When you think about renowned whiskey-producing states, Alabama probably doesn’t come to mind immediately. However, a few years ago I did enjoy some rye whiskey from Clyde May’s, a New York-based company that is building a distillery in Troy, Ala., to create their “Alabama style” of whiskey. Operating under the Conecuh Brands umbrella that includes an Irish whiskey and a tequila, Clyde May’s is moving toward becoming an actual Alabama brand, but it occurred to me that I’ve never actually tried their flagship whiskey.
Named after a notorious bootlegger from the Yellowhammer State, Clyde May’s Alabama Style Whiskey is a pretty straightforward pour, clocking in at 85 proof, which makes it a solid backbone for a whiskey cocktail. Aged four years in oak, the resulting whiskey does exhibit a lot of the caramel and vanilla from the barrel, which would probably make it a great base for a whiskey-and-Coke. And I’ll never say that there’s anything wrong with a good whiskey-and-Coke, because that’s the training-wheels cocktail that many of us grew up on.
Sipped out of a snifter, Clyde May’s is a little too grainy for my taste, offering a lot of corn on the nose and green apple in the glass. This surprised me, because from what I could find out about the mash bill of the product, corn is actually a lower percentage of the recipe than in many other whiskeys, and the higher rye content could be where I was picking up the apple pie spices profile. On the whole, it’s not a bad bottle at the higher end of the economy whiskey scale, and the novelty of representing the style of an entire state makes it worth seeking out.
Speaking of seeking out, hundreds of people lined up at Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery last weekend to get their hands on the highly sought-after 2023 edition of their Honey Cask series. I was lucky enough to get to sample it the evening before the release at an event in the new Cooper’s Club, which is a very attractive part of the distillery’s ongoing remodeling project.
Green Brier co-founder Andy Nelson spoke about how difficult it is to make this whiskey, and TruBee Honey proprietor Jeff Otto added even more details about the process. It seems like it would be easy. Take the whiskey out of the barrel, give the barrel to Jeff, let him add his honey to it to age and flavor the product, and then get the barrel back to refill with whiskey to age for several more months to absorb the character of the honey.
Except it’s not that simple. Barrels are made out of oak, bound together with a few metal bands and no nails. Honey is an extremely hydrophilic substance, which means it draws water out of anything it touches. The moisture content of an oak barrel is what seals the space between staves, so a dried-out barrel is a leaky barrel. “The first time I tried this, I left a whole bunch of honey on the floor,” recalls Otto. He had to invest in a set of cooper’s tools to repair the barrels on the fly as they were literally falling apart on him.
Nelson encountered the same issue when those barrels returned to him for refilling. He recalls, “We had to buy a bunch of kiddie pools to rehydrate the barrels in, or we would have lost a lot of whiskey!” Otto wryly notes that he had a tank for that and was surprised that a modern distillery had to resort of plastic pools.
So that’s a big reason why the Nelson Brothers Honey Cask Edition is so precious and why they get $199 a bottle for it at the distillery bottle shop. With only about 1,400 bottles available for sale, odds are that you’ll never see any of this golden whiskey on a liquor store shelf, which is a shame because it is delicious!
Otto explains that honey is extremely seasonal based around what flowers his bees are pollinating during any given month. Clover is the most readily available source for his honey, but unfortunately honey made from that flower tends to crystallize inside of the barrels, severely limiting his yield. So he had to design his contribution to the project around what would work best for the entire process.
The result is a delightful whiskey, basically the same product as Green Brier’s award-winning Nelson Brothers Reserve with the addition of lovely notes of floral honeysuckle, brown sugar and, of course, honey on the nose. In the glass, the 107.7 proof whiskey drinks a lot smoother than you’d expect from the higher ABV, exhibiting characteristics like caramel, honey, pepper and nuts to cool off the alcohol. The finish is extremely long and lingering, offering a peppermint kiss before fading away.
If you managed to score a bottle, congratulations. If you have a buddy who got one, now would be a good time to show up at their house bearing some sort of gift to exchange for a snifter of whiskey. You won’t have another chance until the bees do their work for 2024!
In one final whiskey-related nugget of news, Duke Spirits is bringing its Masters Series LIVE concert to Nashville as a kickoff to the CMA festivities on Tuesday, June 6. It’s been close to a decade since I first wrote about John Wayne’s son Ethan’s entry into the spirits business with Duke Bourbon, and the brand’s portfolio has grown to include several different expressions of whiskey plus a line of tequilas to honor Wayne pere’s favorite spirits.
That spirit is also exhibited in the brand’s commitment to both country music and the military. At the show at 3rd and Lindsley, Duke will feature a sextet of talented acts performing to benefit K9s for Warriors, the nation's largest provider of service dogs to military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury and/or mental issues.
Here’s the list of performers:
Grammy-nominated country artist Eric Paslay (“Friday Night,” “She Don’t Love You”), and ACM/CMA awarding duo Thompson Square will headline the evening along with Paul McDonald (founder of One Big Love Fest), Season 22 The Voice finalists The Dryes, Nashville supergroup Six One Five Collective, and prolific songwriter/artist Annie Bosko (Willie Nelson, Adele, Dwight Yoakam, Vince Gill).
So if you like whiskey and country music, well, I think we would be good friends. But beyond that, mark your calendar for 7:30 on June 6 to enjoy an evening benefiting a great cause! You can buy your tickets in advance at the event’s website.
