About Red Bordner distillery

Red Bordner Distillery was established in October 2014 out of Red’s desire to share his proud family heritage with a larger audience. Located in Boiling Springs, SC just east of what he calls “home”, Red makes liquor the only way he knows how, except today it’s legal to buy and share! Mixing each batch of mash in-house and using only the finest quality raw products, he is able to assure every bottle made is the highest quality spirits of its kind.

Red Bordner Distillery liquors are sold statewide in South Carolina in over 250 stores. We proudly offer two brands of our liquor: KICK BACK COVE Moonshine, and our Premium line of liquors. KICK BACK COVE Moonshine is a superior line of liquors, including the smoothest Clear Moonshine you will ever experience, and several flavors of Red’s famous Moonshine. From our Premium Liquors, Blue Agave was the first we distributed to our customers. We couldn’t have been happier with the feedback both in sales and customer reviews. In fact, our Blue Agave has repeatedly and consistently been chosen over Patron Silver in blind taste tests 9 out of 10 times! With the overwhelming positive response from our customers, Red worked to add to our Premium Liquor line with South Carolina Blue Agave Gold, South Carolina Silver Rum, South Carolina Gold Rum, and Red’s own family recipe South Carolina Scottish and Irish styled Whiskey. Each batch of our Moonshine and Premium line of liquors is personally taste tested by Red Bordner himself. As soon as each batch passes the Bordner taste test, we bottle the product in-house.

In 2017 Red Bordner Distillery Moonshine and Liquors earned national recognition at the 2017 ACSA Tasting Competitions in Beverly Hills, Denver, Los Angles, Best 50 in New York, American Craft Spirit Nashville, Orlando, and San Francisco with a total of 33 awards. We are excited to work with you to offer your customers the finest line of REAL Moonshine and Premium liquors. Our promise to you is to continually provide the highest quality product for you to distribute to your customers.

Red grew up a country boy in Black Mountain, NC coming from a long line of Appalachian mountain people of Fontana Lake.  An Industrial Engineer, Army Aviator, Veteran, BBQ Master, and Race Car Driver, it seems Red has done it all.  But with everything Red has done in his life, there was one love he wanted to pursue more than anything else….making the best liquor anyone has ever tasted!

With a strong Irish and Scottish heritage, Red was born to make great liquor.  By 12, he had started learning his way around the still, making mash, and watching kinfolk make Moonshine.  Now with over 50 years of experience, Red has perfected the art of making REAL Moonshine producing the smoothest liquor around. 

Distilling your own liquor became massively popular during the prohibition era. Moonshiners would brew their own batch of unaged whiskey at night in order to avoid discovery. Using a homemade distillery and a few key ingredients (corn mash being the primary one), large batches of moonshine could be brewed.

In the late 18th century and early 1800s, Scottish and Irish immigrants settled in the Appalachian area. They brought with them their recipes for brewing unaged whiskey, which they referred to as their “water of life.” Their recipes made moonshine especially important to the Appalachian area.

The tradition of moonshiners in the Appalachians continued into the 20th century, when legendary moonshiner Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton revolutionized the Appalachian corn trade. Because the road systems were so sparse, it made transporting corn by horse difficult. However, by converting the corn to moonshine first, a horse would be able to carry much more product. This allowed the moonshine industry to boom in the Appalachians.

Today, Red Bordner’s Kick Back Cove Moonshine offers a similar drinking experience to the moonshine of old.