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President, soldier, distiller

MOUNT VERNON, Va. — He led troops into battle against tax-evading whiskey makers, but President Washington was no enemy of the bottle.

The career soldier had long believed that access to a stiff drink played a crucial role in successful military operations. If fact, just a few years after personally leading nearly 13,000 troops into Pennsylvania to restore order and enforce the whiskey tax, the founding father found himself more affected by the unpopular tariff than anyone else in the nation.

Washington’s own distilling operation, built at his Mount Vernon estate in 1797, quickly became the leading U.S. distillery of the time. When he died in 1799, the former president’s stills were producing more than 10,000 gallons of hooch a year, at a time when the average Virginia distillery produced less than 700.

His foray into the booze-making business makes sense, considering his dedication to providing liquor to his troops.

“George Washington, as commander in chief of the American army during the Revolution, was convinced that alcohol was necessary to keep up the morale of the troops,” according to information from the Mount Vernon distillery site, located a few minutes south of Washington, D.C. It reopened to the public in March after a 10-year, $2.1 million rebuilding project.

Washington’s enthusiasm for providing alcohol to his soldiers is well-documented at the new, functioning distillery, which provides visitors a glimpse at the copper stills and other whiskey-making methods of the 18th century. Orders dating as far back as 1756 — posted in a history room at the site — decree: “And as an encouragement for them to behave well, and to attend diligently to their Duty, the Colonel [Washington] promises to give them, so long as they deserve it, four gallons of rum, made into punch, every day.”

Two decades later, his opinion hadn’t changed. “It is necessary that there should always be a sufficient quantity of spirits with the Army, to furnish moderate supplies to the troops,” Washington ordered in 1777.

The general reaffirmed his position once again five years later. “The Serjeants [should] see it [liquor] duly distributed daily and mixed with water at stated times, in which case ... it will become refreshing and salutary,” he said, in orders handed out May 16, 1782.

The thousands of gallons of whiskey produced by Washington’s distillery in 1799 sold for a then-whopping $7,674 in cash and goods, at an average price of about 73 cents a gallon.

Visitors to Mount Vernon will eventually be able to discover for themselves what all of the fuss was about. Beginning in July, the historic distillery will sell commemorative bottles of rye whiskey produced on site, made from Washington’s own recipe by master distillers from some of the nation’s top whiskey manufacturers.

Learn more at http://www.mountvernon.org.