ASHEVILLE – Last September, Chris Bower and Rett Murphy were in a season of celebration as their company, Eda Rhyne Distilling Company, had earned regional and international recognition for its collection of locally produced spirits.
Garden & Gun, a Southern culture publication, notified the distillers that their Appalachian Fernet won the 2024 Made in the South Awards in the Drink category.
Then, Bower and Murphy were invited to showcase Eda Rhyne at Slow Foods’ Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, an international festival “dedicated to good, clean and fair food and food policies,” in Turin, Italy from Sept. 26-30.
Their celebratory season abruptly ended with the historic and devastating Tropical Storm Helene, which arrived in Western North Carolina on Sept. 27.
Eda Rhyne Distilling Company co-owners Chris Bower (L) and Rett Murphy (R) chat at the bar in Asheville, Jan. 23, 2025.
Bower and Murphy were in Italy when they learned about Helene’s impact. It was nearly a week before they could return to see the wreckage it left at their Biltmore Village distillery and tasting room, 101 Fairview Road.
Bower also returned to a damaged home and had to relocate.
“It was such an honor to be there. Finding out slowly over the course of a weekend that this place was totally underwater as we were getting celebrated. … We’re realizing we didn’t know if we had anything to come back to,” Murphy said.
Recreating an original vision
They returned to find distilling tanks and barrels strewn, equipment broken, merchandise washed away, and water, mud and mold damage caused by an estimated 5.5 feet of floodwater from the Swannanoa River, which crested at a historic height of more than 26 feet in Biltmore Village.
“It was total devastation inside and outside it was pretty gross,” Murphy said. “It was a few weeks of not wanting to deal with it or not being able to start forward movement on ‘What the hell are we going to do? Is this done?’”
Eda Rhyne Distilling Company co-owner Chris Bower has a drink at the bar in Asheville, Jan. 23, 2025.
Several months later, the Asheville residents are forging ahead with high spirits to replenish its stock and enhance guests’ tasting room experience, but on a smaller scale.
On New Year’s Eve, just more than three months after Helene, Eda Rhyne reopened for one evening before resuming regular operations with limitations, beginning on Jan. 8.
Murphy said 14 of the 19 workers on staff pre-Helene have returned, though shifts are limited. The tasting room reopened with temporarily reduced hours of operations, from daily to four days a week.
Bower said Helene isn’t the first time the distillery has suffered setbacks after gaining traction and earning regional and national accolades and attention, saying the COVID-19 pandemic, in which the distillery was closed for more than a year, completely derailed them.
Yet, it’s through the challenges that they learn how to deal with adversities and move forward. Although much was lost, the partners said they are ready to return stronger and better than ever.
“You can’t complain about it. There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s out of your control,” Bower said. “If you have anything, just be thankful for it.”
Since 2017, Eda Rhyne has earned a reputation for excellence, attributed to its recipes using quality Southern Appalachian ingredients, including heirloom grains and foraged herbs, to create and develop distinct craft spirits and liqueur.
Bower said the company is dedicated to incorporating distinctive, regional flavors and folk traditions into every bottle from its amaro to its whiskey.
“We’re not trying to emulate anyone else,” Bower said. “We’re focused on our place in the world, the flavors that are around us and expressing those flavors in a way that makes sense to the terrain and the character of the people.”
Eda Rhyne products and production
Before setting off to Italy, the business partners bulked up on their products anticipating a sales boost from the recent accolades. Helene destroyed much of the inventory.
Among the losses was irreplaceable whiskey that had been aging since 2017, which they were preparing to release in the fall.
Eda Rhyne Distilling Company in Asheville, Jan. 23, 2025.
Eda Rhyne, named for an old, haunting Appalachian folk ballad, launched as an amaro distillery designed to honor WNC traditions and history. Murphy said the region’s bountiful botanicals resemble some European botanicals.
