Here is an article published on Carolina Journal by John Trump who wrote a book we carry in our store called Still & Barrel: Craft Spirits in the Old North State. He took a quote when we were talking and published it in his article about Virginia being a controlled state. It’s a good read. Check out the link below to see more into the story.
“For North Carolina’s distillers, getting their products into ABC stores is arduous and time-consuming.
Distillers must first check all the boxes pertinent to federal and state laws. The state must then approve their products before distillers send those products to Raleigh for distribution to ABC stores across the state.
Which stores is up to distillers, but also largely up to the ABC boards — North Carolina has 168 — and their members, whom distillers must persuade to carry their brands.
“It’s kinda up to you to convince each board administrator to put you in their store,” Donald Walton of Walton’s Distillery in Jacksonville said in an interview for my book Still & Barrel: Craft Spirits in the Old North State. “……………
https://www.carolinajournal.com/news-article/virginia-is-a-control-state-but-its-model-is-friendly-to-that-states-distillers/
