A Lifelong Taste for the Whiskey Business

Not every high school kid builds a whiskey still in chemistry class, but as a teenager in upstate New York, Rick Wasmund did.

So in some ways, it's not surprising that the 50-year-old is back at the still again, this time selling Wasmund's Single Malt and Rye Whisky, produced at his Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, Va.

Wasmund's dream of running his own business began to ferment years ago. "When I was little, I dreamed I would have a little company that would be selling stuff around the world," he recalls.

During his college years, he started a small building and construction business to help pay the tuition, but inevitably his path took him a different direction. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts with a business degree, he became a certified financial planner and joined up with Northwestern Mutual. For the next 15 years, he sold insurance policies and doled out financial planning advice to many small businesses, as well as accountants and physicians.

"I saw first-hand the challenges of running a small operation, and I worked with people who loved what they did and with those who hated what they did," Wasmund says. "I wanted to be one of those people who really loved what they did. I didn't love selling insurance. I wanted something different."

A Childhood Dream Realized

Facing 40, single, with no dependents, he moved to Middleburg, Va., and became a caretaker of a 55-acre estate, where he could live gratis amidst the rolling fields, groves of oak, maple, cherry and apple trees and stunning vistas of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a bucolic life, and it bought him a few years to sort through what he wanted to do with his life while gradually stepping out of the insurance and financial planning business.

One evening at a Scotch whiskey tasting event was all it took to rekindle his childhood dream. The idea was almost instantaneous: flavor the malt with different types of fruitwood smoke--the kind that burned in the seven fireplaces at the estate--rather than infuse it with peat, which is the traditional Irish and Scotch whiskey method. He quickly discovered that no distillers were doing that, nor were they malting their own barley, and a light bulb went off. This could be the business he had been searching for all these years.

Wasmund persuaded his neighbor, Sean McCaskey, to join forces with him, and the two set off to learn more about the distilling process, traveling around the country to visit big-name U.S. distilleries, including Maker's Mark, Jack Daniels and Jim Beam. "I almost hoped I would get talked out of it," Wasmund says. He read every book and article he could get his hands on about the process and the industry, and he kept extensive notes on promising tastes, methods and systems used. In time, he began writing a business plan.

Scottish Internship

After about a year and a half of research, reading, tasting and building up his own whiskey collection, he headed to Scotland in the spring of 2000. "It was a magical, inspirational experience," he recalls. That two-week trip, his first overseas, sealed his fate. "It gave me the overwhelming confirmation that I was on the right path. It was less of a question and more of a mandate. I absolutely knew I was going to do it."

While there, he was accepted for a six-week, nonpaid internship at Bowmore Distillery, home to an award-winning single malt whiskey, on the Isle of Islay. During his stay, he was given a cottage and lunch each day and learned to malt barley.

When he returned, he went to work laying the groundwork to produce his signature fruitwood-smoked whiskey. He eked by financially with the income that still trickled in from the insurance business and a sideline antique store he opened.

In 2004, after a few false starts and a partnership deal with a distillery that fell apart, he finally began to build his Copper Fox Distillery in a former apple packing plant purchased with backing from a dozen investors.

Wasmund and McCaskey, now the production manager, worked with the "small grain" department at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg to determine the best variety of local barley for their whiskey, and arranged to have it grown in bulk in nearby Heathsville, Va. The duo set up the distillery and built most of the plant themselves. Wasmund's mother, Helen, sold her home in Buffalo and moved to Sperryville to help with management and sales. Eight months later, the first bottle of Wasmund's Single Malt Whisky was sold. "It was a little bit more of a learning curve than I had anticipated in my business plan, but we got there."

Building a Reputation

Now he's unmistakably on his way. Critics have taken note: "Wasmund's Single Malt has a unique taste profile that is different than any other single malt in the world," says Jeffrey Karlovitch, publisher of Whisky Life & Spirits magazine. "Rick's attention to detail and ingenuity are what make the Copper Fox Distillery a success."

Copper Fox will produce about 3,000 cases this year, up from 2,000 in 2009. The challenge is turning a profit. "I have been working basically for free, subsistence level, for a couple of years. You would like to think at some point that money is not going to be an issue," he says. Luckily, Wasmund is frugal. "My costs aren't that much. I can sleep in the van if I need to."

All in the Family

And payroll is under control. All told, even with his recent nuptials (Wasmund married his longtime girlfriend on Valentine's Day), it's just the threesome--Wasmund, his mom, Helen, and McCaskey--that keeps the whiskey business flowing. Days are long--easily running from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.--starting with raking the barley and often finishing off with a tasting at a restaurant an hour's drive or more away.

The rewards: "Feedback from peers, or people you respect, who try the whiskey for the first time, and they really love it," Wasmund says. "That's pretty heartening."

But interestingly, the greatest rewards are the times at the end of the day when he can sit back and look around at what he has built. "I know that I pounded the metal on that handle and built those doors. I take in the way everything works so efficiently and am amazed that the three of us can do all of this."

One regret: Wasmund's dad, who passed away five years ago, isn't around to sip his whiskey with him. "When I was a kid, he taught me how to make him a Manhattan or a Rob Roy when he came home from work. And, well, I would always take a little sip."

SecondAct contributor Kerry Hannon is the author of What's Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job and a U.S. News & World Report contributing editor.