Post Prohibition business was booming so the Laird family acquired two additional distilleries in the early 1940’s. One was our current distillery in North Garden, Virginia, near Charlottesville. The Virginia Fruit Distilling Co., as it was then called, was a large producer of fruit wines and spirits being sold in Virginia and the surrounding southern states. It is very close to the Shenandoah Valley, a great source of apples. With the disappearance of orchards in New Jersey, as of the mid-1970’s our entire production of our apple brandies is distilled in Virginia using only fresh Virginia apples.
AppleJack is now enjoying resurgence in popularity, both as a beverage and as a cooking ingredient, which imparts a tantalizing and unique flavor to a variety of dishes. Only carefully selected, whole, tree-ripened apples, which are crushed, juiced and fermented at our distillery, are ever used in the making of Laird’s Applejack. Laird’s is never produced from concentrate or purchased juice. Many varieties of Virginia grown apples are used, including Jonathans, Gala, Winesaps, Staymans, Pippins, and Delicious apples. Our Laird’s Applejack and Apple Brandies are made at the peak of the Virginia apple harvest, in early September to mid-November. This ensures that the quality and sweetness of the apples are at their peak.