Vitis vinifera and native apples soak up the praise for the nationally acclaimed pressings that fill Virginia’s cellars. For every drop that makes it to the vintner’s bottle, loads of wine and cider base are blended out or sold in bulk, in order for producers to stay under target case counts. Spoiled bits and trimmings often hit the floor.
But now, those discarded batches don’t reach the drain; they’re shipped to the unassuming warehouse cellar of Ivar Aass and Spirit Lab Distilling. “I’m the garbage man of the alcohol industry,” Aass says proudly.
Aass moved to the Monticello AVA from New York in search of a region with bountiful agriculture that had yet to be fully realized. He took a job at Michael Shaps Wineworks in Charlottesville and saw firsthand what the region’s topography was capable of. It was during that tenure that Spirit Lab Distilling began as a five-liter still in Aass’ apartment. “A hobby becomes an obsession, and the obsession becomes a business,” he says.
These days, Spirit Lab has grown into a craft distillery whose catalog exemplifies the dynamic range of Charlottesville’s surrounding farmlands. “I wanted to operate on a regional level,” Aass explains as he pours a sniff of Umeshu Apple Brandy, which may or may not have a touch of plums foraged from the IX Art Park parking lot. “As a customer, I always sought that out. I love approaching distilling from an ingredients perspective.”
Among top-shelf spirits like the single malt whiskey made with Virginia-grown barley and the Hot Soss Apple Brandy that ages with actual hot sauce pepper mash, you’ll find a collaboration with local winemaker Joy Ting: Esprit Joyeux and Esprit Joyeux XO Special Brandy.
The two met during Ting’s tenure as head winemaker at Michael Shaps Wineworks. “I remember how excited he was when his first still was coming over from Europe,” Ting recalls. He was like a kid who couldn’t sit still in his chair.” Ting has since developed and run the Winemakers Research Exchange, a program that funds local winemakers to experiment and present innovations in their respective cellars.
Their first accidental vintage featured a sparkling base of vidal blanc that Ting shipped to Aass to distill as he saw fit. What came of it was a spirit rich with depth that Ting and Aass would sip with glee and begin contemplating the following vintage.
“What if we did this intentionally?” Ting offered, noting that ugni blanc, the prominent grape used in cognac, is one of the parent grapes of vidal blanc. “That second harvest is when we started to make winemaking decisions for brandy rather than making wine that would end up becoming brandy,” Ting says. They found vidal blanc’s canvas makes for a spirit rich with layers of baking spice, toffee, dried tropical fruit, and a subtle finish of Virginia oak.
“Ivar has a firm commitment to the product and shows his creativity within that,” Ting says. “This is about getting to physically participate in local agriculture and make a product we’re proud to present. This is a reflection of Virginia viticulture.”
Since the first batch in 2018, Ting and Aass have collaborated on a spirit for just about every wine harvest. Currently available are the Espirit Joyeux, a 2020-2021 blend, and the Espirit Joyuex XO, a 2019 reserve brandy that expresses many of the same joyous flavors but with hints of vanilla bean amongst its warm, grounded layers.
You don’t have to look far to find what could very well be the next collaboration resting in the oak barrels of Spirit Lab Distilling. Any orchard grape, stray piece of fruit, or local cultivar growing off a porch is ripe for the distilling. Aass’ desk is speckled with half-full experiments that push the boundaries of the spirit spectrum.
Charlottesville’s imprint on the spirits scene is just as rich as the red clay it rests upon. You can find Aass admiring it as he swirls a rice whiskey to its crescendo after a few droplets of BRBN, a mineral water developed by a trio of UVA grads, that quickly softens a tight spirit to an approachable snifter.
Just down the road, Laird & Company has been distilling brandy from Virginia apples since prohibition. “We could be the apple brandy capital of the world,” Aass proclaims, letting the last drops of Umeshu Apple Brandy, a collaboration with Troddenvale, fuse at the bottom of his glass.
Standing over a trio of stacked firkins, thieving a few droplets of golden ferment from the top barrel, Aass says, “It’s what I call a citruscello.” It’s a bit of every citrus you could think of that spent a year crammed atop one another with droplets slowly coagulating into a full barrel. Aass describes the sensation as if the citrus knew they could jam themselves all through the glass at once like a herd fighting through a single gate. But instead, each fruit politely shows itself, creating an unsweetened after-dinner squeeze that has matured since 2017. According to Aass, 2025 is the year it should be realized. It’s just about ready.
Water wonder
The three UVA alums who co-founded Dram Doctors preferred their whiskey neat before they discovered that a few drops of limestone water, rich in minerals—similar to what was used in the original Kentucky bourbons—made for a more sensory sip.
Seeing a unique opportunity in the distilled beverage sector, Charlottesville entrepreneur Kyle Redinger and his partners formulated their BRBN Water from an artesian limestone spring in Texas. “It’s one product we designed for whiskey, bourbon, and scotch mainly, but the principles should apply to all spirits, particularly any spirits that are colored [or] aged,” says Redinger.