If you wanted to count the number of country music celebrities who have released their own private spirits brands, you’d probably have to 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 back tequila brands, everyone from John Rich to Alan Jackson to Midland offers name-brand whiskeys, and you could fill a pretty substantial cellar with wines bearing celebrity names on the labels.
Most of these stars offer little more than their names and stories to the products. But that’s OK, because telling stories is usually what they’re best at. That’s why it was so refreshing to have the chance to sit down with country superstar Dierks Bentley recently to discuss his new release, Row 94 Whiskey. During a roundtable with a few other spirits and music writers, we got the chance to hear him tell the story behind his new passion in his own words, including the fact that he never claims to be a whiskey expert.
His impetus for creating Row 94 was experiences in his own youth, and he understands the risks involved in the venture. “I know that only about 5 percent of celebrity spirits have success,” he admitted. “But it’s something I feel passionate about. When I was growing up and first getting into country music, I loved Hank Williams Jr. And Hank drank Jim Beam, so that’s what I drank.”
When he worked with industry experts to “design” his whiskey, he had a few parameters in mind, which he stubbornly stuck by. “I looked at some of the rapid-aging stuff, because we were really focusing on the price point to make it approachable. But that wasn’t something I could be proud of. I was really focused on it being a 4-year-old Kentucky whiskey, because bourbon is from Kentucky, and that’s whiskey to me!”
He also wanted the price to be accessible for his fan base. “I wanted to get the whiskey to a certain point where I could keep it under $40 a bottle, because I don’t want to blow the budget of my fans where I’m selling a $25 bottle, but it’s actually terrible whiskey or a very young whiskey. I wanted a bottle that felt like a $100 bottle for under $40 and 4 years old. Plus it’s 94 proof, and Jack and Jim are only 80.”
That proof level is part of the rationale for the name, but it also references 1994 — the year Bentley came to Nashville and discovered his passion in clubs like the Station Inn and along Music Row, where his whiskey gets the other half of its name.
Bentley had tried to memorialize his love of bourbon before in song, but it didn’t turn out as he’d hoped. “I have a song called ‘Bourbon in Kentucky.’ It didn’t do that great, but there’s not a lot of bourbon songs out there like there are whiskey songs. I think it’s just the rhyme scheme. I mean, John Randall has already written every whiskey song I’ve heard!”
Bentley considered the emotion behind bourbon when he finally settled on Green River Distillery in Owensboro, Ky., to partner with on the project. The distillery is the 10th-oldest distillery in Kentucky, but the stills sat silent for 60 years after the middle of the 20th century until the operation was revitalized and eventually purchased by the much larger Bardstown Bourbon Co.
“When I found Green River,” Bentley recalled, “just the people there, it’s like walking into the Station Inn. Green River is what you’d hope a Kentucky distillery looks like. It’s old and beat-up, and there’s remnants of previous fires. It smells like corn and rye and alcohol, and the people there, I just really connected with them.”
Bentley opted to use Green River’s primary mash blend of 70 percent Kentucky-grown corn, 21 percent rye and 9 percent malted and row barley, but also to release it at a slightly elevated proof level over their 90-proof flagship Straight Bourbon. He loves the product, but doesn’t pretend to be nerdy about it when it comes to tasting notes or grain profiles.
“I have no idea what it tastes like,” he admitted. But this isn’t to say that he doesn’t know or like his product. He just trusts the palates of professionals and spirits writers (thanks, Dierks!) to describe it better than he could. “I’ll be straight honest, I’m not gonna bullshit you on it. Like, to me, it’s either good or it’s bad, and I know what goes into it.”
He continued: “I know this whiskey and I love Green River. Their flagship bourbon is called Green River, and it’s won a thousand awards. It tastes great! I said, 'Let’s use that as a basis for what we’re gonna do.' I want a stronger proof. I’m from Arizona, so I like a little spice, a little kick so I can taste the heat. I can still taste the smoothness, and I can tell it has more corn. I can also tell it has a lot more proof than the Jim Beam I used to drink as a kid.” (Yes, Dierks did say “as a kid.” Oops.)
It was really refreshing to hear a celebrity describe his own product with such passion without flavoring the language with braggadocio or lingo he doesn't understand. He admits he’s too busy on the road and in the studio to train his own palate to a professional level. “It’s a real skill you have to develop, and I eventually say that when most celebrities start talking about tasting notes they are completely out of their minds. Because that’s a real skill. I mean, I’d like to be able to do that, but I can’t. All I know is what it is and how it tastes to me, kind of like pizza. It’s either good or bad, right?”
So allow me to step in for a second and tell you about the whiskey. It is good. It’s really, really good, especially for the price and proof level. Four years is on the low end of aging for a straight whiskey, but twice the minimum required time in oak for that designation. In fact, many of the best bourbons in the world are aged in the 4- to 8-year range. Few whiskeys can stand up to more aging than that without letting the barrel take over the liquid.
Retailing at just under that $40 self-imposed limit, Row 94 is a great everyday sipper with enough backbone to drink neat and a good proof level as a cocktail component. The strong vanilla and toasty nut notes dominate the first sniff and sip, but there is still a nice character of honey and barnwood during the medium-long finish. This is a better-than-fair bourbon at a better-than-fair price, and I sense that’s exactly what Bentley wanted out of his first foray into the world of spirits.
In fact, he summed it up succinctly as he closed out the interview. “For me, I just play a guitar from Pennsylvania [Martin Guitars], I listen to and make music in Nashville, and I drink bourbon from Kentucky. And they’ve got bluegrass, so that’s cool too.”
