Established: 2009
Location: Americus, Georgia
Origins: “My father, Alton Darby, wanted to make whiskey as Christmas gifts for friends and family, except that wasn’t a legal thing,” says Thirteenth Colony president Max Darby. “The idea stayed around until he figured to just start a distillery, mostly as a hobby until it took on a world of its own across Georgia. I came on six years ago to take it beyond Georgia.”
Flagship bottles: Guided by chef-turned-master-distiller Graham Arthur, core expressions include Southern Straight Bourbon (95 proof), which Max calls a “daily sipper after work”; 113 Straight Bourbon finished with maple wood spirals (113 proof) “for something a bit interesting with a longer finish”; and limited releases of Double Oaked Bourbon (bottled at cask strength), a “dark, rich, and oaky bourbon for top-level enthusiasts.”
What makes it special: “South Georgia has extremely hot summers and mild winters, with huge heat cycles when the temperature can be in the forties in the morning and eighties in the afternoon,” Max says. “We age all our whiskey past four years, but that constant expansion and contraction of the barrel wood causes acceleration of the maturation process over what you might find in Kentucky.”
Where to find: Distribution to twenty states, including Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. Online shipping available at 13thcolonydistillery.com.
Steve Russell is a Garden & Gun contributing editor who also has written for Men’s Journal, Life, Rolling Stone, and Playboy. Born in Mississippi and raised in Tennessee, he resided in New Orleans and New York City before settling down in Charlottesville, Virginia, because it’s far enough south that biscuits are an expected component of a good breakfast.
