Virginia Gentleman

Virginia Gentleman is a brand of bourbon whiskey. Unlike most other bourbons, it is not distilled in Kentucky but in the adjoining state of Virginia. Virginia Gentleman's former label was a source of controversy as it apparently depicted two wealthy plantation-owners being served by a slave. The label was redesigned somewhat to change this implication; also, the former motto, "The Aristocrat of Them All," was discontinued at the same time, at least from appearing on the label. This beverage has had something of a following typical of some smaller-brand alcoholic beverages.

In addition to the 80-proof (40 percent alcohol) presentation, the distillery also offers a 90-proof small batch whiskey. Both are triple-distilled. The Virginia Gentleman small-batch 90-proof whiskey won Double Gold and Best American Whiskey awards at the 2008 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Although it won a double gold at the same competition in 2006, its performance in other years has been quite variable. It received silver medals in 2005 and 2009 and a bronze medal in 2007. In 2007, another spirit ratings organization—the Beverage Testing Insititute—awarded the 90-proof a middling score of 87 on its 100-point scale.

Virginia Gentleman's producer, A. Smith Bowman Distillery, was founded in 1934 by Abram Smith Bowman and his sons, Smith and DeLong. It was originally based on the Bowman family's Sunset Hills Farm in Fairfax County, Virginia, in what later became the planned community of Reston. In 1988, it relocated to Spotsylvania County, near Fredericksburg, into the former FMC Corp. cellophane plant. The distillery previously was an independent family operation, but it has been owned since 2003 by the Buffalo Trace Distillery of Frankfort, Kentucky, which provides the unfinished distillate that becomes Virginia Gentleman. (Buffalo Trace is itself a unit of Sazerac Company, an international beverage corporation based in Metairie, Louisiana.) The company has since expanded its production into hot sauces and barbecue sauces under the Virginia Gentleman label.