Charleston Distilling Co. | Craft Spirits & Distillery Tours | Johns Island, SC
Charleston Distilling Co. is more than a distillery — it’s a destination. Located on scenic Johns Island, we invite you to experience the craft firsthand in our spacious tasting room. Surrounded by gleaming copper stills and soaring ceilings, guests can sample our handcrafted spirits or relax outdoors by the fire pit with a cocktail in hand.
Our commitment to quality begins with the land itself. We source our grains locally and manage every step of production — from milling and mashing to fermentation and distillation — right here on-site. This farm-to-bottle approach ensures that the unique character of the Lowcountry shines through in every batch.
Whether you’re joining a tour to see the process up close or simply unwinding with friends and a bite from a local food truck, Charleston Distilling Co. offers a true taste of South Carolina hospitality — where craftsmanship, community, and the spirit of the Lowcountry come together.
We started Charleston Distilling Co. in 2011 with a simple belief: the best spirits come from the best ingredients, and the best ingredients come from the land around you.
We chose Johns Island deliberately. Fifteen minutes from downtown Charleston and a world away from the noise, Johns Island has always been agricultural country — rich soil, open land, and a community that understands what it means to grow something with care. That's the environment we wanted to build in, and that's the environment that shapes everything we make.
From the beginning, our approach has been farm-to-bottle in the truest sense. We source our grains locally from South Carolina farms, mill them on-site at our facility on Meeks Farm Road, and handle every step of the distilling process ourselves — mashing, fermenting, distilling, and bottling all under one roof. Nothing is outsourced. Nothing is rushed. When you taste King Charles Vodka or Vesey's Bourbon or Crosstown Rye, you're tasting a spirit that was genuinely made here, by our hands, with grain that grew in this state.
That sets us apart from a lot of what you'll find in Charleston proper. We're not a lifestyle brand that imports neutral spirit and slaps a local label on it. We're not a tasting room attached to a marketing operation. We're a working distillery — a 10,000 square foot production facility where the stills are running and the barrels are aging and the work is real. You can see it, smell it, and taste the difference.
But we're also more than a production operation. Our 2,100 square foot tasting room is designed to be a gathering place — for Johns Island neighbors, for visitors coming out from Charleston, for people who want to slow down and connect with how something is actually made. We've always believed a distillery should feel like a place, not just a product.
Stephen Heilman founded this company because he believed South Carolina deserved its own serious craft spirits — spirits that reflect the character of this region and the people in it. That belief hasn't changed. Every bottle we produce is an expression of this land, this community, and this craft.
We'd love for you to come experience it firsthand. Stop by the tasting room, take a tour of the distillery floor, or book a group event and see what makes this place special. We're open Thursday through Sunday — and once you make the drive out to Johns Island, we think you'll understand exactly why we built it here.
Find us at 3548 Meeks Farm Rd, Johns Island, SC. Come see how it's made.