“All amaro started out as folk medicine,” Bower said. “Our style is ‘mountain medicine.’ It harkens back to the old ways where people would preserve the medicinal compounds and flavor compounds of these plants with alcohol, which was in this region corn liquor, high proof.”
He said products are intentionally made with lower sugar, a higher alcohol by volume percentage and aged longer than most other distilling companies.
The distillers have paused whiskey production ― their flagship is the Rare Grain Rye Whiskey ― and will concentrate on fernet and gin while assessing other equipment damage caused by Helene.
“We’re not done making whiskey whatsoever but for now we’re going to refocus what we’re doing,” Murphy said. “We’re still figuring out what’s broken back there and what’s not.”
What’s pouring at Eda Rhyne
Distribution is on a hiatus, though the customers may find the last pre-Helene bottles on store shelves.
The remaining Eda Rhyne available inventory was stored at the distiller’s other business, Eda’s Hide-a-Way, a tasting room and music venue in Weaverville that was spared from the storm.
Bottling will begin at Eda’s Hide-a-Way and production will resume at the distillery in February.
Whiskey production is delayed until grain can be sourced in the summer.
Eda Rhyne products are available for retail sale at the Biltmore Village tasting room, including Bitter Tooth, a bold, red Italian-inspired bitter comparable to Campari.
Appalachian Fernet, a bestseller, is made with WNC-sourced aromatic herbs and global spices.
Pinnix Gin is distilled with classic aromatic botanicals and foraged eastern hemlock and angelica.
More will come down the line as funds allow production to re-up, such as its seasonal Amaro Oscura, Lindera Vodka and Rustic Nocino.
The businesses didn’t have flood insurance but received a loan from the local nonprofit economic organization, Mountain BizWorks. Murphy said they still had COVID-19 pandemic loans to repay.
Some items are expected to take a year or longer before they return.
“We’ll spend five years on a recipe on working on it and that comes through in the product in a very ridiculous, uneconomically sound amount of hours put into these products to get them to where they are by the time anyone gets to taste them,” Murphy said.
Eda Rhyne’s tasting room bar is open, serving a menu of signature cocktails and classics like the Old Fashioned and Negroni.
Inside Eda Rhyne’s tasting room
Bower and Murphy said there’s still a lot of work to do but they are surprised by how fast they could get the tasting room and operations back up and running for the reopening.
Biltmore Village has a long recovery ahead, but neighboring businesses like Village Pub and Hillman Beer have started to reopen. In contrast, others like French Broad River Brewery remain closed as repairs continue.
Eda Rhyne Distilling Company in Asheville, Jan. 23, 2025.
Murphy said, that in the early days of reopening, most tasting room visitors had been locals and that he is concerned about attracting tourism due to the destruction in the historic Biltmore Village commercial district.
Murphy said that while repairing Helene damage at Eda Rhyne, they took the opportunity to improve, including knocking down a wall and taking out an office to expand the tasting room. The décor, paint and bar layout were redone, and furniture was replaced.
They’re revising the production space to make it more efficient.
“There’s great opportunity here. It’s been a big, horrible bummer and a great loss for everybody but there’s at least some good things for us out of this,” Murphy said.
Bower said he’s grateful for the staff and community members who pitched in with the cleanup and supported in other ways to get the business operational again.
Murphy said it’s been a reinvigorating and inspiring experience in which people have expressed their appreciation for the Eda Rhyne verbally and by showing up with shovels and wheelbarrows to remove mud and help bring the distillery back better than ever.
“This whole event brought out the community spirit in Asheville and Western North Carolina,” Bower said. “We couldn’t have done it without so many people’s support.”
Eda Rhyne Distilling Co.
Where: 101 Fairview Road, Asheville.
Hours: 3-9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.
Info: For more, visit edarhyne.com and follow @edarhynedistillingco on Instagram.
Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Tips, comments, questions? Email [email protected] or follow @PrincessOfPage on Instagram/Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Eda Rhyne distillery, bar reopens post-Helene in Biltmore Village
