Muddy River Distillery in Belmont, North Carolina is just that. It is the oldest and the only "Legal Rum Distillery" in North Carolina, really making an original and the real thing. 
At
just three years old, Muddy River Distillery is North Carolina’s first and
oldest rum distillery since prohibition, staking claim on an as-of-yet untapped
craft liquor market in a state that’s currently home to more than 100 craft
breweries. Banking on a trajectory that would follow that of North
Carolina’s craft beer boom, founders Robbie and Caroline Delaney appear to have hit a home run with their rum distillery. The two-person husband and wife duo took Robbie’s at-home alcohol-making hobby from borderline obsession to
full-blown business in less than a year.
The idea first
came to Robbie on a flight to Charlotte to visit Caroline when they were
dating. While on the plane he read an article about the growth of craft
breweries across the country and throughout the Charlotte area, thought to himself that “Beer is already here. Why just
be one of hundreds of craft breweries, when you can be the first craft rum
distillery?”
Today Muddy River operates
out of a sprawling 6,000-square-foot warehouse on the banks of the Catwaba
River in Belmont, just to the east of the Charlotte Airport. Robbie and Caroline are churning out 300
bottles of rum a day, making a real name for themselves.
Queen Charlotte Reserve is their nicest
expression, it has enough flavor and smoothness to be sipped straight or on the
rocks. You generally don't find a sipping rum
produced by a distillery that has only been around for a little over four years, but you
will change your mind once you taste Queen Charlotte’s Reserve.
