Southport Magazine

It’s never been a better time to be a whiskey fan in Southport, especially if you’re open to exploring new and unique versions of whiskey, rye and bourbon. Thanks to the Southport ABC Store and some of Southport’s favorite bars and restaurants, it’s easy to find something you’ve never experienced before. I sat down with Southport ABC Store General Manager Todd Dunn and Loco Jo’s owner Chuck Archer to learn about barrel picks and a system that is helping restaurant and bar owners, the ABC Store and consumers alike. 

A Single (or Private) Barrel Pick is the purchase of a specific barrel of product from a distillery. The whiskey you normally find on store shelves is a blend from many barrels. Even “small batch” whiskey is made from 50-60 different barrels, Chuck said. The whiskey from one single barrel is different in some important ways.

“The first thing is it’s going to be cask strength,” explained Chuck. “A lot of companies are going to bring it down to 80 or 90 proof. We prefer to do everything at cask strength so that if people want to bring it down with a little bit of water or add a mixer they can. When we do a tasting we look at it in multiple ways. So we’ll look at it as a finished product you can drink straight out of the bottle, we look at it as a product you can put over ice, and we look at it as how is this product going to react if someone puts it in a cocktail.”   

Cask strength refers to the proof of the whiskey straight out of the barrel, which ranges from 110 to 140 proof. Chuck said the benefit of this higher proof is that it allows the consumer to decide how to drink it. You can drink it as is, add ice or water, or make a cocktail. 

“There’s no wrong way to drink whiskey. Ever.” Chuck said “I’ve had people say ‘Oh, you’re not supposed to drink it that way.’ The way to drink it is the way you prefer it.” 

Chuck and Todd told me about the experience of picking a barrel at North Carolina distillery Southern Star in Statesville. 

“Usually they’ll start you with a tour, so we took the tour. If you’ve been to one distillery…..it’s kind like brewery tour. Technically, whiskey is beer before they distill it,” Chuck said. “After the tour, they sat us down at a table with the master distiller, the sales manager and, at one point, the owner joined us. What they did was the distillery will take samples out of barrels they feel are ready to be sold. So of course you’re trusting in the Master Distiller, because that’s his job. They sit you down, and it’s not a blind tasting per se, you know this is this barrel at this proof, you know how long it’s been aged, you have all that information in front of you. Once you taste everything through, you’re looking for what the notes of that whiskey are, what the flavor profile of that whiskey is, what the finish of that whiskey is, does that whiskey have a good oil content. Because from the wood is extracted tannins that are essentially oil. So you want to make sure you’re not getting something that’s too watered down or that the wood didn’t do what it was supposed to do. Then you make your pick. Then they bottle it out and ship it to you. It’s basically moonshine going into the barrel. It’s amazing what wood will do to things.”

And each barrel’s whiskey is unique because of the individual properties of that barrel. “The wood is the complete difference,” Chuck said. “The same identical product goes into every barrel. Where that barrel is on a stack — they actually age their barrels standing upright. A lot of distilleries will age the barrels lying on their side. It does matter. Humidity at a certain height, heat at a certain height, that affects the expanding a contracting of the wood of the barrel. So the barrel imparts the flavor.”

Chuck said it’s a big help working with Todd and the Southport ABC store so he doesn’t need to buy the entire barrel he’s picked himself. 

“It’s not always just me or just Todd,” Chuck said. “He went to Craig from Frying Pan and American Fish, and the people from Moore Street and did some without me, so everyone has a hand in doing something different and that lets you gain a different flavor profile, because my palette isn’t going to be the same as what this person’s palette is or this person’s palette is. So that kind of makes it even more exciting to bring these products in.”

Todd says it’s a priority to involve the local restaurants. “Over the last two years, I’ve been trying to get restaurants involved. Anytime I get a new barrel, I try to get restaurants involved. I’ve gone through eight plus barrels over the last four years.” 

This cooperation helps restaurants and the individual whiskey fan as well. “I think it benefits both of us, and I’ve told Chuck, I’ve told everybody, I appreciate them working with me this because it gives me a place, where if someone’s like ‘I don’t know if I want to spend $70 on a bottle’ and they don’t mind spending it, but don’t what to spend it if they’re not going to like it. I can point them to a restaurant or restaurants that have it and they can try it and get some good food, too.” Todd said. 

And that cooperation has spread between the bars as well. “There’s bottles sitting in Moore Street that I do not have,” said Chuck. “There’s a bottle I have here that maybe Pat doesn’t have at The Pub. It’s good because if someone walks in here and has a drink and wants something I don’t have I can send them to The Pub or maybe Moore Street. It’s good because we can pass people around, and that’s kind of the whole working network of it. And that really makes sense.

“It’s really a good thing for the ABC Store and the community, because let’s be honest, no one walks in and buys just one bottle. If you’re here on vacation, you’re going to buy what you normally drink and then something special. So it’s good in driving sales in both directions,” he said. 

And now those unique bottles can have a little more local touch, Todd said. “Now the state’s passed a law where I can put something unique, Southport or a restaurant name, on the bottle. That’s just in the last four months,” he said. “We can put Whittlers bench or some local landmark on the bottle.”

Chuck has some advice for what he and Todd jokingly refer to as The Bourbon Hunters, people who come in looking or one or two specific, hard to come by, brands. “Expand your horizons. There are so many great products on the market. That single barrel gives an ABC store an edge, because if someone comes in and can’t get what they came in for, they can still get something special, something unique to Southport.”