George Washington's Rye Whiskey George Washington's Rye Whiskey George Washington’s Rye Whiskey is distilled at George Washington’s reconstructed distillery at Mount Vernon from a recipe discovered by scholars examining the distillery ledgers for 1798 and 1799. It is distilled in limited quantities and only available for purchase in person. In 1797, urged on by his farm manager, James Anderson, Washington ramped up production and it produced 600 gallons in 1799, the year Washington died, the distillery produced nearly 11,000 gallons, making it the largest whiskey distillery in America at that time. On March 22, 2017, Governor Terry McAuliffe signed a bill sponsored by Virginia
Rye whiskey be further designated as "straight", as in "straight rye whiskey". Rye whiskey was historically the prevalent whiskey in the northeastern states, especially Pennsylvania and Maryland. Pittsburgh was the center of rye whiskey production in the late 1700s and early 1800s. By 1808, Allegheny County farmers were selling one half barrel for each man, woman and child in the country. By the 1880s, Joseph F. Sinnott's distillery, Moore and Sinnott, located in Monongahela was the single largest producer of rye whiskey, with a capacity of 30,000 barrels a year. Rye whiskey largely disappeared after Prohibition. A few brands, such as Old