The Original Carolina Bourbon

Trey Herring was born and raised in Goldsboro, North Carolina, an idyllic town in the Eastern part of the state. The son of a farmer and a public school teacher, he spent his childhood in the fields and woods around the family farm. After attending college, Trey spent the first ten years of his career in business management and organizational development. With several years in the corporate world under his belt and living several hours away from his family, Trey decided that it was time to come home and create a business for himself. His desire was to incorporate the harvests of the crops indigenous to eastern NC and his hometown, into something that he truly loved: small batch bourbon.

Like many southern gentlemen, including his father and late grandfather, Trey enjoys welcoming the weekend and passing the time with good friends. Trey has found that some of those times and gatherings call for a simple pour of a smooth bourbon, whiskey or perhaps a little nip of moonshine, to help keep the conversation flowing. Fascinated by the spirits of the South, its rich history, and its many manifestations, a desire to create small batch craft bourbon in the heart of the Carolinas took form. Trey began researching bourbon in earnest, exploring different styles and methods, to find an approach that honored his native soil. Working closely with a third-generation distiller, Trey learned the fine art of regional whiskey making. Together, they developed a recipe that reflected local tastes in whiskey; combining the mild, mellow flavors of bourbon with a hint of sweetness, reminiscent of the traditions of Tennessee. With 68% of Trey Herring's Carolina Bourbon's mash bill containing corn from Eastern NC, Trey realized his dream, by bringing his passion full circle, right back home into the cornfields where his father once worked. In partnership with a distillery in Charleston, South Carolina, he distilled his first commercial batch in June 2009. That batch was bottled in January 2013 and its entire stock was depleted by October of that year. Trey's intent is to continue the tradition of sought-after small batch spirits; his plan includes reviving recipes that have lain dormant for more than 60 years, while currently working on a a release of his highly anticipated three year-old Raisin Rye Whiskey. Today, Trey invites you to join him in raising a glass of Carolina Bourbon and saluting everything that makes the Carolinas so special. Cheers!