WILMINGTON, N.C. — Bourbon is a drink so ingrained in American culture that even congress has recognized it as a distinctive product of the United States of America.
The corn and rye spirit has been made in America since the 18th century. In Wilmington, it hasn’t been made since the 1920s.
Now, thanks to End of Days Distillery, the Port City has its first bourbon since the prohibition.
- End of Days Distillery opened shortly before the pandemic
- They recently released Survivor's Cut Bourbon and it sold out in 45 minutes
- EOD will be releasing more of their bourbon in small batches
“Now we’ll release small increments,” said End of Days co-owner, Shane Faulkner, “to allow everyone to try and taste it and experience Wilmington’s first bourbon.”
Not long before Wilmington got its first bourbon, it got its first distillery — just before the pandemic hit.
"You know the concepts been in my head for a long time,” Faulkner said. "I was a home brewer, loved brewing beer, and when I looked at the landscape of Wilmington, I was kind of dabbling into moonshining and realized there were no distilleries here in Wilmington.”
Faulkner is a self taught distiller who uses his passion and love of natural ingredients to create his award winning spirits.
“It’s the closest thing to a culinary experience,” Faulkner explained. “I love cooking, so for us it was individual distillations of what does juniper taste like by itself, what is coriander, what is lemongrass, rose hips, there’s so many things you get to experiment with.”
And along the way, he’s perfected his method of getting rid of the of the heads and tails of a liquor and keeping just the heart: the good stuff.
“It’s very important to me that whatever I bring it’s gonna be all heart and soul,” Faulkner said. “That’s what’s important to me.”
And with the bourbon, he and the rest of the EOD crew see their hard work pay off. Their Survivor’s Cut Bourbon has actually been aging for two years.
“I knew I was gonna put bourbon away, and I wanted to do it the traditional way,” Faulkner said. “You know, 53 gallon cask, new American oak, number three char, so we’ve done it the right way and so far it’s spectacular.”
The success of the bourbon is bringing on other projects as well.
“Wilmington’s first barrel rested rum, or barrel aged rum, will be very limited to 100 bottles per batch, and it’s on different wood — Mongolian oak, French oak, all sorts of things that we’re playing around with and we’re just getting started,” Faulkner said.
The Survivor’s Cut Bourbon may have sold out in 45 minutes, but that doesn’t mean it’s gone for good. EOD will be releasing more in small batches.
