Gilda Radner once stated that, “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.” Rick Wasmund embodies the spirit of Gilda Radner’s infamous quotation. His journey from working on an estate in Middleburg to building Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, VA is one that inspires countless weekend whisky warriors to make the journey to his home and current place of work. But, perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. In 1999 Rick Wasmund found himself enjoying a Johnny Walker tasting. As he sipped on the whisky, he remembered wondering about “cooking with apple wood, cherry wood, and smoking with other blends of fruitwoods; something that, at the time, no one in the industry was pursuing.” It is at this point in his story that a passion was lit. Rick soon found himself visiting distilleries all over the United States. When the U.S. market no longer sated his thirst for knowledge, he made the journey to our northern Canadian neighbor. By 2000 he found himself taking a trip to the other side of the pond. In true Rick fashion, i.e. a bullheaded desire to good-naturedly push forward with his passion, he found himself touring Scottish distilleries that malted their own barley. As luck would have it, Rick happened upon Islay during their whisky festival. With a charming personality and a witty quip at the ready, Rick was offered a game-changing internship at the prestigious Bowmore distillery. Upon his return to the U.S. Rick Wasmund decided to roll the dice. He was determined to build a new whisky enterprise –…