that the supply was not likely to be Washington's private stash, but rather for entertaining officers and guests.