Here's proof

By Dick Hughes  

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011 1:06 p.m. (0)

Dark Corner Distillery opens Saturday in downtown Greenville as South Carolina’s first legal distiller and seller of 100 proof moonshine of the kind that made northern Greenville’s Dark Corner notorious as the moonshine capital of America.

It is a remembrance, if not a homage, of the fierce warfare in the late 1800s and early 1900s between government revenuers and the Scots and Irish settlers who viewed making whiskey as a God-given right.

Joe Fenton and Richard Wenger, partners in Dark Corner and engineers in day jobs, created not only an authentic copper still, they transformed the interior of a 125-year-old building with a copper patina façade to showcase the working distillery, tasting bar, museum pieces and crafts of local artisans.

Dark Corner Distillery is at 241-B Main Street, just off the corner of Beattie Place and across from the Hyatt. The building was once home to a radio station, O’Neal Williams Sporting Goods and, most recently, Barefoot Comfort, a shoe store.

“Moonshine was the traditional drink of the Dark Corner.  It is whisky made by the light of the moon, and we are making it in that tradition,” said Fenton with more literal meaning than metaphor since he and Wenger work nights to get the store ready and the whiskey distilled, bottled and labeled.

To get their moonshine right, they studied recipes handed down through generations of hardscrabble moonshiners.

“We are using all grains,” said Fenton. “We are not using sugars. We mill our grains. We are using copper pot stills. We are using time-tested methods to do it.”

Purposely they are keeping their batches small, getting only 80 bottles out of every run. Out of every eight gallons, they get four gallons but only about two are useable.

The 80 bottles from the first batch are stamped with a handmade medallion commemorating the event.

They use a one-distillation process, which Fenton and Wenger say is unique.  “Vodka typically is distilled five to eight times. We do one distillation so all that grain flavor comes through,” Fenton explained.

The result, they said, is “you get more bang for your buck” with a cleaner 100 proof whiskey as opposed to vodka of 85 proof.

As Fenton and Wenger worked on the second batch and a friend labeled specially made bottles that have an old-glass wave, Fenton’s wife Roxanne prepared the retail store’s displays of crafts by people within a 15-mile radius of Greenville.

“Everything is homemade and original. If you buy one, there won’t be another,” she said.  They found artisans by going to local open markets and by word of mouth. “If you find one artist, then you find another and another.”

Staying local and historically true to the story of the Dark Corner was a mission of Fenton and Wenger. They bought all materials locally and used local artists for interior artistry, and they consulted local historians to get the story of the moonshiners right.

Fenton’s fascination with the Dark Corner comes naturally.  Now 27, he lived for 11 years in the area, which is generally identified as an area of the Blue Ridge foothills and escarpment north of Highway 11 and between highways 14 and 25.

In the 1760s, the Scots and Irish settlers making their way down from the Shenandoah Valley in their wagons carrying copper pots and stills found the Blue Ridge highlands to their liking and settled in, said Fenton.

“They brought their God-given right to make whiskey to America, and they continued to believe that for hundreds of years, and they still believe God gave them the right to make moonshine,” he said.

“When the revenuers started coming in a lot of bad things started happening, and that’s where Dark Corner got its dark heritage.  A lot of people thought that was why it got its name, but really it did not.”

Fenton said the real origin came out of the movement led by John C. Calhoun to allow South Carolina to nullify federal laws, a precursor battle to the Civil War.  In a vote on nullification, the Irish and Scottish settlers voted 169-1 against nullification and with the Union.

An angry Calhoun vowed “the light will never shine on that dark corner” of the state.

The opening to start a micro distillery came after South Carolina law was changed in 2009, allowing sale of three bottles per person per day, permitting three ounce tasting samples per person per day and reducing the license fee from $50,000 to $5,000 every two years.

Wenger, 45, a home brewer, and Fenton had worked together and often talked about starting a micro brewery but concluded it was impractical because of the competition and high cost.

“It’s been a battle for a year,” said Fenton, as they worked Tuesday into the night to be ready for the Saturday opening.