Dark Corner Distillery Debuts South Carolina’s First-Ever Gin

 

Dark Corner Distillery, South Carolina’s first distillery since Prohibition to produce small-batch, hand-spirited whiskey, is branching out from its whiskey line to create the first gin to be commercially distilled in the state.

Dark Corner owner Joe Fenten debuted his new White Tiger Gin last Friday and said it would be available in a limited batch of 100 bottles at the distillery’s downtown Greenville location.

White Tiger — a New Western style gin — is South Carolina’s first and only hand-distilled gin. Dark Corner’s head distiller John Wilcox developed White Tiger’s flavor profile in a nod to ancient Chinese astrology, which deems the white tiger a “guardian of the West.”

“The resulting gin is more than a drink. It’s an experience,” Fenten said.

White Tiger Gin starts with Dark Corner’s corn whiskey as a base, and Wilcox then infuses it with juniper, Szechuan pepper, lemongrass, jasmine, and Thai basil to develop a layered, complex 90-proof gin.

According to Fenten, the finished product is “worthy of a blue-ribbon cocktail or drinking neat.”

While only unveiled publicly on Friday, White Tiger already earned a Bronze medal at the Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition in May.