North Carolina Whiskey Founders
(NOTE: FOUNDERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
NORTH CAROLINA WHISKEY FOUNDERS
Below is a list and links to Whiskey Founders that have made huge contributions to the growth of the North Carolina Whiskey Industry. These may have been historical figures that lived long ago before prohibition or may be living leaders that have advanced the cause of the industry as a whole.
1
Pete Barger
Southern Distilling Company
In 2013, Pete and Vienna Barger purchased a 20-acre farm in Statesville, which was once known as “the liquor capital of the world.” There, they founded Southern Distilling Company. Starting first as a contract distillery, they soon seized an opportunity to revive their region’s long-forgotten history of legal whiskey production. Pete’s engineering mindset soon defined their operations.
2
Jonathan Blitz
Mystic Farms Distillery
Blitz’s voice in the story of Mystic often toggles between barn-wise pragmatism and an imagination for the theatrical. The farm sells beef raised on spent mash, while the tasting room hosts weddings. Then, in a move that made headlines and some skeptics grin, Blitz announced a plan to age a selection of bourbon barrels in low-Earth orbit.
3
Richard Chapman
Bogue Sound Distillery
Chapman’s interest in spirits wasn’t born in a single eureka moment. It arrived sideways through a chemistry background in college, a string of careers that taught him how to run a business, and a family history that traced back to Scotland and to a great-grandmother whose name would later grace one of his bottles.
4
Joe Michalek
Piedmont Distillery
Michalek regularly observed semi-formal dinner parties where Mason jars of clear, acerbic liquid were brought out and cordially passed around. He was impressed by how widespread the drinking of the harsh hooch was, and wondered to himself why no one was making a legal, high-quality version of moonshine.
5
Nicholas Glen Williams
Old Nick Williams Distillery
Nicholas “Glen” Williams was born on March 28, 1865, in Yadkin County, North Carolina, into a family steeped in frontier history and industry. His Welsh ancestor, John Williams, had already established a distillery into a recognizable whiskey brand 150 years earlier.
6
Zeb Williams
Old Nick Williams Distillery
Unlike his ancestors, Zeb didn’t start his career in whiskey. Born in the mid-1970s, he came of age at a time when North Carolina’s liquor laws were strict and family distilling was a memory, not a livelihood. Instead, Zeb pursued a career in advertising, building a mobile billboard business.