Distilleries Worth Visiting: The South (Kentucky Not Included) — 2026 Edition

Garrett

Oct 14

3 min read

I haven't set foot in every distillery on this list — yet. Consider this the start of an annual series: the whiskey distilleries worth actually planning a trip around, state by state, everywhere except Kentucky. Kentucky gets left out on purpose — it's not that it doesn't deserve the spot, it's that giving it one would turn this into a Kentucky list with everyone else as a footnote. This is the footnote states get their due instead.

A few of these states didn't have three legitimate picks. Rather than pad the list to hit a round number, I'm telling you that up front.

Tennessee

Nelson's Green Brier Distillery (Nashville) — A 1860s family distillery brought back from the dead by the original founders' descendants, with a genuinely interesting "hall of history" walk before you get to the stills.
Corsair Distillery (Nashville) — The craft counterweight to Tennessee's big names. Grain-to-glass, experimental spirits, and a pre-Prohibition pot still still in use.
Uncle Nearest / Nearest Green Distillery (Shelbyville) — Built around Nathan "Nearest" Green, the formerly enslaved man who taught Jack Daniel how to distill. One of the best founder stories in American whiskey, full stop.

Worth a mention even though they didn't make the cut: George Dickel and Jack Daniel's — you know them already, and they're both still worth the drive.

Texas

Garrison Brothers Distillery (Hye) — Texas's first legal bourbon distillery, out in Hill Country with a restaurant on-site. The one that started the whole Texas whiskey thing.
Balcones Distilling (Waco) — The flagship of modern Texas whiskey. If you've had a Texas single malt, there's a decent chance it traces back here.
Still Austin Whiskey Co. (Austin) — Grain-to-glass with a tour tier that gets you two hours with an actual distiller if you want to go deep.

Virginia

A. Smith Bowman Distillery (Fredericksburg) — Virginia's oldest and most-awarded distillery. Their Bowman Brothers bourbon has won "World's Best" honors twice.
Copper Fox Distillery (Sperryville) — The first traditional malt floor and kiln built in North America since Prohibition. Apple- and cherry-wood-smoked malt whisky you won't find replicated much elsewhere.
Catoctin Creek Distilling (Purcellville) — Virginia's first legal distillery since Prohibition, known for an organic, bottled-in-bond rye worth seeking out even if you can't make the trip.

North Carolina

Southern Distilling Company (Statesville) — One of the biggest, most modern craft setups in the Southeast on a 20-acre campus.
Doc Porter's Distillery (Charlotte) — All-North-Carolina grain, and you can pay a bit more for an owner-guided tour if you want the real version of the story.
Defiant Whisky / Blue Ridge Distilling (Bostic) — Veteran-owned, using an unusual staves-and-spirals aging method instead of full casks. Worth visiting just to see how that changes things.

Georgia

ASW Distillery (Atlanta) — Repeatedly named one of the most awarded craft distilleries in the country; their Fiddler and Resurgens Rye have the medals to back it up.
Independent Distilling Company (Decatur) — The first bourbon made inside the Atlanta perimeter since Prohibition, run out of a small 100-gallon still with a neighborhood-bar feel.
Old Fourth Distillery (Atlanta) — Atlanta's first legal distillery since 1906. Worth a call ahead to confirm hours before you build a trip around it — listings weren't fully consistent when I checked.

Alabama

Clyde May's / Conecuh Ridge Distillery (Troy) — Alabama's official state spirit, now with a brand-new 76-acre destination property that opened for tours in 2024.
Dread River Distilling Co. (Birmingham) — The first bourbon distilled in Birmingham in over a century.

Alabama's a two-pick state right now. I'd rather say that than invent a third.

Florida

St. Augustine Distillery (St. Augustine) — Florida's first bourbon distillery, in a restored historic ice plant, and reportedly the most-visited craft distillery in the country.
Timber Creek Distillery (Crestview) — Full grain-to-bottle control in the Panhandle, with a "blend your own bottle" experience if you want to leave with something nobody else has.
Palm Ridge Reserve (Umatilla) — A tiny 80-acre cattle-farm operation aging bourbon in 5-gallon charred casks for unusually fast maturation. The most interesting story on this list — call ahead, since public hours weren't fully confirmed.

South Carolina

High Wire Distilling (Charleston) — Downtown Charleston, built around heirloom Southern grains.
Six & Twenty Distillery (Powdersville) — Grain-to-glass with a locally sourced bourbon blend and small-group tours.

You'll notice Firefly isn't here — it's South Carolina's biggest, most recognizable distillery name, but it's vodka-first and doesn't run a real production tour. Great brand, wrong list.

The states I'm skipping this year

Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi each have exactly one whiskey-worthy stop I'd vouch for — Seven Three Distilling in New Orleans, Rock Town Distillery in Little Rock, and Cathead Distillery in Jackson — but all three states are rum, vodka, and moonshine country before they're whiskey country. I'd rather tell you that than dress up a thin bench as a real trail. If that changes, they'll earn a spot next year.