Business Opportunities Weblog

January 30, 2007 by Rich Whittle | 2 Comments

The Wichita Eagle:

Before he moved to North Carolina in the mid-`90s, Joseph Michalek’s New York buddies kidded him about coming to the land of moonshine and Mayberry.

Within months of arriving in Winston-Salem, he began to notice a glass jar quietly being passed around at bluegrass festivals and race tracks.

“I’d never seen nor tasted moonshine, but it was pretty obvious that’s what it was,” said Michalek, 38. “I was prepared for the worst, but I sipped it and it was delicious, much smoother than I expected. It had a hint of fruit in it; I’d never tasted anything quite like it.”

What Michalek tasted was a moonshine “hybrid,” which has grown in popularity in recent years at barbecues and ballgames throughout the Carolinas – usually offered from a friend’s back-pocket flask. The corn whiskey infused with local peaches, apples, cherries or strawberries is sweeter and smoother than the 180-proof, clear liquor.

Michalek saw a business opportunity.

In 2005, he started Piedmont Distillers in Madison, north of Greensboro – the first legal distillery in the Carolinas since before Prohibition.

Michalek produces Catdaddy: Carolina Moonshine, which is being sold in more than 200 North Carolina ABC liquor stores and outlets in York County, S.C.

He produces Catdaddy in small batches – 300 gallons, triple-distilled in a German copper pot still. A batch yields about 1,500 bottles, which are filled, corked and packaged by hand in Madison’s former train station.

Photo by Piedmont Distillers.

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Tags: Branding, Legal, Niche, Startup