Moonshine Millionaire

Joe had no idea what he was doing. Relying on determination and common sense, he co-founded the most-visited moonshine distillery in the world.

Joe’s family were among early settlers from Scotland and Ireland over 200 years ago, who came to the Smoky Mountains in eastern Tennessee and brought their whisky-making skills with them. They made bootleg moonshine, a centuries-old tradition among local families and now Appalachian history.

Moonshine production wasn’t legal until the 2008 recession, when high unemployment and a desperate need to generate jobs and taxes led Tennessee and other states to legalize it.

Back then, Joe was a criminal lawyer in private practice with two of his school buddies. He knew nothing about producing moonshine but saw a chance to build a business and revitalize a tradition – creating an entire pipeline of growth and attracting tourists to the area.

He remembers those first years, “there was always something keeping me up at night.” They opened the distillery with their last dollars… and then… found themselves with a problem most entrepreneurs only dream of – keeping up with demand.

They worked round-the-clock.  Musicians played bluegrass outside everyday as tourists queued to buy authentic Mason jars of moonshine flavored with fruit sourced from nearby farmers – just like the early days of moonshine production, when turning unsold corn crops into booze minimized losses. That connection is still thriving. “If a peach farmer’s crops are knocked down, we’ll buy it. We don’t care what they look like.”

In Moonshine Millionaire, travel to the Smoky Mountains of eastern Tennessee. Meet Joe and learn how he built a distillery employing more than 700 people. Hear from the locals he sources every part of his supply chain from and discover how he grew the business to more than $120 million in sales from 40 different countries.