Distilling turns over a new leaf

With more than 3,000 craft distilleries across the country, all competing for limited attention and space in liquor cabinets, distillers are almost always looking for a way to stand out. Many lean into location, highlighting the use of native ingredients, special water sources, or hyper-local agriculture.

But one North Carolina distiller is taking it to a new level, inspired by local traditions of tobacco farming to invent a new maturation process for bourbon and rye. He refers to the process of aging whiskey in tobacco barns as “flue curing.”