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Father of country - and maker of whiskey?

Our first president's whiskey-making past is remembered, thanks to a rebuilt distillery.

MOUNT VERNON, Va. - George Washington may have been one of the nation's largest whiskey producers by the end of the 18th century, but "smooth and refined" is not exactly how you would describe the liquor he produced.

"This would have been white lightning," said James Rees, executive director of Washington's Mount Vernon estate, which laid the cornerstone Wednesday for a reconstruction of Washington's original distillery on the site where it first operated more than 200 years ago.

The main difference between the rye whiskey produced by Washington and modern whiskeys is that Washington did not age his whiskey before he sold it. Most whiskeys today are aged for several years in oak barrels, giving them their color and a more mellow flavor.

What Washington's whiskey lacked in refinement, it made up for in quantity. In 1799 - just his third year of production - Washington produced nearly 11,000 gallons of whiskey and turned a profit of $7,500, more than $100,000 in today's dollars.

Washington's venture into whiskey production came just as Americans were switching their alcoholic allegiance from rum. Imported rum from the Caribbean was becoming less popular because it was a product of the British empire, and post-Revolution patriotism made imported rum fall out of vogue, said Dennis Pogue, Mount Vernon's director of preservation.

Even more important, tariffs on rum and molasses increased its cost, while American farmers were turning to whiskey as a way to make cash off their grain crops.

Mount Vernon hopes to open the reconstructed distillery to the public in the spring of 2007. It is being built next to a reconstructed gristmill - also operated by Washington - on a site a few miles west of the Mount Vernon mansion.

While the Mount Vernon estate attracts close to 1-million visitors a year, the gristmill site draws only about 16,000. They hope to draw 50,000 or more when the distillery opens to the public.

Pogue said while other gristmills operate across the country, the distillery will be the only one of its kind in the country.

The Distilled Spirits Council, which hosted the cornerstone ceremony, has contributed more than $1-million to reconstruction of the distillery. The cornerstone is a sandstone block from the original 1793 U.S. Capitol, and from the same vein of sandstone that Washington used to build the distillery in 1797.

While the distillery will be functional, Mount Vernon does not plan to produce or sell whiskey, except for perhaps a handful of special events. Pogue said the real value in building the distillery is to demonstrate the business acumen of the nation's Founding Father, an aspect of his life that is often forgotten.

Pogue also offered a more charitable description of Washington's whiskey, recalling an event two years ago at Mount Vernon in which they distilled whiskey just as Washington would have done.

"It was perfectly drinkable," Pogue said.

[Last modified September 29, 2005, 01:20:09]