This isn’t your grandfather’s moonshine.
With the launch of Belle Isle Craft Spirits and its flagship liquor, Belle Isle Moonshine, local businessmen Brian Marks, Alex Wotring and Vincent Riggi are hoping to push moonshine from the realm of backwoods, glass-jar nostalgia to modern cocktail menus.
Belle Isle Moonshine (Photo courtesy of Belle Isle Craft Spirits by A Lovely Photo)
“[Other brands] are kind of embracing those old stereotypes,” said Marks, a VCU graduate and founder and chief executive of Bonfire Funds. “Our goal is to be the premium brand.”
Belle Isle Moonshine’s first batch will be delivered to the Hermitage Road ABC warehouse this month for distribution and special orders. The product, which will cost $29.95 per 750-milliliter bottle, is the result of more than a year’s worth of tinkering with a recipe for corn-derived liquor.
Belle Isle Craft Spirits was born out of the trio’s shared interest in whiskey, which they discovered when they met in 2007. Riggi and Wotring, both University of Richmond alums, operate three Richmond area Smoothie King locations.
After deciding to go into the moonshine business, Belle Isle’s founders attended a workshop at Chicago-based Koval distillery, where they met the distillers that would eventually make the initial batches of Belle Isle Moonshine.
Production in Chicago, however, is only temporary. The team hopes to open a Richmond distillery in early 2014 and is close to signing a lease. They would not divulge an exact location but said they would like to set up their stills in Manchester.
“We want to have that river view, the city skyline – that’s where we want to be,” Wotring said.
The company’s founders would not disclose how much of an initial investment would be required to open the moonshine factory but said they recently brought private investors into the business. Marks, Wotring and Riggi plan to maintain their current businesses after launching their planned distillery.
About 30 area bars have picked up Belle Isle Moonshine, and 50 cases are set to ship this week to the ABC warehouse on Hermitage Road.
To get their product on the shelves at ABC stores, Belle Isle will have to show that it can produce enough supply to stock at least 100 stores. Exceptions to that rule can be made for spirits produced in Virginia, but Belle Isle’s Chicago-based distiller does not qualify.
ABC spokeswoman Carol Mawyer said Belle Isle Moonshine doesn’t have enough customer demand to warrant shelf space.
The liquor’s name is a toast to a Richmond island’s moonshine history: During the Civil War, Old Dominion Iron and Nail Works on Belle Isle began producing liquor stills.
“That was your premium spirit, not created in the backwoods but created in a beautiful copper kettle made by a very well known and reputable company in Old Dominion,” Wotring said.
And the company has plans beyond moonshine. It will look to produce aged whiskey products once the company has the space to store the required barrels. Moonshine, however, will remain the company’s main product.
Wotring said the company aims to have enough capacity to take the moonshine nationwide from their planned distillery. They haven’t signed on with a distributor.
Locally based Reservoir Whiskey, founded in 2010, is available in about 10 or 15 states. Reservoir co-founder Dave Cuttino said working with a distributor is the key to expanding outside of Virginia.
Belle Isle Craft Spirits co-founder Brian Marks. (Courtesy of Bonfire Funds)
“Every state is different as to what their laws and regulations are and how the taxing goes,” he said. “In a state like Virginia, you face the Virginia ABC, and then the Virginia ABC distributes throughout the state, and you’re basically facing one client.”
Belle Isle will join Reservoir and a slew of fledgling breweries in the growing Richmond booze business. There is at least one more Richmond distillery in the works, as a group of investors plans to reopen the former Cirrus Vodka distillery on Hardy Street as James River Distillers.
Belle Isle Moonshine can be ordered by visiting Richmond area ABC stores and requesting a bottle once the product is in the ABC warehouse. Marks is confident that consumers will pick up a taste for moonshine once it begins to show up in area restaurants and bars.
“The first batch is what gives us the traction,” he said.
More reading: Prohibition-era moonshine is on the rise [USA Today]
This isn’t your grandfather’s moonshine.
