FOOD & DRINK FEATURE
TO KNOCK ON WOOD Every stave has a story at Oaklore Distilling
Pg. 10 JANUARY 25 - FEBRUARY 7, 2023 - QCNERVE.COM
BY KARIE SIMMONS
“How do you start a distillery?” Had Matthews neighbors Matt Simpkins and Thomas Bogan been asked that question five years ago, they would have had no idea how to respond. After all, they were just two dads who met at the elementary school bus stop and bonded over whiskey and fellowship. It was their shared love for quality spirits that eventually sparked the friends — one a pastor and the other the owner of a construction company — to start making their own. Bogan, the one who worked in construction, had some experience with home-brewing beer in the past, so he figured it couldn’t be that different. “I said, ‘Matt, I think we can do this. It’s one step past beer.’ … And he said, ‘Well, then let’s do that,’” Bogan said. Unlike beer, however, it’s illegal under federal law to make distilled spirits at home, so Simpkins and Bogan experimented with the process by using pre-made distillates like moonshine (unaged whiskey), which they purchased from the ABC store. They infused the liquor with various flavor profiles and tried several aging methods, from soaking it with different staves (pieces of wood from oak barrels) in jars to placing it in barrels, in order to figure out what made one whiskey better than another. They also met with and visited other licensed distillers to learn how their processes affect the distillate, eventually obtaining their own license and securing an official distillery space. “Every step of the way, it became more of a reality, which was really fun,” Bogan said. “One moment would hit and it would kind of open up the real possibility of the next step and the next step and the next step.” One of those steps came in September when Simpkins and Bogan opened Oaklore Distilling Co., a craft distillery and tasting room located at the corner of Matthews Township Parkway and Monroe Road in Matthews. The actual distillery space is small — roughly 250 square feet — and separated from the tasting room and bottle shop by a glass wall that allows
visitors to watch them work. That’s where Simpkins and Bogan make their unaged product and process the aged barrels for Oaklore’s whiskeys made with North Carolina grains, including a rye and some bourbons. They also make vodka, rum and gin. Though already in their dream location near the Matthews/Charlotte border, and already
workaround, which allowed them to have product aging while they waited on their distilling license and worked to secure a space. “And then the pandemic hit, and then our stuff aged a little longer,” Simpkins said. “So here we are today with aged product on the shelf that is our character and our make.” Simpkins said North Carolina is taking a little longer to loosen some of what he views as strict laws surrounding liquor and distilleries compared to other states. Only recently did the rule change to allow distilleries to sell bottles of their liquor on site — initially starting as one bottle per customer per year, then three, five and finally, unlimited bottles as of September 2021. A law allowing NC distilleries to sell bottled spirits on Sundays went into effect on Oct. 1, 2021. “North Carolina historically has a longer history in bourbon than Kentucky does, but not a lot of people know that and part of that is because Kentucky did a
The partners experienced this firsthand when they found the perfect location for Oaklore in Matthews only to be met with outdated zoning laws that stated a distillery couldn’t open there because it was within 500 feet of a residential neighborhood. “We were butting up against the fact that breweries were allowed all these freedoms, but distilleries weren’t and we didn’t know why. The current commissioners of Matthews weren’t sure why,” Bogan said. “The town of Matthews was really helpful and willing to work with us to get those things changed, but it was a process.” In September 2021, Matthews commissioners approved the duo’s rezoning request to allow their distillery to operate at their chosen site, officially setting a precedent to allow distilleries less than 3,000 square feet as a permitted use in neighborhood business districts. Town commissioners also reduced the allowed distance between a distillery and a residence from 500 to 50 feet. The ruling was not only a win for Oaklore, but also future distilleries in Matthews. And yet Simpkins and Bogan said since then the hurdles and challenges have just kept coming. Bogan said every day there is a new puzzle to solve, but that’s what makes it fun. “Solve enough puzzles, you get to open a distillery. Solve enough puzzles, you get to stay open,” Simpkins added.
‘The tree, the story’
OAKLORE DISTILLING FOUNDERS MATT SIMPKINS (LEFT) AND THOMAS BOGAN.
discussing potential expansion opportunities for their production and distribution, the friends insist it wasn’t as easy as it may look from the outside — proof the answer to “How do you start a distillery?” isn’t a simple one.
Solving puzzles
When Simpkins and Bogan settled on the idea for a distillery in Matthews, they knew they wanted to open with aged product on the shelf. However, they didn’t have a commercial license yet and state and federal law prohibited them from operating their own still at home to make it. They used “sister stills” at other distilleries as a
COURTESY OF OAKLORE DISTILLING CO.
great job of marketing and had some really big money behind it, you know, 100 years ago,” Simpkins said. “As they were putting all those pieces in order post prohibition, they ramped up a whole lot faster.” Though prohibition was repealed in 1933, North Carolina remained a dry state until 1937, when the state government established an Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) system to regulate the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcohol. It’s been almost 90 years and Simpkins and Bogan said there are still local, county and state laws surrounding liquor that should be updated — if only to even the playing field between distilleries, wineries and breweries.
The distillery’s name, Oaklore, is a nod to how whiskey is made. As Simpkins explains it, a wooden barrel of bourbon is made of vertical staves, or pieces of oak, that are different sizes, ages and made from different trees growing in various regions and climates. They’re also cured for different amounts of time and come from different cooperages who handle them differently. “They all have their own little fingerprint that they put on that whiskey distillate, which ultimately means that every single barrel, every single stave, tells a little bit of a different story,” Simpkins said. “We’re all about the story of that stave, which is how you get oak and lore — the tree, the story.” It’s a story Simpkins tells guests who visit the distillery to learn about Oaklore’s products, which he said have been flying off the shelves and selling out regularly ever since they opened — enough so that he and Bogan are already talking about expansion. The partners want to beef up operations to keep up with demand and possibly get into local distribution as Oaklore spirits are currently only