AMERICAN DISTILLING INSTITUTE NAMES SOUTHERN DISTILLING COMPANY '2025 DISTILLERY OF THE YEAR'

The 22nd Annual Prestigious Bubble Cap Award Recognizes Pioneering North Carolina Distillery

SAN ANTONIO, TX, UNITED STATES, August 26, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- On Monday August 25, 2025, the American Distilling Institute (ADI) awarded its highest honor, the prestigious Bubble Cap Award, to Southern Distilling Company. The award was announced during the Gala Awards Luncheon at the 22nd annual ADI Craft Spirits Conference & Expo, which took place this year in San Antonio, Texas. ADI president Erik Owens presented the award on stage to Southern Distilling Company’s co-founders, Pete and Vienna Barger.

Since 2008, ADI’s Distillery of the Year award, which is affectionately known as The Bubble Cap Award, has been given to distilleries that have raised the bar of the craft distilling industry by making world-class spirits and improving the legislative landscape for craft distillers. “Southern Distilling Company is making great whiskey, but they’ve also changed the game for craft distilleries in North Carolina,” says Erik. As founding members of the Distillers Association of North Carolina, Pete, Vienna, and their team have helped pass laws benefiting the entire industry, including unlimited tasting room bottle sales, the ability to sell cocktails in the tasting room and do in-store samplings, and legislation that requires ABC boards to bring in North Carolina products when requested.

Erik also commented on Southern Distilling Company’s exceptional Southern Star product line, which has earned top international awards at all the most important competitions — including 14 medals at the ADI International Spirits Competition. Their many contract clients have likely won hundreds more. “Southern Distilling Company has an unshakable commitment to quality — for their own brands, and for their clients,” says Erik. “Every bottle reflects their commitment to craft and transparency. Their ability to unlock that level of quality for the wider industry is a true testament to their community orientation and a key part of why they deserve to be recognized on the world stage.”

“In 2013, we set out with a radical new idea in the industry: to establish a non-corporate but large-scale, family-owned and operated contract distilling operation in Statesville, North Carolina,” says Pete Barger. “Southern Distilling Company became a solution for small and emerging, as well as established brands, that focused on what made each of these brands unique and special.”

“Twelve years later, our team takes great pride in being a part of helping more than 170 brands and clients achieve their dreams. We are humbled that we have had the opportunity to partner with so many other entrepreneurs, as we all adjust our sails together, each time the spirits industry shifts and changes,” says Vienna Barger.

Previous winners of the Bubble Cap award can be found on distilling.com

About American Distilling Institute
American Distilling Institute (ADI) is the largest small-batch, independently owned craft distillery association in the world. Founded in 2003, ADI has become a beacon for the diverse and inclusive craft distilling community — serving as the go-to source for all information on the craft of distilling. Our mission is to foster growth and success of craft spirit producers through hosting best-in-class conferences, providing comprehensive educational services, offering networking opportunities and connecting producers with top-tier solutions providers. Go to distilling.com for more information.

About Southern Distilling Company
Family-owned and operated by Pete and Vienna Barger, Southern Distilling Company has proudly reignited North Carolina’s distilling tradition while embracing the innovative future of America’s craft spirits industry. Headquartered in storied Statesville, N.C. — once labeled the “liquor capital of the world” in the 1800s — Southern Distilling Company has grown to become one of the country’s largest privately owned distilleries since being founded in 2013. Today, it offers an innovative range of new-fill barrel production, aged-barrel sales, barrel-warehouse aging and co-packaging for more than 170 brands globally. Rooted in North Carolina’s agricultural community, Southern Distilling Company supports a stringent grain-to-glass sustainability process that sources quality grains from farms within 20 miles of its facility.

Southern Distilling Company also produces its own line of award-winning artisan spirits. The distillery is open for tours, tastings and craft cocktails, plus hosts public and private events year-round For more information, visit SouthernDistillingCompany.com.

Erik Owens
American Distilling Institute
eriko@distilling.com

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