When I decided that I was going to be visiting Charleston, I started thinking about what I wanted to do and what popped into my head but the Firefly Distillery. I'll admit that I am not a die hard Firefly fan, I do know that it is pretty delicious and I have never been to distillery so we were taking the journey to visit. What I found out was that the couple that started Firefly in 2008 also had a vineyard on the property, so that suddenly made an appearance on the list. I can honestly say that when I think of the South, wine is not a product that I immediately think of, but leave to the world to surprise me. After arriving, we got our tasting tickets and headed inside to try the wines of the
Irvin House Vineyards. It started off with a highly entertaining video about the history of the vineyards and how they make their wine. These wines are made with the Muscadine grape and are traditionally not overly sweet.
There were five different varieties that we tasted - Tara Gold, Magnolia, Live Oak Reserve, Mullet Hall Red, and Palmetto. It started off with the lightest white and their darkest red. The wines were definitely not impressive and I found it interesting that all of the wines seemed to lack any aromas when you smelled the wine. It was just like smelling grapes. Luckily that just meant that I avoided that complication of trying to figure out how to bring back any wine, but it was fine to go to the tasting. Next up was a short walk over to the Firefly tasting room. I was slightly disappointed that you didn't actually get to tour the distillery, but that didn't mean that there wasn't any tasting going on. They had three different bars set up where you got to select 6 samples. I wasn't aware of this but Firefly also makes two different spiced rums, moonshine and liqueurs in addition to the vodka. I ended up trying the Sweet Tea bourbon, spiced rum (a bit like Captain Morgan), lemonade (only available at the distillery), peach moonshine, blackberry moonshine, and coconut cake liqueur. As much as I was feeling adventurous, I was not at all going to tackle the White Lighting - 101 proof moonshine..talk about not messing around! The sweet tea bourbon was surprisingly good because of the subtle sweetness and the moonshine had very lovely fruit flavors. The coconut cake liqueur tasted exactly like the cake. Though we didn't bring any home, it was a fun experience and something different to do. If you ever get to the Charleston area, be sure to make the drive out to visit Firefly.
There were five different varieties that we tasted - Tara Gold, Magnolia, Live Oak Reserve, Mullet Hall Red, and Palmetto. It started off with the lightest white and their darkest red. The wines were definitely not impressive and I found it interesting that all of the wines seemed to lack any aromas when you smelled the wine. It was just like smelling grapes. Luckily that just meant that I avoided that complication of trying to figure out how to bring back any wine, but it was fine to go to the tasting. Next up was a short walk over to the Firefly tasting room. I was slightly disappointed that you didn't actually get to tour the distillery, but that didn't mean that there wasn't any tasting going on. They had three different bars set up where you got to select 6 samples. I wasn't aware of this but Firefly also makes two different spiced rums, moonshine and liqueurs in addition to the vodka. I ended up trying the Sweet Tea bourbon, spiced rum (a bit like Captain Morgan), lemonade (only available at the distillery), peach moonshine, blackberry moonshine, and coconut cake liqueur. As much as I was feeling adventurous, I was not at all going to tackle the White Lighting - 101 proof moonshine..talk about not messing around! The sweet tea bourbon was surprisingly good because of the subtle sweetness and the moonshine had very lovely fruit flavors. The coconut cake liqueur tasted exactly like the cake. Though we didn't bring any home, it was a fun experience and something different to do. If you ever get to the Charleston area, be sure to make the drive out to visit Firefly. 
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