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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.
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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.