Bourbon tours for state lawmakers are under NC scrutiny. How we got here.
A nonprofit with ties to a former powerful North Carolina lawmaker is under state investigation over Kentucky bourbon tours that took state legislators and lobbyists to Louisville-area distilleries. Four lobbyists have been indicted, and the probe into Greater Carolina continues.
Here’s a timeline of events that led to this point.
- April 2022: Greater Carolina, a Mooresville-based nonprofit founded in 2018 by a former aide to then-Rep. Jason Saine, began organizing the first Kentucky distillery tour that 11 state lawmakers attended on Aug. 7 and 8, 2022, with Diageo and Sazerac covering key expenses.
- April 25-27, 2024: Greater Carolina hosted a second distillery tour for North Carolina lawmakers, with nine legislators attending events at Stitzel-Weller, Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill and Churchill Downs.
- Late April 2024: A distillery employee posted on Reddit complaining about drunken and unruly behavior, prompting Greater Carolina spokesman Jonathan Felts to attribute one vomiting incident to car sickness and blame an anonymous disgruntled employee.
- August 2024: Carolina Forward, a left-leaning Carrboro nonprofit led by Blair Reeves, filed a complaint accusing Greater Carolina of operating as a lobbying front for gambling-industry officials and violating ethics, lobbying and charitable solicitation laws.
- November 2024: Saine joined The Southern Group’s Raleigh office four months after leaving the legislature, working alongside Kevin Wilkinson, who had opened that office two weeks before the 2024 tour became public.
- May 30, 2025: The News & Observer reports that three lawmakers tied to the 2024 tour did not disclose it on their statements of economic interest that are filed annually with the State Ethics Commission.
- September 2025: Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman requested that the State Bureau of Investigation probe Greater Carolina, focusing on potential violations of the State Ethics Act and State Lobbying Act.
- April 22, 2026: A Wake County grand jury indicted four Raleigh lobbyists — Wilkinson, David Ferrell, Douglas Bowen Heath and Douglas Miskew — each on a misdemeanor charge of solicitation to violate the state’s gift ban.
- April 2026: Greater Carolina’s latest tax return showed it raised just $26,500 in 2025, a dramatic drop from $568,000 in 2024 and $834,000 in 2023, and less than its $91,000 in credit card debt.
- May 2026: Saine is no longer shown as a lobbyist on The Southern Group’s website. He later tells Business NC he is starting his own firm. He has not been charged in the distillery investigation.
- May 26, 2026: A search warrant inadvertently made public revealed SBI Special Agent Kailah Kearney’s affidavit alleging Greater Carolina helped lobbyists and companies evade disclosure requirements from 2022 to the present.
The summary points above, based on reporting by staff writer Dan Kane and other News & Observer journalists, were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists, including politics editor Jordan Schrader. It includes links to full stories that were reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.
This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Bourbon tours for state lawmakers are under NC scrutiny. How we got here.."