MORAVIAN FALLS, N.C . – On the drive up Brushy Mountain through high pine woods, the GPS guidance peters out quickly.
“Take a left at the ‘Road Closed Ahead’ sign” is the first of many twists and turns that John Holman texts to visitors to his distillery, here at the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The bridge to the property was washed away by Tropical Storm Eta last November, and the pandemic has discouraged the customers who normally visit to buy his high-proof “waters of life,” also known as aquavit, vodka and schnapps.
But Holman still shimmers with energy and pride in his pet project: applejack.
Holman Distillery is one of several new producers, here and in other apple-rich regions, that are reviving this quintessentially American drink – the original moonshine of the colonies – from the death blow it was dealt a century ago by Prohibition.