It’s not the smallest distillery in the country anymore—which means more bourbon and ’shine to enjoy.
About a decade ago, Frank Dix and his wife, Elizabeth, took an interest in a mobile home park for sale in Nicholas County. The listing included Kirkwood Winery and Isaiah Morgan Distillery, all or nothing. The Dixes were in residential real estate, not wine and spirits, so that pretty much killed the deal.
But did it have to? Dix’s mom used to make wine with Kirkwood owner Rodney Facemire. And he himself had learned from her how to make wine when he was younger. “The next thing we knew,” he says, “we left our very secure jobs for something we didn’t know a whole lot about. We made that leap of faith.”
Nine years in, their faith—plus a lot of hard work—has been rewarded.
Kirkwood Winery still offers the dozens of fruit and specialty wines it’s long been known for. The changes have been to the distillery. When Facemire got Isaiah Morgan licensed in 2002, his 10-gallon still made it the smallest in the nation. “It was in a little closet-like room,” Dix says. “We couldn’t experiment—we didn’t even have enough room to store the products we already made.”
All of that’s changed. In late 2024, Isaiah Morgan moved to a new building—not just a distillery, but a destination. On the production side, the Dixes expanded from that 10-gallon still to big, shiny 50- and 200-gallon troublemakers.
The consumption side is rustic-meets-industrial, with a full bar. “You can do a tour and a tasting, and you can buy the product by the bottle or sit down and have a drink,” Dix says. The copper-covered bar adds to the bootleg vibe. Visitors can relax inside or out on the covered patio, which overlooks a huge lawn where kids can play.
The Dixes’ most popular is the original Isaiah Morgan Small Batch Bourbon. Rye lovers can find both Unaged and Barrel-Finished versions. And then there’s Grappa, a traditional Italian fermentation that uses the grapes a second time after the wine-making process.
As for moonshine, there are the Southern Moon 100% corn liquor and the Red Neck Cinnamon ’Shine. “Good for sipping over ice,” Dix says. And a real Mountain State treat is the Thunder N Lightning WV Outlaw series based on the recipes of West Virginian Tony Perry, a 2020 winner of Discovery Channel’s Moonshiners: Master Distiller competition—the Cran-Blackberry Thunder Shine, which he won the show with, and his Cinnamon Apple Pie.
Isaiah Morgan is no longer the smallest distillery in the country, but it will always be the first licensed mini-distillery in the state, Dix says, and the first in the state to make bourbon. It’s still a boutique producer, for now, but growing.
The distillery is open 9 a.m.–5 p.m. every day, later for Food Truck Fridays, held on the lawn from Memorial Day to Labor Day. And no need to drink and drive—the property has 10 full-hookup RV sites with 50-amp service—”stumbling distance” from the distillery, Dix says.
245 Kirkwood Park Road, Summersville, wvdistillery.com, @isaiahmorgandistillery on FB
READ MORE ARTICLES FROM WV LIVING’S SPRING 2026 ISSUE
Leave a Reply