What sets a brewery, winery or distillery apart from its many counterparts throughout the country? Sometimes it’s distinct architecture or an unexpected setting, like finding a brewery in a historic bathhouse or a distillery in a beach town. Sometimes it’s an immersive tour or activity that lets visitors get their hands dirty. And sometimes it’s the uncommonness of the spirit itself.
Whether it’s Mississippi’s only meadery, a modern experience along the Kentucky bourbon trail or a Virginia winery offering competitive sangria-making classes, here are six breweries, wineries and distilleries throughout the Southeast that offer guests a distinct experience — and some truly tasty spirits.
Hidden Ships Distillery
Surf City, North Carolina
The small town of Surf City on North Carolina’s Topsail Island is a quaint beach getaway with retail shops, a sea turtle rehabilitation center and plenty of outdoor recreation. But visitors may be surprised to find the town is also home to Hidden Ships Distillery, which manufactures bourbon, gin, rum and vodka. Combining maritime history, the lore of pirate ships and the atmosphere of a pre-Prohibition-era lounge, Hidden Ships offers top-notch distillery experiences to guests, whether they’re interested in sipping cocktails or earning an education in spirits. Most often, they’ll get a blend of both.
“Everything we do here is based on creating great customer experiences,” said Andy Szwejbka, owner of Hidden Ships Distillery. “It’s important to me that the tours have an education piece because we want people to understand what they’re smelling, what they’re tasting. We call it sensory training. And we try to give them a new language and new experiences to describe it.”
In addition to offering tours on a regular basis, Hidden Ships has a variety of signature experiences that are a little more hands-on. The distillery can combine a tour with a charcuterie pairing, which includes a full tasting, mini cocktails and custom charcuterie selections. To satisfy a sweet tooth, Hidden Ships can swap the charcuterie pairing for a chocolate pairing, sampling local chocolates from Surf City favorite Burry Chocolates. There’s also a mixology class, which teaches groups how to make three iconic cocktails. Larger groups can be split up to enjoy the experiences eight people at a time, while the rest of the group hangs out in the lounge and enjoys a smoked old-fashioned, the distillery’s signature cocktail.
Bluemont Vineyard
Bluemont, Virginia
Featuring gorgeous views of the verdant countryside of northern Virginia, Bluemont Vineyard capitalizes on the natural beauty of the region. It was founded by the Zurschmeide family in 2007 when its first grapes were produced and has remained a family-owned-and-operated favorite in the community ever since. With an elevation of 951 feet, the vineyard’s tasting room offers breathtaking mountainside views of the valley below. Those views can be enjoyed (along with some live music) from one of the vineyard’s many outdoor seating areas, including its expansive patio, the upper pergola or the veranda.
During chillier seasons, guests can migrate inside to the Barrel Haus Bar or the Harvest Room, or they can continue to enjoy the outdoors with the help of firepits, fire tables and hot seasonal beverages on the patio. The vineyard’s 100 acres provide an elegant setting for weddings and casual outings alike, but it’s also great for visitors seeking an immersive experience into the world of wine.
Bluemont Vineyard offers winery tours that take guests behind the scenes to learn more about the winemaking process. Another experience groups will enjoy is sangria-making lessons; they’ll learn how to make the refreshing wine cocktail then try their hand at crafting one of their own. They can divide into teams and do a taste test to vote on a winner. Other experiences include seated tastings of six wines or a farm-to-table private wine dinner, featuring a four-course meal made with produce from the Zurschmeide family’s Great Country Farms, paired with the vineyard’s wines. Groups larger than 20 can book one of the vineyard’s semi-private or private event spaces.
Queen’s Reward Meadery
Tupelo, Mississippi
There’s evidence honey was fermented in parts of China as early as 7,000 B.C., making mead the world’s oldest alcoholic beverage. Resembling white wine, mead can be sweet or dry, and it’s experiencing something of a renaissance, taking it from the choice beverage of medieval times to an artisan-crafted, increasingly popular pour. And, in the South, it can be found at Queen’s Reward Meadery in Tupelo, Mississippi, famous for being Elvis Presley’s birthplace.
“Right now, we’re the only meadery in the state, and we’re the only meadery in the world to use all Mississippi honey,” said Jeri Carter, founder and owner of Queen’s Reward. “We like to tell people taking a sip of our mead is like taking a sip of our backyard, and our backyard is beautiful.”
What started as a honey-winemaking hobby in Carter’s kitchen became a more serious venture after Carter entered her mead into a national competition and won awards. In 2016, the company incorporated, and in 2018, Queen’s Reward opened its tasting room. The company purchases 40,000 pounds of honey from a single beekeeper in the Mississippi Delta region. The selection includes many nuanced flavors of mead influenced by oak barrels, seasonal spices and fruits, including blackberry, cranberry and wine grapes.
