Medium & Craft Distillery Founders
Southern U. S. States
South Carolina & North Carolina
(NOTE: FOUNDERS ARE LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
1
Craig Amick
Hollow Creek Distillery
When Craig Amick’s Hollow Creek Distillery finally opened near Leesville in 2014, he could not have dreamed that within only eight short years the small operation would earn medals at major spirits competitions, including the San Francisco World Spirits Competition and the New York International Spirits Competition.
2
Scott Blackwell
High Wire Distillery
Scott Blackwell is the co-founder, distiller, and driving creative force behind High Wire Distilling, located in Charleston, South Carolina. Alongside his wife, Ann Marshall, he has built a distillery that weaves together craft entrepreneurial energy, agricultural heritage, and food-industry experience into spirits with character and place.
3
Pete Barger
Southern Distilling Company
In 2013, Pete and Vienna Barger purchased a 20-acre farm in Statesville, 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.
4
Trey Boggs
Palmetto Distillery
In 2011, the Boggs brothers founded Palmetto Distillery in Anderson, South Carolina, with the original intention of producingmoonshine, making it one of the first legal distilleries in South Carolina since Prohibition. It wasn’t long before the Boggs brothers turned their full attention to bourbon.
5
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.
6
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.
7
Jim Irvin
Firefly Distillery
Jim Irvin didn’t just want to create any whiskey; he wanted to craft something uniquely Lowcountry, a spirit that spoke to the region’s heat, humidity, and the slow maturation that comes with coastal aging. He understood that the transition to great whiskey involved a profound understanding of the climate’s impact on the final product.
8
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.
9
David Szlam
Virgil Kaine
David Szlam started his career as a trained chef. Szlam worked in fine dining across the Southeastern United States. His specialty was in culinary innovation, pairing ingredients with intent and precision, which naturally led him to consider distillation science and ultimately, to co-found Virgil Kaine Distillery in 2011
10
Billy Watterson
Burnt Church Distillery
Burnt Church Distillery is the fruit of Billy Watterson’s vision. From its physical building to its mission, the founders have aimed for something more than just making spirits. Billy sees the distillery as a way to bring Lowcountry history to life, to give back to the community, and to honor local culture.
11
Nicholas G. 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.
12
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.
Clickable LINK to a Map of All Distilleries: Mid-Atlantic State Distillery Map