Virginia Gentleman


Virginia Gentleman is a brand of bourbon whiskey distilled in Kentucky and re-distilled in Virginia. The brand's motto was "The Aristocrat of Them All".

Products

Virginia Gentleman is an 80-proof whiskey. The distillery also offers a 90-proof small batch version. Both are triple-distilled.

History

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 used to be 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. The company has since expanded its production into hot sauces and barbecue sauces under the Virginia Gentleman label.
Virginia Gentleman's former label depicted a Revolution-era scene of two white men being served by a black footman, all three in aristocratic dress, standing in front of a plantation-style manor. By at least the 1970s the label was redesigned with the black footman becoming white. Virginia Gentleman's motto, "The Aristocrat of Them All", was discontinued some time after, at least from appearing on the label. The label as of 2014 depicted three men in a similar arrangement, none of which are black or a servant.