Opinion

Buffalo Trace, Blanton’s fiasco just one example of an 80-year-old problem

Buffalo Trace and Blanton’s are virtual unicorns for bourbon lovers living in North Carolina. Getting the chance to buy a bottle, particularly Blanton’s, in North Carolina is — using a movie reference — akin to finding a golden ticket in an oversized bar of chocolate. North Carolina gets products from the Buffalo Trace Distillery in...

John Trump
Opinion

Enough is enough: It’s time to wake up and reform the way North Carolina controls liquor

It’s time to wake up, North Carolina. Enough is truly enough. In truth, it’s well past time lawmakers take substantive steps toward rewriting or eliminating much of the arcane laws governing alcohol, painfully documented in N.C. General Statute 18b. It runs nearly 150 pages and almost 70,000 words. So, let’s open that cracked and weathered...

John Trump
News

New study shows bourbon industry has doubled economic impact for Kentucky

North Carolina lawmakers still wringing their hands over reforming the state’s archaic and draconian liquor-control system should look to Kentucky as an example of what a legislature can do to boost tourism, nurture entrepreneurship, and promote innovation. Ten years ago, the Kentucky Distillers Association says, leaders of that state’s signature bourbon and distilled spirits industry...

John Trump

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