A spirited venture

As the buzz surrounding a local moonshine distillery continues to spread, Culpeper County corn-whiskey farmers Chuck and Jeanette Miller enjoy the taste of their newfound fame.

“I enjoy telling people about what we’re doing,” said Chuck, a 63-year-old pilot-turned-whiskey distiller. “It’s getting to be a lost art. And we can’t let that happen.”

Voice of America, an international Web-based news organization, featured the spirited couple and their 124-acre Belmont Farm Distillery on its Web site Tuesday.

The three-minute segment displays Chuck — wearing his signature white cowboy hat and white mustache — sitting next to several oak barrels lining the aging room. In his distinct down-home dialect, he explains his family-operated whiskey-making business, which he started in 1989, to VOA correspondent Malcolm Brown.

VOA broadcasters will also translate this piece for a number of foreign audiences abroad.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW VOA REPORT

But how did an international news outlet get word of a rural whiskey-making distillery in Culpeper?

After flipping through the television stations recently, Malcolm landed on a channel with a segment about the Miller’s distillery.

“I remember thinking ‘that’s looks interesting,’” said the British-born features reporter, who works in the nation’s capital.

So the autonomous reporter packed up his gear and traveled from Washington, D.C., May 8 to interview the Millers and film the distillery.

Overseas broadcasters “like small visual stories that are interesting but give you some insight into life in America,” he said on the Millers’ farm. “They get all sorts of stories out of the cities, but they also like stories about the heartland.”

The media darlings
Malcolm isn’t the first correspondent interested in filming the unique farm and learning about the art of making moonshine.

In 2004, the History Channel taped the friendly duo for a show called “Guts & Bolts.”

Two years later, the National Geographic Channel featured Belmont Farm Distillery — about 10 miles south of the town of Culpeper along U.S. 522 — during a segment about the old-fashioned whiskey-producing process.

“We got a lot of recognition from National Geographic,” said Jeanette, 62, a former teacher who generally looks after the family gift shop and sometimes hands out cookies to visitors. “People from all over the country wanted to buy our product.”

Chuck — pointing to his license posted above his office door — proudly proclaims to produce the only legal moonshine in the state of Virginia.

“If you don’t pay the tax, you have to hide in the woods,” Chuck joked. “And I didn’t want to run from the ATF agents like my granddaddy.”

Rhonda Simmons can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 125 or .