With the launch of Belle Isle Craft Spirits and its flagship liquor, Belle Isle Moonshine, local businessmen Brian Marks, Alex Wotring and Vincent Riggi are hoping to push moonshine from the realm of backwoods, glass-jar nostalgia to modern cocktail menus.
Belle Isle Moonshine (Photo courtesy of Belle Isle Craft Spirits by A Lovely Photo)
“[Other brands] are kind of embracing those old stereotypes,” said Marks, a VCU graduate and founder and chief executive of Bonfire Funds. “Our goal is to be the premium brand.”
Belle Isle Moonshine’s first batch will be delivered to the Hermitage Road ABC warehouse this month for distribution and special orders. The product, which will cost $29.95 per 750-milliliter bottle, is the result of more than a year’s worth of tinkering with a recipe for corn-derived liquor.
Belle Isle Craft Spirits was born out of the trio’s shared interest in whiskey, which they discovered when they met in 2007. Riggi and Wotring, both University of Richmond alums, operate three Richmond area Smoothie King locations.
After deciding to go into the moonshine business, Belle Isle’s founders attended a workshop at Chicago-based Koval distillery, where they met the distillers that would eventually make the initial batches of Belle Isle Moonshine.
Production in Chicago, however, is only temporary. The team hopes to open a Richmond distillery in early 2014 and is close to signing a lease. They would not divulge an exact location but said they would like to set up their stills in Manchester.
“We want to have that river view, the city skyline – that’s where we want to be,” Wotring said.
The company’s founders would not disclose how much of an initial investment would be required to open the moonshine factory but said they recently brought private investors into the business. Marks, Wotring and Riggi plan to maintain their current businesses after launching their planned distillery.
About 30 area bars have picked up Belle Isle Moonshine, and 50 cases are set to ship this week to the ABC warehouse on Hermitage Road.
To get their product on the shelves at ABC stores, Belle Isle will have to show that it can produce enough supply to stock at least 100 stores. Exceptions to that rule can be made for spirits produced in Virginia, but Belle Isle’s Chicago-based distiller does not qualify.
ABC spokeswoman Carol Mawyer said Belle Isle Moonshine doesn’t have enough customer demand to warrant shelf space.
The liquor’s name is a toast to a Richmond island’s moonshine history: During the Civil War, Old Dominion Iron and Nail Works on Belle Isle began producing liquor stills.
“That was your premium spirit, not created in the backwoods but created in a beautiful copper kettle made by a very well known and reputable company in Old Dominion,” Wotring said.
And the company has plans beyond moonshine. It will look to produce aged whiskey products once the company has the space to store the required barrels. Moonshine, however, will remain the company’s main product.
Wotring said the company aims to have enough capacity to take the moonshine nationwide from their planned distillery. They haven’t signed on with a distributor.
Locally based Reservoir Whiskey, founded in 2010, is available in about 10 or 15 states. Reservoir co-founder Dave Cuttino said working with a distributor is the key to expanding outside of Virginia.
Belle Isle Craft Spirits co-founder Brian Marks. (Courtesy of Bonfire Funds)
“Every state is different as to what their laws and regulations are and how the taxing goes,” he said. “In a state like Virginia, you face the Virginia ABC, and then the Virginia ABC distributes throughout the state, and you’re basically facing one client.”
Belle Isle will join Reservoir and a slew of fledgling breweries in the growing Richmond booze business. There is at least one more Richmond distillery in the works, as a group of investors plans to reopen the former Cirrus Vodka distillery on Hardy Street as James River Distillers.
Belle Isle Moonshine can be ordered by visiting Richmond area ABC stores and requesting a bottle once the product is in the ABC warehouse. Marks is confident that consumers will pick up a taste for moonshine once it begins to show up in area restaurants and bars.
“The first batch is what gives us the traction,” he said.
More reading: Prohibition-era moonshine is on the rise [USA Today]