By Richard Thomas Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine, the popular Gatlinburg distillery, is throwing its hat into the premium spirits market with the debut of their first barrel-aged premium product, Ole Smoky Charred Moonshine.  The initial batch will be in limited release this spring, with a run of only 3,500 cases. However distribution will be widespread, covering 49 of 50 states. ...

Or How Just A Little Knowledge Becomes A Sad Thing… By Richard Thomas One of the bedrock conceits taught at journalism school is that a trained journalist can take on any topic and write an intelligent story. That might be true in theory, because in theory a writer can spend the time to become sufficiently educated on a subject so ...

Car racing and moonshine are as Southern as fried chicken and sweet tea, and one of the things the corporate suits who run NASCAR are eager to forget is how not just their sport of stock car racing, but their very own racing organization is based squarely on a foundation of moonshining and bootlegging. Just in case anyone does, Neal ...

By Kurt Maitland Rating: B Black Button (named after the proprietor’s suit button business) is the brainchild of Jason Barrett. At the age of 24, he started up his own craft distillery in Rochester NY. When they began production, they made the first legal batch of a distilled spirit in Rochester area since January 17th, 1920. Since that first juice ...

By Richard Thomas While illegal moonshining dominates the airwaves, it’s legal moonshine that has a growing presence on liquor store and bar shelves. Yet purists object to the very idea of any product made for retail sale being labeled “moonshine,” insisting that the term applies only to illegally made spirits. According to them, anything with taxes paid and calling itself ...