Catoctin Creek Distillery earns 3 Loudoun small business awards
For the nine winners of the 26th Annual Loudoun Chamber of Commerce Small Business Awards, there was nothing unlucky about Friday, Nov. 13, even though the celebration had to be converted to an all-virtual event for safety precautions due to COVID-19. It was an especially good night for Catoctin Creek Distilling Company of Purcellville, which received three awards—for Main Street Business of the Year, Small Business of the Year, and People’s Choice Small Business.
Founded in 2009 as the first legal distillery in Virginia since Prohibition, Catoctin Creek is unique, says general manager and co-founder Scott Harris, “because we source from local grain. We mash, ferment, and distill it ourselves in very small batches. Then we distill it in copper pot stills and age it in 30-gallon white oak barrels. That is a production method that was the same 200 years ago. A lot of the big whiskey producers today are doing a lot more automated production, and we decided not to do that.”
The 27 finalists and nine winners were selected by blue-ribbon committees of local business leaders and industry experts, who carefully examined the award applications to select the 32 award finalists in six industry categories.
“Loudoun County’s small business community has faced unprecedented challenges in 2020,” said Tony Howard, Chamber president and CEO. “Yet, these business owners and entrepreneurs continue to persevere and make invaluable contributions that define Loudoun’s world class quality of life.”
Learn more about each business as well as the event sponsors by visiting https://loudounchamber.org/events/sba/ for the event program.
The 2020 Small Business Awards sponsors include: Signature Sponsor, Atlantic Union Bank; Platinum Sponsors: Backflow Technology, Bank of Clarke County, BCT The Community’s Bank, The Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, Inova Loudoun Hospital, MainStreet Bank, MVB Bank, One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning. Gold Sponsors: CroppMetcalfe, Loudoun Now, National Sports Medicine Institute, Sandy Spring Bank, Saul Centers, Summit Community Bank, The National Conference Center. Livestream Sponsor: Google Data Centers. Multimedia Sponsor, Blue Lion Multimedia; Media Sponsor, Loudoun Times-Mirror; Program Sponsor, Copy General; Business Partner, Loudoun County Department of Economic Development; Community Partner, Economic Development Authority of Loudoun County, Virginia.
People’s Choice Award Winner – Catoctin Creek Distillery
Finalists for Main Street Business of the Year:
Catoctin Creek Distillery – WINNER!
Joe’s Pizzaria
MI-Box of Northern Virginia
The Marketing Management Group
Finalists for Superior Service Business of the Year:
37 Media & Marketing Group – WINNER!
Advanced Corrective Chiropractic
Extraordinary Transitions – Long & Foster
Woofie’s
Finalists for Virtual Business of the Year:
Anonymous Assistants
IntegrateIT
TextP2P – WINNER!
Yield Bookkeeping
Finalists for Health and Wellness Business of the Year:
The National Sports Medicine Institute – WINNER!
Greenheart Juice Shop
Temple Training
The Fitness Equation
Finalists for Loudoun Destination Business of the Year:
Bear Chase Brewing
Restaurant at Patowmack Farm
The Conche – WINNER!
Finalists for Nonprofit Organization of the Year:
Crossroads Jobs – WINNER!
Friends of Loudoun Mental Health Inc.
Loudoun Literacy Council
Ryan Bartel Foundation
Finalists for Loudoun’s Top Entrepreneur of the Year:
Thereasa Black – Amore Congelato
Pam Jones – Extraordinary Transitions
Tony Stafford – Ford’s Fish Shack – WINNER!
Mary Ellen Taylor – Endless Summer Harvest
Finalists for Small Business of the Year:
Loudoun Free Clinic *
The Conche
37 Media & Marketing Group
Text P2P
National Sports Medicine Institute
Crossroads Jobs
Catoctin Creek Distilling – WINNER!