Hilton Head Distillery — Attraction in Hilton Head Island

I was really looking forward to this tour. Unfortunately, our tour guide, Stew ruined the experience. My wife and I arrived at 4:09 for our 4:15 tour. The second we opened the door Stew screamed at us and said we needed to leave because we were too early (the website said to arrive 15 minutes early). He did the same to a couple behind us. We chuckled amongst ourselves and my wife made the comment that she hoped he wasn’t our tour guide, because what an awful first impression. We went to the gift shop to kill time. When we came back Stew was still in a sour mood, being short with other guests and ruining the vibe. A group walked in at 4:28 and he loudly complained about them being late and turned them away. So, you show up early and you’re rudely told to wait elsewhere and you show up 2 minutes before the tour and you’re told you can’t take the tour? At one point he looked at me and made a comment about how I hadn’t blinked, smiled, laughed etc. To be frank, I probably did look unamused, I wanted to leave. He had been rude to practically everyone on the tour at this point so, no I wasn’t having a good time. I could understand if a guest was giving him a hard time, but none of us said anything out of the way to him. We paid to come visit the distillery and learn about the rum distillation process, not to have a rude tour guide. To add icing to the cake his microphone was busted so I didn’t hear a word of what he had to say, practically making the...

What else can I say but wow? This place is putting out fantastic products. We ordered two flights and mentioned it was a bummer that that put us only 2 menu offerings back from being able to sample everything they had on the menu. Our waitress came back with samples of the remaining two and so we truly tried it all.

-The vodka is vodka. It's very smooth, but not the best I've had.

-The gin was full of warmth and lavender. I don't know how it would mix with certain classic gin cocktails, but it is certainly a treat. Very wonderful product.

-Their aged spirits like the Two Traditions rum, and their bourbon were both excellent as well. The rum in particular was something I would keep stocked.

-The flavored whiskeys were hit and miss. The apple maple one is gross, and one of the only two things we disapproved of. My wife said the butterscotch one was one of her favorites of the whole tasting, though.

-The flavored rums were almost all fantastic except the pineapple. That one was pretty disgusting. But the spiced rum and coconut rum were easily the best I've ever had in those particular categories. The bananas foster rum was unique and absolutely delicious as well. The sweetness of them all was subtle enough that you could sip them by themselves without getting sick. Just full of...

Had an entire wedding party of roughly 25 people come to have tastings and snacks. Half our party arrived and waited for a long time while all the tables were empty to be greeted and seated. Once seated we all ordered drinks and snacks. We asked if we purchased one of their bottles if we could enjoy it at the table. We were advised by multiple people that was fine and purchased one. Once we opened it at the table they told us we all needed to leave immediately. We were very confused and polite and advised that we were told it would be ok. They denied that and said we needed to leave immediately as the rest of our party arrived after driving half an hour to get there only to be refused and sent away. I understand there are policies but if your staff says they are ok and we make financial decisions based on that you should honor what the staff said and advise next time it won't be allowed they made a mistake. Overall a rude experience and honestly flabbergasted they would turn away a full house of people planning to spend a lot of money there. Would not recommend.

PS. If you do go, don't order the veggies they didn't have any dipping sauce or dressings, just raw carrots...