High Wire Distilling
Founded in 2013 by husband-and-wife team Ann Marshall and Scott Blackwell, High Wire Distilling Co. produces small-batch, agriculturally focused spirits in Charleston, South Carolina. Through their efforts to carve out a distinct identity in the American craft whiskey landscape, they have become inextricably linked to the revival of a single variety of heritage corn, Jimmy (aka “James Island”) Red.
Early in their history, High Wire sensed that the best way for them to create unique products was to lean into their creative culinary energies and embrace the same heritage grains that were already being championed by like-minded chefs in southern kitchens. Entering the world of distilled spirits as two accomplished but clear-eyed food industry entrepreneurs, they viewed their inexperience as distillers as a unique opportunity for their energies to shine.
Hat Trick gin was an early offering. Classically constructed, it neatly tapped into the zeitgeist of Charleston bartending in the 2010s and gave High Wire a runway to explore further distilling possibilities. They enlisted the assistance of renowned master distiller Dave Pickerell, who taught them to approach their 2000-liter Kothe hybrid pot still (they have since converted to an 8000-liter CARL hybrid) intuitively, without relying on automated presets. Having begun working with local sorghum and Abruzzi rye, High Wire experimented with a 4-grain bourbon that featured other regionally specific grains (including Carolina Gold rice), but they felt it fell short of the distinctive qualities they aspired to highlight.
Enter Glenn Roberts of Anson Mills. An expert in local heirloom grains, he already had a unique and nearly extinct variety of corn, Jimmy Red, in mind for High Wire. Jimmy Red was initially brought to the Upland South by the migration of indigenous peoples (current work to isolate genetic origins points to Mexico), and this unique, dazzlingly colored grain became popular with Europeans as a food staple, a high-energy animal feed, and, critically, a delicious source of unaged whiskey. Known as the moonshine distiller’s best friend, Jimmy Red corn produces an oily, engagingly rich new-make that is lightning in a Mason jar. Watching it ferment for the first time, the High Wire team excitedly observed a deep slick of flavor-laden oil forming on the top of the vessel.
Swept up by the unique flavors of Jimmy Red, High Wire enlisted the help of the College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences at Clemson University to grow two-and-a-half acres of the variety for their early experiments (but for the efforts of a single seed-collecting local farmer, Jimmy Red had nearly disappeared). The first harvest yielded enough corn for two barrels of whiskey; once bottled, it sold out in eleven minutes. Since then, High Wire has contracted with more than a half-dozen local and regional farmers to grow this labor-intensive corn (being an “open pollinator”—subject to interbreeding with neighboring crops—it means that each stalk has to be pollinated by hand). Reviving a variety, they restored a cash crop.
High Wire’s core bourbons are distilled from a 100% Jimmy Red corn mash bill and barreled by farm; blending occurs with an eye to marrying the different flavors produced by different soils. Production—from mashing and fermentation to distillation and aging—is geared to preserving the grain’s unique flavor. It’s a devotion to detail that extends across the brand, including their celebrated gin and distinctive “Southern” amaro. Staking out a singular space in the American craft spirits continuum, High Wire has simultaneously revived a style of whiskey-making, sustained a heritage grain (and those who farm it), and offered whiskey consumers a unique drinking experience—one in which, to echo Wendell Berry, every sip has been transformed into “a bold, delicious, agricultural act.”