An Agriculturally Focused, Ingredient-Based Distillery
By: Gerald Dlubala
High Wire Distilling Company founder and co-owner Scott Blackwell has always been conscious of food and drink ingredients, even going back to his early teens. He was baking pies for extra cash by the time he turned 19 and eventually started his own bakery and coffee roasting business.
The attention he gave to the agricultural terroir and ingredients felt exotic to him, like crafting fine wine. He was also intrigued by the chocolate and craft beer business, which was just beginning to gain popularity. Maintaining culinary focus and attention to ingredients, their origin, and how they are processed and treated along the way has always been important to him.
Curiosity and Craft Brewing Lead to Distilling Start
It was a visit to Catamount Brewery in Vermont where Blackwell caught the craft brew bug.
“I had never seen beer being made like that,” said Blackwell. “It was small and very cool to me. I was also interested in Sierra Nevada and Anchor Steam. After that experience, I swore I would only offer craft beer in my café. That turned out to be a bit premature since few craft beers were around in 1990. But my curiosity and interest never wavered and led me to host a monthly homebrew club.”
That sustained interest led him to consider opening his own craft brewery in the early 2000s. He and his wife/cofounder, Ann Marshall, were running a bakery but were looking to sell and move forward to their next chapter.
“I thought this may be my opportunity to open my own craft brewery,” said Blackwell. “We would go into the store to look at local beers and visit craft breweries. Ann wondered what we would bring to the table to be unique and differentiate our beer from what was already out there. She always researched craft beer data; at the bottom of the page, there was always a small section about craft spirits. This was around 2010, and there weren’t a lot of US craft distilleries around yet, so she mentioned that maybe we should look at that. We knew nothing about running a commercial brewery, but we knew fermentation techniques, quality ingredients, and how to manipulate them together to get the desired outcome. I was dismissive at first, but then we decided to take a trip and visit some distilleries.”
Rather than go to Kentucky, they traveled to Portland, Oregon, where the craft distillery scene was blossoming, with about 12 craft distilleries in operation. Blackwell visited a handful of them, including House Spirits, while they were making Aviation Gin. He was impressed with their production and researched more brands, intrigued by their uniquely flavored liqueurs and spirits.
“Coming from a natural and organic business, I really liked what I saw,” said Blackwell. “I don’t like fake flavors or imitation colors or things of that nature, so these products made from actual agricultural products and turned into this liqueur was very cool. That’s when I thought that maybe we should try this.”
It was a fresh start, as neither had any real distilling experience. For personal reasons, Scott and Ann knew they would sell the bakery and move to Charleston, but now they would also take advantage of that area’s robust tourism market.
“It happened fast once the decision was made,” said Blackwell. “We sold the bakery on New Year’s Eve 2012 and moved to Charleston in January 2013. We started construction and began High Wire Distillery in February 2013. Asheville Distillery agreed to make rum for us because I thought rum would be a big thing for us being in a port city and help pay some bills early. Later, they also made some rye for us.”
A Fateful Meeting with Lasting Advice
“During one of those rye runs, I met longtime Master Distiller Dave Pickerell,” said Blackwell. “He was helping craft distilleries throughout the country and agreed to help us. We had an old garage behind a dealership. I bought a used, 2000-liter Kothe hybrid still and set up a 14-seat tasting room in about 6000 square foot space total. We got corn, made mash, and got going. I had been brewing, so I understood fermentation, and I knew grains from my baking experience, so we made the first few whiskies with Pickerell’s help. After that, he walked us through the process and assured me I had the background to understand and succeed at this business. I still had to learn more about our still, finishing, and barrels. Pickerell’s most effective advice that stuck with us was to find our place. We can’t try to put out and outmake a Makers Mark product. We need to put out a High Wire product. We were determined to follow that advice, opening our doors in December 2013.”
As an ingredient-focused person, Blackwell wondered why there wasn’t more focus on corn as a flavoring agent in a mashbill since it was such a dominant ingredient. Since the area is known for grits and cornbread, he began researching corn as his flavoring grain, staying true to his culinary background.
“We made several mashes using white and yellow heirloom corn,” said Blackwell. “They were good but not striking. We met up with Glenn Roberts, who owns Anson Mills, at a research farm at Clemson University in January 2014. He is known for heirloom grains and all sorts of corn varietals. That was when Jimmy Red (James Allen Red), a corn with a deep, rich color, got our attention visually and in a tasting. After learning all about it and being told it was an excellent choice, we also found out that it was a forgotten corn, nearly extinct, and that there just wasn’t enough around physically for our needs. If we were determined to use Jimmy Red, we’d have to grow our own, so that’s exactly what we did in conjunction with Clemson University’s research farm.”
