Spirits

Locally made spirits

By Stephen Faleski Staff Writer

Alcohol runs in Mark Rangos’ blood. Not literally, of course, but his family has been in the alcohol business for many decades.

In the 1950s, his grandfather, Dominic Young, opened a bar in Wellsburg, West Virginia, which was passed down to his mother, Shirley Young, then to his sisters, and is still in operation to this day. Mark’s father, Chuck Rangos, then opened a wineand beer-making supply store in the 1990s, which is now owned by Mark’s nephew, Derek Sliday.

Mark’s plunge into the family business came only after he’d spent more than 20 years in various management capacities with construction equipment manufacturers.

“We often talked about what we wanted to do after our ‘job’ jobs,” his wife, Kim, said. “We could never figure out what we wanted to do.”

That changed after she and Mark visited Ireland in 2015 and toured the famed Jameson whiskey distillery.

As Kim tells the story, Mark had been sitting in his recliner later that year, when he threw up his hands and said to her, “I know what I want to do! I want to make vodka!” “Let’s do it,” she agreed. In 2016, Blue Sky Distillery was born. The Isle of Wight County-based micro-distillery

began producing its first original liquors in 2017. Its “Painted Pig” brand smoked bacon maple whiskey is named for the town of Smithfield’s ties to Smithfield Foods and the meatpacking industry, while “Blackbeard’s Point” rum is named for a historical landmark in the present-day city of Hampton, where the 18th-century pirate known as Blackbeard would prey on American ships.

“Dog Star” vodka, made from local wheat, is named for a star in the Canis Major constellation, which can be seen in the southern evening sky from winter to mid-spring, and in the eastern sky before dawn in the late summer mornings. Blue Sky donates a portion of the proceeds from each sale of Dog Star vodka to benefit animal welfare. The distillery’s name itself is a nod to the region. “When Mark and I were trying to decide on a name, we wanted to come up with something that, when you heard it, you automatically thought happy thoughts,” Kim said. “We were just getting on the James River Bridge and the sky was clear with small tufts of clouds.”

The company has since brought in three new partners: Mike Miller, Yat Reilly and Michael Tan.

The distillery shares space with the Spring Lake Bottled Water Co. in the Isle of Wight Industrial Park.

“We have a small footprint in their warehouse, and even though we are off the beaten path, we are happy to say visitors find us,” Kim said.