In the event you wished to rely the variety of nation music celebrities who’ve launched their very own non-public spirits manufacturers, you’d most likely should take off your Shelpers work gloves and Tecovas boots to do it. Kenny Chesney has a line of rums. Thomas Rhett, George Strait and Tanya Tucker again tequila manufacturers, everybody from John Wealthy to Alan Jackson to Midland provides name-brand whiskeys, and you may fill a reasonably substantial cellar with wines bearing celeb names on the labels.
Most of those stars provide little greater than their names and tales to the merchandise. However that’s OK, as a result of telling tales is often what they’re finest at. That’s why it was so refreshing to have the prospect to sit down down with nation celebrity Dierks Bentley just lately to debate his new launch, Row 94 Whiskey. Throughout a roundtable with a number of different spirits and music writers, we acquired the prospect to listen to him inform the story behind his new ardour in his personal phrases, together with the truth that he by no means claims to be a whiskey knowledgeable.
His impetus for creating Row 94 was experiences in his personal youth, and he understands the dangers concerned within the enterprise. “I do know that solely about 5 % of celeb spirits have success,” he admitted. “But it surely’s one thing I really feel captivated with. Once I was rising up and first stepping into nation music, I beloved Hank Williams Jr. And Hank drank Jim Beam, in order that’s what I drank.”
When he labored with trade specialists to “design” his whiskey, he had a number of parameters in thoughts, which he stubbornly caught by. “I checked out among the rapid-aging stuff, as a result of we had been actually specializing in the value level to make it approachable. However that wasn’t one thing I might be pleased with. I used to be actually centered on it being a 4-year-old Kentucky whiskey, as a result of bourbon is from Kentucky, and that’s whiskey to me!”
He additionally wished the value to be accessible for his fan base. “I wished to get the whiskey to a sure level the place I might hold it underneath $40 a bottle, as a result of I don’t wish to blow the price range of my followers the place I’m promoting a $25 bottle, but it surely’s truly horrible whiskey or a really younger whiskey. I wished a bottle that felt like a $100 bottle for underneath $40 and 4 years outdated. Plus it’s 94 proof, and Jack and Jim are solely 80.”
That proof stage is a part of the rationale for the identify, but it surely additionally references 1994 — the 12 months Bentley got here to Nashville and found his ardour in golf equipment just like the Station Inn and alongside Music Row, the place his whiskey will get the opposite half of its identify.
Bentley had tried to memorialize his love of bourbon earlier than in track, but it surely didn’t prove as he’d hoped. “I’ve a track known as ‘Bourbon in Kentucky.’ It didn’t try this nice, however there’s not numerous bourbon songs on the market like there are whiskey songs. I believe it’s simply the rhyme scheme. I imply, John Randall has already written each whiskey track I’ve heard!”
Bentley thought of the emotion behind bourbon when he lastly settled on Inexperienced River Distillery in Owensboro, Ky., to accomplice with on the mission. The distillery is the Tenth-oldest distillery in Kentucky, however the stills sat silent for 60 years after the center of the twentieth century till the operation was revitalized and finally bought by the a lot bigger Bardstown Bourbon Co.
“When I discovered Inexperienced River,” Bentley recalled, “simply the folks there, it’s like strolling into the Station Inn. Inexperienced River is what you’d hope a Kentucky distillery appears like. It’s outdated and beat-up, and there’s remnants of earlier fires. It smells like corn and rye and alcohol, and the folks there, I simply actually linked with them.”
Bentley opted to make use of Inexperienced River’s major mash mix of 70 % Kentucky-grown corn, 21 % rye and 9 % malted and row barley, but in addition to launch it at a barely elevated proof stage over their 90-proof flagship Straight Bourbon. He loves the product, however doesn’t faux to be nerdy about it on the subject of tasting notes or grain profiles.
“I don’t know what it tastes like,” he admitted. However this isn’t to say that he doesn’t know or like his product. He simply trusts the palates of pros and spirits writers (thanks, Dierks!) to explain it higher than he might. “I’ll be straight sincere, I’m not gonna bullshit you on it. Like, to me, it’s both good or it’s dangerous, and I do know what goes into it.”
He continued: “I do know this whiskey and I really like Inexperienced River. Their flagship bourbon is named Inexperienced River, and it’s received a thousand awards. It tastes nice! I mentioned, ‘Let’s use that as a foundation for what we’re gonna do.’ I need a stronger proof. I’m from Arizona, so I like just a little spice, just a little kick so I can style the warmth. I can nonetheless style the smoothness, and I can inform it has extra corn. I also can inform it has much more proof than the Jim Beam I used to drink as a child.” (Sure, Dierks did say “as a child.” Oops.)
It was actually refreshing to listen to a star describe his personal product with such ardour with out flavoring the language with braggadocio or lingo he does not perceive. He admits he’s too busy on the highway and within the studio to coach his personal palate to an expert stage. “It’s an actual ability it’s a must to develop, and I ultimately say that when most celebrities begin speaking about tasting notes they’re fully out of their minds. As a result of that’s an actual ability. I imply, I’d like to have the ability to try this, however I can’t. All I do know is what it’s and the way it tastes to me, form of like pizza. It’s both good or dangerous, proper?”
So permit me to step in for a second and inform you in regards to the whiskey. It’s good. It’s actually, actually good, particularly for the value and proof stage. 4 years is on the low finish of growing older for a straight whiskey, however twice the minimal required time in oak for that designation. The truth is, most of the finest bourbons on this planet are aged within the 4- to 8-year vary. Few whiskeys can stand as much as extra growing older than that with out letting the barrel take over the liquid.
Retailing at just below that $40 self-imposed restrict, Row 94 is a good on a regular basis sipper with sufficient spine to drink neat and proof stage as a cocktail element. The robust vanilla and toasty nut notes dominate the primary sniff and sip, however there may be nonetheless a pleasant character of honey and barnwood in the course of the medium-long end. This can be a better-than-fair bourbon at a better-than-fair value, and I sense that’s precisely what Bentley wished out of his first foray into the world of spirits.
The truth is, he summed it up succinctly as he closed out the interview. “For me, I simply play a guitar from Pennsylvania [Martin Guitars], I hearken to and make music in Nashville, and I drink bourbon from Kentucky. They usually’ve acquired bluegrass, in order that’s cool too.”
