‘We’re The Bugatti of Bourbons’ Mystic Distillery Rides Wave of Handcrafted Bourbon’s Popularity

By Bob Friedman
September 29, 2025

“Jaguar and BMW are for the masses. We are the Bugatti of bourbons,” said Durham lawyer turned distiller Jonathan Blitz, co-owner of Mystic Distillery. Its flagship brand, Broken Oak, has won a slew of gold and other prizes at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits competition including 2023’s Best 5 Year Small Batch Bourbon.

Mystic operates on a 22-acre farm in rural Durham County, North Carolina. It produces an average of six barrels of Broken Oak and other high-end handcrafted bourbons a week. Bottles are sold at the distillery, where visitors are also offered tours. “During our two-hour tour, Jim Beam would have topped my annual production,” laughed Blitz.

If It Ain’t From Kentucky…

First things first. Bourbon connoisseurs sniff that true bourbon must come from Kentucky. “Not so,” said Blitz. “The whole Kentucky thing is just marketing.”

Bourbon must be at least 51% corn liquor with a maximum proof at distillation of 80% ABV. The grains comprising the other 49% are at the discretion of the distiller. Broken Oak adds 45% wheat to its bourbon mash bill. Some of Mystic’s bourbons include triticale in the mash bill, which is a rye/wheat hybrid that grows well in the Piedmont.

The first corn whiskies were distilled in North Carolina in 1682. “We have better conditions, water, and grains here,” said Blitz. Bourbon distilling moved to Kentucky when North Carolinians relocated there. A series of laws, including prohibition, sidelined legal distilling in the state from 1908 until 2005 when North Carolina got its first post-prohibition distillery.

Growing Demand for Bourbon

The bourbon industry has been growing at over 10% annually in recent years with $8.85 B forecast for 2025. In 2023, the number of craft distillers nationally grew by 11.5% to a total of 3,069.

Mystic’s top-of-the-line, Broken Oak, costs $200 a bottle. Prices of other NC craft bourbons like those produced by Weldon Mills and Olde Raleigh range from $50 to $100. By comparison, mass-market, high-end bourbons like Elijah Craig, Buffalo Trace, and Woodford Reserve are in the $50 to $80 range.

A Rainbow of Flavors

Mystic’s grains are grown on a 150-acre farm in Hillsborough, NC. The water comes from the 260-million-year-old Triassic Basin Aquifer beneath the distillery. Blitz said the shale and limestone in the water make it perfect for bourbon.

The grains and water are combined and boiled at the distillery to produce a mash which ferments for at least 14 days to create a spirit called “white dog.” It is refined through “cuts.”

“The cut is the most important part of the process,” explained Blitz. “Think of it as a rainbow of flavors. The beginning and end of the rainbow are not good. What comes out in the middle is good, and that’s what we’re trying to keep. We tend to be known for an extremely smooth bourbon with a complex nose and a real buttery finish.”

The final distillate will be aged in new, charred oak barrels stored in Mystic’s rickhouse for at least four years. “Every barrel ages differently, and you have to select each barrel based on smell and taste.”

‘Taste This’

Blitz described himself as a “business angry litigation attorney” who handled civil and criminal cases turned entrepreneur. One evening, close friend Mike Sinclair handed him a mason jar and said, “Taste this.” Sinclair, a software tech, home brewer, and former Red Oak brewer, created the concoction out of bourbon, nine-spice tea, and wildflower honey. “It was pleasant, sweet, and happy. I said this is going to sell like crazy,” recalled Blitz.

“You have to be a lunatic and a narcissist to get into distilling.” Nonetheless, Blitz and Sinclair began producing Mystic Bourbon Liqueur in October 2013. After two years, when they couldn’t get enough bourbon to keep up with demand for their product, they started distilling their own.

Despite its success, Mystic has no interest in becoming a large national brand. “To us, there’s no point in trying to compete on a $25 or $30 a bottle of bourbon, we’d go bankrupt,” said Blitz. “So, to make the business model work, every week we make six barrels of the best bourbon on earth.”

Comments 12

Hunter Thurston says:

2 weeks ago

This is a great article and good insight into what you guys have been doing for a long time.

I love the location of the distillery and need to stop back in again soon and enjoy some bourbon and vibes in one of those cozy rocking chairs again!

