Any bourbon lover will know a great bourbon from the , and they'll certainly slobber over a high-quality brew made in Kentucky. Over 95% of the world's bourbon comes from this state, making it the bourbon capital of the world — although it's not the . But had the turn of events been slightly different, the bourbon-making crown might have belonged to someone else.
North Carolina has a storied past when it comes to bourbon, one peppered with peaks and valleys. The state once produced more bourbon than any other in the country. This was until its distilleries were outlawed 11 years before prohibition in 1909, making North Carolina the first state to enact the drinking law.
Before 1909, North Carolina was one of the country's most prolific distillers, home to more than 400 operating distilleries, though the world's oldest operating bourbon distillery, Maker's Mark, is in Kentucky. It was only in 2005 that North Carolina's first legal distillery producing authentic moonshine, Piedmont Distillers, opened up, restarting North Carolina's journey as a brewing state. North Carolina had the perfect recipe for bourbon The sweet, oaky recipe for bourbon initially came to North Carolina and Kentucky when an influx of settlers from Scotland, Germany, and Ireland started arriving in the 1700s in search of better economic opportunities.
With them, came a big barrel of knowledge about whiskey distilling. This knowledge was infused with North Carolina's perfect geographical conditions for mak.