By ALEXANDREA BAILEY
editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com
Jarrod Henry has introduced his take on moonshine to Port Isabel by opening up the Rio Grande Distillery and Magic Valley Moonshine on Lighthouse Square. The distillery had a soft opening Friday, February 4, but a grand opening is in the works. According to Henry, the Rio Grande Distillery team surprised themselves with how successful their soft opening went. “We just posted on our Facebook pages that we were going to open, and start selling moonshine, and it actually went pretty good for us. I was really surprised it went as well as it did,” Henry elaborated.
Henry grew up in the Ozarks in Missouri and Northern Arkansas. He described his family as “regular old hillbilly people.” According to Henry, growing up he was a trouble maker who was never scared to poke the bear. He always pushed the limits. His first experience with liquor was an attempt to ferment Kool aide in his childhood closet when he was 11 years old. The attempt resulted in big trouble for Henry with his father. Henry laughed as he recalled the whooping that followed his experiment filling the home with an odor of yeast and liquor. “But it never stopped me from messing around with liquor,” Henry reassured.
On March 17, 2020, Henry was featured on the Discovery Channel show, “Moonshiners: Master Distiller”. Henry brought home the title of Master Distiller after amazing the judges with his homemade Mezcal De Pechuga. According to Henry, after that he decided to go legal since he had “already put himself out there and everyone would see it.” By May, he had his permit from the TABC.
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