Traveling The Tennessee Whiskey Trail, Part 1: East Region
I’m bound for the heartland of East Tennessee’s moonshine country. There’s enough bite in the late autumn air to warrant a weathered leather jacket and tastes from stills setting the Smoky Mountains ablaze. Robert Mitchum’s dark amber crooning, “…and there was thunder, thunder over “Thunder Road” / Thunder was his engine and white lightening was his load…” echoes off vintage hot rods lining the used car lots of these byways where “trippers” used to run their rare old mountain dew.
Eluding revenuers to oblige thirsty customers, moonshiners traced wild frontier footprints among these hills steeped in independence and rebellion where the spirits linger. The Tennessee Whiskey Trail gives us chase to those spirits.
Launched in 2017, the Trail is a self-guided adventure into the culture and craft of one our country’s oldest and most loved libations. Comprised of more than 31 distilleries across the state, from boutique-style operations to the big fellas who go by Jack and George, the trail highlights the diverse enterprises spanning three regions: West, Middle, and East.
Eleven distilleries make up the East, including Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Distillery which brought distilling back to the Scenic City after a 100-year absence. Building upon the reform of Tennessee prohibition-era laws in 2009, Chattanooga Whiskey spearheaded further legislative change in 2013 that opened doors for craft distilleries across the state.
“Our saying on our wall is ‘Whiskey to the People.’ It’s all about being part of a movement,” says Tim Piersant, Chattanooga Whiskey’s Co-founder and President. “Chattanooga was one of the largest distilling towns in North America pre-prohibition. To be the first back with a history like that—we’re reviving our history not just for Chattanooga but for the whole state of Tennessee. It wouldn’t be nearly as cool of a story if we didn’t have that history as our foundation.”
Holiday traditions are in overdrive at Old Forge Distillery in Pigeon Forge. Small-batch rums, vodkas, and, yes, moonshines can be sampled—creations of Head Distiller Keener Shanton.
Mixologist Stacy Waters stamps my “passport,” a pocket-sized booklet for travelers to record distillery visits. Waters recommends her Santa’s Coffee, a coffee moonshine and ice cream liqueur blend topped with whipped cream and fresh, shaved nutmeg.
Kris Tatum, Old Forge’s general manager, is President of the Tennessee Distillers Guild encompassing the 31-member organization. The guild represents 99 percent of distilled spirits produced in Tennessee and 54.9 percent of all distilled spirits the state exports internationally.
“Tennessee whiskey is known across the world,” Tatum says. “You ask somebody where they’re from and they say Tennessee, you’re going to want to talk to them about Dolly, Elvis, or Jack Daniels.”
For Tatum, the personal connections strengthen the value behind distilling.
“It’s part of our fabric,” he says. “It seems everybody has a story. Somebody in their family or close friends used to bootleg, or they used to sell the corn, or they purchased some land and found some old stills. It touches every single generation I know.”
Tatum and Piersant are part of a younger generation carving new paths while also keeping products rooted to libation lineage. In Sevierville, Head Distiller Justin Holeman and Marketing Director Kyle Tarwater—high school buddies—operate Tennessee Legend Distillery.
“I think it’s a southern thing. It’s easier to get that camaraderie when you’re sharing a glass of whiskey,” says Holeman. “I think if you’re from California you may feel that way about wine, but I think that speaks to the heart of this region. We’ve got whiskey in our blood.”
Kent Merritt, President of Thunder Road Distillery in Kodak, welcomes new ideas with the tried and true.
“The flavors aren’t something I remember from when I was young,” Merritt says of their array from watermelon to cinnamon. “But that’s what’s popular now. The straight corn whiskey is very good, it has its following.” He pauses, smiles. “That’s what I drink.”
It’s this living crossroads that calls so many of us to the trail. A 35-pound copper pipe still adorns a ledge inside Thunder Road. Lloyd Dwight Bearden helped build it when he was 17—forty-some-odd-years-ago.
“That little still you see out there, we’d run that ten-stillfuls a night to make enough alcohol we could sell to get a little extra money,” Bearden says. “Some people looked down on it. Most people back in the day had to do it because there was no work. It fed families even if you weren’t directly involved. If you ran a garage—most of the people who had the liquor cars—you souped up their motors and made them run faster. And the people at the stores would sell the fruit jars. It gave a small old farmer a chance to be a businessman. That’s what it basically boiled down to.”
For more information about the Tennessee Whiskey Trail visit www.tnwhiskeytrail.com.
Jason Tinney is the author of “Ripple Meets the Deep” and two collections of poetry and prose. As an actor, Jason recently starred in “Free To Go”, which premiered at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre this year.