Groups can enjoy a guided tasting led by Carter herself to hear the company’s story, learn about the mead-making process and savor the distinct taste of the company’s many meads. The tasting room comfortably seats 25, but the meadery’s outdoor areas can also be used for larger tastings or during nice weather. After their tasting, Carter will lead a group through the facility to see where the mead is made and answer questions about the process. Tour participants get a complimentary wine glass and are welcome to purchase bottles to take home.
Superior Bathhouse Brewery
Hot Springs, Arkansas
There are a few things about Superior Bathhouse Brewery that make it truly unique: It’s the country’s only brewery inside a national park; it’s the only brewery inside a historic bathhouse; and it’s the only brewery that uses thermal spring water to brew.
Hot Springs, Arkansas, has had a reputation for promoting wellness among Indigenous people for thousands of years. Its geothermal waters have been heated by the Earth’s interior and forced up to the surface through cracks in the ground over a period of 4,000 years. Along the way, the water is enriched with minerals. Hot Springs National Park is the nation’s first federally protected land, and the government, recognizing its potential as a wellness destination, commissioned Bathhouse Row. While only a few of the bathhouses still offer their original service (in a more modern manner), the row now houses shops, restaurants, tour companies and museums.
Superior Bathhouse Brewery, located in the former Superior Bathhouse, is just a few doors down from iconic bathhouses like the Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center and Quapaw Baths & Spa, making it a must-visit after a day of exploring the park. The bathhouse-turned-brewery features a rotating menu of craft beers with seasonal picks, and hard ciders and wines are also available. All its beers are brewed on-site with that mineral-rich spring water. For a non-alcoholic beverage, the brewery’s homemade root beer is an excellent choice and can be served as a root beer float.
The menu includes classic pub fare, like Bavarian pretzels, beer cheese, wings, a selection of sandwiches and salads. Groups can enjoy their beers and bites on the brewery’s expansive patio.
District Winery
Washington, D.C.
After a day of sightseeing at some of the nation’s most immersive and educational museums, monuments and historic attractions, relaxing with a glass of wine is an ideal way for a group to wind down. They’ll find this especially easy to do at District Winery, a 17,000-square-foot boutique winery and event venue in the heart of Washington, D.C.’s Navy Yard neighborhood. The waterfront neighborhood is home to iconic attractions like the Nationals Park baseball stadium, the National Museum of the U.S. Navy and The Yards Park, as well as many stylish restaurants and bars, making District Winery a perfect fit.
Co-founded by Brian Leventhal and John Stires, who also founded Brooklyn Winery in New York City’s Williamsburg neighborhood, District Winery harnesses the energy and culture of D.C. with small batch wines produced using grapes grown across the country, from a Finger Lakes riesling to a Suisun Valley cabernet. There’s also an on-site restaurant offering a seasonal menu of charcuterie, shareable plates and sweets.
Tours of the winery are available most days of the week, and each features different themes, though private tours can also be arranged. Groups of 16 or fewer can opt for private experiences, like a guided wine tasting of five of the winery’s vintages. There’s also a wine-and-cheese pairing, and groups that want a competitive experience can arrange wine games, which include two rounds of trivia and tastings, as well as bottles of wine for the winners. Tours and experiences last about an hour and should be scheduled in advance.
Bardstown Bourbon Company
Bardstown, Kentucky
Bardstown is known as the bourbon capital of the world for a reason: There are 11 distilleries surrounding the small central Kentucky town, with barrels of the state’s signature spirit stacked to the ceiling in each rickhouse. One of those 11 distilleries, Bardstown Bourbon Company, is bringing fresh perspective to the craft of bourbon.
“It’s unlike any other distillery you’re going to go to in Bardstown,” said Jake Sulek, VIP experience and education manager at Bardstown Bourbon Company. “A lot of our neighbors are heritage facilities that are 70, 80, even 90 years old. What makes us unique is we’re so modern, and we lean into that modernity as a touchstone. We’re the Napa Valley of the Bourbon Trail.”
Part of that Napa Valley-style experience is the range of guest programs the distillery offers. In addition to the flagship Core Four Tour, which offers visitors a taste of four signature whiskeys (three bourbon, one rye) and then lets them peek into the rickhouses, there are a range of other VIP experiences that illuminate bourbon’s backstage.
A behind-the-scenes tour takes groups on a 3 ½-hour tour through every step of the bourbon-making process, from grain to glass. For a more hands-on experience, the Art of Blending workshop offers an education on mashbills and lets visitors study by making their own blend. There’s also a Shaken & Stirred class, where guests will learn how to craft two bourbon cocktails from the distillery’s experienced mixologists and enjoy rickhouse barrel thieving for samples straight from the barrel.
