The month of October has come and gone, and lot has happened in the meantime!

In October, we finalized our lease and took possession of 37251-C E. Richardson Lane, Unit 200. This is a modest space in an out of the way industrial park. We would have preferred an idyllic country setting, but we'll just have to wait for that. Our current space suits us very nicely in the meantime. It is conveniently located in Purcellville, Virginia, in the heart of DC's Wine Country. The Town of Purcellville staff have been very helpful in getting us zoned, permitted and off the ground. And the ample 2065 square feet of open space will be perfect for installing our equipment.

In fact, equipment continues to come in. We nabbed some nice office furniture at the Loudoun ReStore, a thrift shop which benefits Habitat for Humanity. All of our office and cleaning supplies are now in place (the common stuff that every distilled spirits plant needs, like mops, hoses, brooms, squeegees, and wireless routers). We're still waiting for the still, of course, but Kothe shared with us a technical drawing of our still, and I hope to soon post some photos of the actual still being made.

October was a big publicity month for us. Honestly, it took us rather by surprise! First, our story of getting SBA financing got picked up by the online edition of the Wall Street Journal. That was really HUGE for us. Heck, they even included a photo! Then, quickly after that, all of those business plan contests concluded. In both the Sage MyBizCounts contest, and in the Loudoun SBDC contest, we received third place for our business plan. We were very pleased with this, and hope it foreshadows our being the third best spirit producer in the U.S.A. next year. (We'll settle for third anytime!)

As we look to November and December, we anticipate receiving our still and other equipment from Kothe in Germany, our bottling machine from Durfo in Italy, and the remainder of odds-and-ends before we start actual production. We also look forward to getting both our Virginia ABC license and our Federal license in that time frame. God willing, we'll be making spirits by January!

Until then, feel free to come by and see us, or visit us online at the Catoctin Creek Facebook Page. (If you haven't joined, become a fan today!)

Cheers!

Scott & Becky