“They started organically farming and growing 2.3 acres of Jimmy Red for us. All joking aside, I’ll tell you I was there every week watching corn grow until the fall harvest. I was fascinated by the seed-to-pollination process. We mashed the Jimmy Red as 100% corn, and I immediately knew it was different. Fermentation was different, with a big thick oil cap, super starchy, and then on the grain distillation. When it came off the still, the viscosity was thicker and heavier with more spiced notes, which excited us.
We also made watermelon brandy and an Agricole-style rum from fresh sugar cane juice that we got from a syrup maker here, among other things. This was when we solidified our identity as an agriculturally focused and ingredient-based distillery.”
Blackwell remains focused on the farming of the varietal, how it is farmed, treated, and affected by the soil and weather, and what farms they choose to use.
“We use four farms and barrel by individual farm,” Blackwell said. “When you get a single barrel from us, it is a single barrel from a single farm. We now grow 570 acres of Jimmy Red and produce 1500 barrels annually. We have about 23000 square feet here with 700 barrels on site. The rest are in a rickhouse at the Naval base. Currently, we’re sitting on about 5000 barrels of whiskey, most Jimmy Red.”
Right before COVID hit, High Wire Distilling moved into a new building, adding an 8000-liter CARL still and a 50-gallon experimental still for tinkering projects.
Additionally, Blackwell remained innovative in everything, including farming practices, yeasts, fermentations, distilling, mashing, barrels, etc. Like a winemaker or chef doing knife work for specific-looking results, he practices intentional focus to improve his product. Bottling is done onsite on a semiautomatic wine filler.
Always Making Things Better
“Ninety-nine percent of our focus is on continually improving our products,” said Blackwell. “Being an ingredient guy, I’m always researching, and we’re growing out more corn varieties now. We took a trip to Mexico to learn more because that’s where corn originated. There are 59-63 unique varietals of corn; the rest are mixes of the original varietals. Thirty-eight of the original varietals originate in Oaxaca, the epicenter of traditional Mexican cooking. Each family in the village we visited has their own maize variety and uses it in their tortillas. We went house to house and tasted the varieties in tortilla form, and the flavors blew us away. That experience showed me that there is so much more for us to explore with corn while we also keep innovating with wheat and other ryes.”
Blackwell tells Beverage Master Magazine that they also offer an immensely popular and in-demand authentic peach brandy using all-natural peaches from local orchards.
“Peach brandy has been around forever,” added Blackwell. “It’s the American cognac, and since we are the second largest peach-producing state, it seemed like a natural thing for us to do. We don’t do a lot of finishing, but we use those dump barrels to finish some of our bourbon, and that product has also developed a massive following. Our experimental still gives us the opportunity to test our agriculturally focused curiosity and weaving of ingredients. At a suggestion from a friend, we also experimented with air-cured stave barrels vs. kiln-dried ones. The air-cured barrel batches came out with a noticeably better flavor, so since 2019, we’ve used air-cured barrels exclusively. We’ve got a lot of good things going on, but feel we’ve only scratched the surface. We just want to celebrate the great agriculture we’re working with and not screw it up.”
Plan A Visit and Learn About the Region
“We’ve found that 90% of our visitors are first-time visitors from out of town,” said Blackwell. “So, my background in hospitality is on full display here. When you come in, you’ll notice the enormous glass wall that has you overlooking our pot still. We have a 2500 sq foot space with casual seating for about 65 guests. We also have a private room for small events or private parties. We serve wine and beer for those who want that. Visitors can enjoy tours, tastings, and flights while experiencing elevated tastings that feature ingredients sourced from the local farms we support. Guests can learn about our area and region’s uniqueness through our bartenders, who, in reality, are our educators and ambassadors. Eventually, we’d like to include a place to have flights and tastings over at the naval base.”
High Wire Distilling’s culinary-focused spirits include a Revival Rye, made with locally sourced Wrens Abruzzi rye and known for its floral sweetness and white pepper notes. Their Southern Amaro includes locally foraged Charleston black tea, Dancy tangerine and mint. Their Hat Trick Gin contains crushed juniper berries, fresh lemon, and orange peel, and their Hometown vodka is 100% corn distilled over seven times. High Wire Distilling added a bottled-in-bond Jimmy Red to their lineup last year, and Blackwell said they will be doing more age-dated cask strength options to satisfy the many requests.
“We finally have whiskey of age,” said Blackwell. “Getting to this point is the result of our very hard work and now may allow us to spread our wings a little.”
To learn more about High Wire Distilling Company and their Jimmy Red products, plan a visit or head to their website:
High Wire Distilling Company
311 Huger Street
Charleston, South Carolina
29403-4827
www.highwiredistilling.com
