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Founded in 2009
Catoctin Creek® was founded by Becky and Scott Harris in 2009 as the first legal distillery in Loudoun County since before Prohibition. We are located in Purcellville, Virginia, in the heart of the Loudoun Valley. Virginia is the birthplace of American whiskey, and at Catoctin Creek, we faithfully dedicate ourselves to that tradition, producing Virginia's most awarded whisky—Roundstone Rye!
The name "Catoctin" is a regional name. Pronounced Ka-TOCK-tin, the name derives from the Indian tribal name "Kittocton" which, legend has it, meant "place of many deer". Catoctin describes a range of mountains and the eponymous creek which flows picturesquely past the distillery and into the Potomac River and Chesapeake Watershed.
At Catoctin Creek, we believe in high quality food and spirits. We source our grain and fruit from local sources, free of pesticides and chemical additives that would come through in the spirits we produce. The results are the finest, cleanest spirits possible, with the greatest attention to detail in every single bottle we produce.
The Virginia Rye Whisky℠
Our Founders
Becky Harris, Chief Distiller
Becky graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. As a chemical engineer, she worked at companies like Amoco, YDK America, and CIBA, specializing in industrial processes and production systems. Becky brought this knowledge and applied it to something she loved–making the finest distilled spirits in Virginia. Wine, grains, berries, it matters not. If there is a fruit, vegetable, tuber with starch or sugar in it, you can bet that Becky will try to distill it.
Scott Harris, General Manager
Scott graduated with honors from Georgia Tech. He spent the last twenty years building a software career in telecommunication systems and government IT solutions and traded it all in for the chance to own and run his own distillery. Liquors of all types are his greatest love (besides Becky, of course). Whiskeys from Scotland, Ireland and the United States. Brandy from France and Germany. And an eclectic German bitters called Boonekamp. "It's good for the digestive!" as his old German grandmother used to say.
At Catoctin Creek
Scott and Becky are happy to be doing something together that they love: Producing the finest spirits in Virginia, completely and truly by hand. At Catoctin Creek, high quality spirits are our passion.
More about our logos
The Roundel
Our roundel, the circular medallion which sits atop our full logo, symbolizes the land that infuses every bottle we produce—the Commonwealth of Virginia. We love our home: her picturesque mountains, beaches, horse-farms, and beautiful Appalachian woods. Virginia was one of America's original thirteen colonies, and Virginians were among the first in our nation to make rye whiskey. Not least of which was George Washington, who distilled rye whiskey commercially at his Mt. Vernon farm. In fact, when people started distilling corn into Bourbon whiskey in what is today called Kentucky, yes, that land was still called "Virginia." (Kentucky didn't become a state until 1792.)
So, we proudly celebrate Virginia as the birthplace of American whiskey. As an homage to Virginia, we've adorned our logo with her state flower, the flowering dogwood.
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The Monogram
Monograms are a very old tradition, dating back even to Roman times. The oldest known monograms were found on early 6th century BCE Roman coins, which were marked with the ruler's initials to authenticate and legitimize them. Throughout the middle ages, a wax seal with a monogram was a mark of authenticity. Our Catoctin Creek monogram is our mark of quality. Where ever you find it stamped, rest assured that we take pride in and vouch for the quality of the products contained therein..
If you look closely at the monogram, you can make out the fanciful script letters "C C D Co", for Catoctin Creek Distilling Company, with all the letters intertwined as to become a single meaningful unit.
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