A DUAL PURPOSE

Southern Distilling Company is Much More Than They May Seem

Written by Rich Manning

Photography by Amanda Joy Christensen

Thereare two sides to Southern Distilling Company. There’s the side that consumers know about, the one producing craft bourbon, rye, and liqueur under the Southern Star label. This is the side that wins medals at known competitions like the SIP Awards, the New York Wine & Spirits Competition and Fred Minnick’s Ascot Awards. All while promoting the importance of treating distilled spirits as a joyful conduit that brings friends and loved ones together. Then there’s the side that consumers don’t know about, the one where they’re using their grain-to-glass distilling mindset to help roughly 120 other brands as a contact distiller.

Both exist harmoniously, because they grow from a common core philosophy of using the best ingredients to make spirits that matter. The stories emerging from this root radically diverge under the watchful eyes of Pete and Vienna Barger, the husband-and-wife duo constructing the narratives that drive the Statesville, North Carolina, distillery they founded in 2013. On the contracting side, they’re ghostwriters that deflect acclaim to others. For their brand, they’re orators perched on a hilltop, drawing attention to a history that languishes in obscurity.

Silence Is Golden

Southern Distilling Company sums up its contracting work with a simple motto: “Your product made your way.” They execute the motto’s sentiment by building mash bills from scratch with the spirit brand, as opposed to selling barrels of juice. There’s nothing wrong with the latter option, of course — many quality products are sold this way. Yet Southern’s approach provides burgeoning distilleries a more controlled opportunity to develop their spirits and ultimately their brands. According to Pete Barger, it’s a model that ideally aligns with the craft sector’s explosion. “Ten years ago, there were only about 370 distilleries in the U.S. There weren’t 2,000-plus craft brands like there are now,” he said. “The industry changed, and we’re growing with these changes. We feel like we’re Johnny on the spot, and by taking a craft distiller’s approach to contracting, we can offer a level of authenticity to our customers.”

Southern’s “grain to glass” approach to contract distilling also gives their clients a little more wiggle room to experiment, which may lead to line extensions as their craft partners grow.

“I have a client right now that’s playing around with a malted rye with a threegrain mash bill of heritage corn, malted rye, and malted barley,” Barger said. “We’re excited to see how it turns out. We’re also excited to see how it may scale to larger production if things go well.”

The brand working with Southern to produce this malted rye is a mystery. So are the other brands contracted to Southern. The Bargers keep all their clients in strict confidentiality, and requests for information will be met with a polite but firm no. It’s a policy that can slightly sting on occasion, even if it is for the greater good. “It’s tough to see brands win medals and we can’t disclose that they work with us,” Barger admitted. “Then again, we don’t want the focus on us. Creating quality products is more important.”

While Southern’s adherence to silent partnership keeps their contracting efforts out of the public eye, the spirits industry is a different matter. They’re a reliable presence at industry conferences. Even as they’ve become a known commodity behind the scenes, there’s no rush to change how they attract new business. “We’ve spent a decade growing through word of mouth and reputation, not through Google,” said Vienna. “It fits who we are. We’re not some conglomerate that has to answer to shareholders. We’re just a family-owned business beholden to the needs of our clients.”

When Pete and Vienna are talking about their Southern Star labels, the megaphone comes out. When it does, the quality of the finished product doesn’t necessarily lead the conversation. It doesn’t have to, thanks in part to Southern Star cleaning up on the awards circuit in 2022. This allows the Bargers to focus on other key parts of the brand narrative. While they keep mum about the brands that contract with them, they’re transparent about their own products. Go to their website and click on their Southern Star Bottled-in-Bond wheated bourbon, for instance, and you’ll find out it’s built from a mash bill of 70 percent corn, 16 percent wheat, and 14 percent malted barley. The creation of their spirits line also fortifies the Bargers’ strict adherence to the “grain to glass” style of distilling they provide others as a contract distiller: Trusted partnerships with area farmers that grant them access to top quality local grain investing in state-of-the-art distilling and fermentation equipment. Turning to innovation to ensure consistency and not to take shortcuts.

These elements organically evoke the essence of craftsmanship. They