Craft distilleries honor Carolina’s moonshine heritage

North Carolina’s colorful moonshine heritage is being preserved by two craft distilleries whose adult beverage products were nominated in the “Coolest Thing Made in North Carolina” competition. 

One is Walton’s Distillery of Jacksonville in Onslow County, which is the producer of E.M. Walton’s Premium Salted Caramel, a 70 proof bourbon-flavored drink.

 

The other is Old Nick Williams Company Farm & Distillery, located in Lewisville in Forsyth County. Its Hempahol Vodka Infused with Ghost Peppers is 90 proof. (80 proof is the most common for typical categories of liquor.)

 

Both of these family businesses have interesting stories to tell. 

Walton’s Distillery is owned by Donald G. Walton Jr., a practicing attorney in Jacksonville. He formed the company and built his distillery in the vicinity of Black Creek, where numerous illegal stills had once operated.

 

Grey Walton, Don Walton’s son, said having a family recipe that's been around for generations sets them apart from bigger distilleries.

“Our first product was ‘E.M. Walton’s Corn Whiskey,’ named after my great-grandfather. It is made with 100% corn and flash-aged with toasted Appalachian oak chips for at least two months to smooth the spirit and impart the caramel color and vanilla tones,” Walton said. The first bottles were available in April 2015. 

Shortly thereafter, Walton said he was approached by his cousin, Norwood Rochelle, about the prospect of making moonshine. Rochelle was a legend in Onslow County, as an accomplished bluegrass picker and illegal moonshine cooker. 

“Our moonshine is called ‘Junior Walton’s Authentic Carolina Moonshine,’ Walton said. It is named after my grandfather. Norwood’s photograph is on the back label of each bottle.”

 

Walton said that all of the distillery’s products bear the names of his ancestors, “as a lasting tribute to them, the hardships they endured, the goals they obtained and the legacies they left.” 

Kristen Jones of Walton's Distillery

Multiple generations of distillers make the Old Nick Williams Company a unique brand in North Carolina history. Old Nick Williams caught the eye of Anita Flowers, a writer with Spotlight on Business Magazine, published in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She interviewed Zeb Williams, president and co-owner.

 

“My family has been in distilling since 1768. My fourth great grandfather, Joseph Williams, was a colonel in the Revolutionary War (who fought in George Washington’s army), and he started the business…built his first still at age of 18.” 

Flowers wrote: “By the early 1800s, the distillery, then known as the Joseph Williams Distillery, was becoming well known and was run by Nicholas Lanier Williams and his son, yet another Joseph Williams. It was this Joseph who introduced a new brand of whiskey, called ‘Old Nick,’ in honor of his father.” 

“In 1893, Joseph’s son, Glen Williams rebranded the distillery as ‘Old Nick Williams Distillery.’”

 

With Prohibition in North Carolina in 1909, the distillery had to shut down. Zeb Williams said: “Revenuers actually came onto the property and disposed of more than 28,000 gallons of aging whiskey that the family had stored in bonded warehouses.” 

After nearly a century of dormancy, Old Nick Williams was resuscitated in 2014, when Zeb, along with his cousin Matt, and their fathers, Van and John Williams, began to rebuild the distillery, Flowers said. 

They chose to reopen and market the business as “America’s most famous forgotten distillery.”

 

The Williams family also owns and operates the Busted Barrel Cocktail Bar, a reference to the day when the revenuers came in and busted up the whiskey barrels.

 

The bar menu features the entire collection of Old Nick Williams’ brands. The drink called “Dazed & Confused” features the Hempahol Vodka Infused with Ghost Peppers and includes strawberries, blueberries, mint, lemon juice, simple syrup and club soda.