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Rendell Whitehead says:

2 weeks ago

Can you send me a list of establishments that carry your products in the NW Arkansas area. I’d be more than happy to sample a bottle and post my tasting notes. I will also post my opinions of the tasting, as well as the bourbon living group of connoisseurs that I am a party to tasting with. I think that our knowledgeable and honest input would be beneficial to your brand.

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AVLang says:

2 weeks ago

Figures that another article about the spirit that helped define the making of our country, would be written by a lawyer. As once stated, “All bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon”. If one admires traditional values and practices which created the end product, (what ever the product might be), then those standards must be accepted and maintained. Please dig deeper into the original formulation of what “true bourbon” required, to be called , what the French labeled their brandy, Eau-de-Vie, or “Water of Life”! Bourbon is America’s “Water of Life”. Make a trip to Bardstown, Ky, ask any of the “old guys” what Americas National Spirit means to them!

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- Jonathan Blitz says:
  
  2 weeks ago
  
  Hey,
  
  Thanks for your interest!
  
  You might be interested to know that “true bourbon”, that is corn whiskey, was invented in North Carolina, with the earliest records showing production in 1682.
  
  North Carolina got statewide prohibition in 1908, revoking the permits of 475+ licensed distilleries, and wiping out one of the nation’s largest centers of bourbon production in Statesville NC. It wasn’t until 2005 that NC’s first post-prohibition distillery opened its doors.
  
  Meanwhile, Kentucky’s large mass-production distilling industry spent billions of dollars to convince the world that, among other things, bourbon could only be made there.
  
  Mystic is proud to hold some of the highest accolades available for bourbon, and we hand craft every barrel from grain we grow ourselves and water sourced from our own aquifer.
  
  Come on out and try our spirits!
  
  Reply
Scott Halstead says:

2 weeks ago

Still waiting on the age. 200 bucks? I can get a GTS below that at SRP and have on several occasions.

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Arthur Cokely says:

2 weeks ago

What’s the age of your bourbons, the 200.00 bottle is it 10 yrs? Or more.

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- Jonathan Blitz says:
  
  2 weeks ago
  
  Hi,
  
  We generally don’t release anything under 4 years old.
  
  At San Francisco World Spirits, we’ve generally been one of the youngest bourbons in classes with hundreds of entries and come out on top out of hundreds of other bourbons.
  
  For example, in 2024 our Broken Oak was a top-two finalist with Trifecta from Blue Run, out of 380+ bourbons in the 6-9 year small-batch bourbon class.
  
  The data shows that age is a poor predictor of the rank of bourbons in blind tastings. 4-6 year bourbons almost always win top honors in blind tastings with consumers and expert panelists alike.
  
  We hope you’ll come out and try our products – we’re happy to provide free tastings of any bourbons we have in stock.
  
  Thanks again for your interest,
  Blitz
  
  Reply
Joe Doucakis says:

2 weeks ago

When you first start a business, you must be cheaper and better than everybody else and slowly raise your prices and keep your clientele when you start the top like this company is nobody’s even gonna try it. I’ll stick to my bourbon. They’re about 100 bucks unless they taste probably better. McFarland’s reserve is much better bourbon I guarantee it.

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Richard Colin Young says:

2 weeks ago

Yes the industry grew in 2023 to 3069 distillery and was forecast at 8.5b for 2025. To bad the forecast was WRONG. There may still be half the amount of craft distillery still producing and thousands of people out of a job with the 2026 forecast being around 4b if that. Annual sales have absolutely crashed and the distillery still producing are at minimum production with more layoffs coming. On a different note, I guess if you only produce 6 barrels a week you don’t have to worry about overstock. The neighborhood could buy and drink that.

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Alex says:

2 weeks ago

I agree… what are the tasting notes?.. how is it on the nose?..etc..

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- Jonathan Blitz says:
  
  2 weeks ago
  
  Hi Alex,
  
  A taste is worth 1000 words. Come on out for a free tasting and see what you think – after all, the only opinion that really matters is your own.
  
  Cheers,
  Blitz
  
  Reply
Robert Butler says:

2 weeks ago

So what’s the taste like? Lot of smoke but what does it taste like? Palette and finish🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

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