I’ve written frequently about Michael Hinds and his company Nashville Barrel Co. here at the Scene — including stories about the major awards he and his team have picked up for their spectacular barrel picks from a variety of distilleries that they age on site at their facility at 809 Heathcote Ave. before blending them and bottling them. Primarily, Hinds sources bourbons and rye whiskeys from large distilleries with an eye (and a palate) for how they might benefit from further aging and how he and his expert blender James Davenport might add value by mingling different barrels together to create a new sum that is greater than its parts.
Sourcing barrels is expensive, and they’re getting even harder to find as more and more companies seek to mirror Nashville Barrel Co.’s successful model. This has led Hinds to diversify into other spirits like rum and agave distillates in addition to his core products. Two recent developments are definitely worth mentioning.
The first is a remarkable agave spirit Hinds has sourced from Jalisco. You’ll note that I didn’t call it “tequila.” Even though its provenance in Jalisco and make-up of blue agave would qualify it as tequila, the fact that it is bottled in Tennessee means that it cannot be called that. Fair enough — we wouldn’t want Jose Cuervo marketing a Tennessee Whiskey!
I like to say that agave spirits are kind of the opposite of bourbon. The base crop for most American whiskey, corn, grows fast, but then it takes years in the barrel for the spirit to achieve maturity and extract the nuances of the flavor. The agave used in tequila can take more than a half-decade to mature for harvest but then spends a relatively short time finishing in used oak to create a final product. Blanco tequilas can be bottled immediately after distillation or after a very short time in barrel, while reposado and añejo spend two to 12 months and one to three years in oak, respectively. Anything older than three years receives the sobriquet “extra añejo.”
Generally, tequilas are aged in used American whiskey barrels purchased from North American distilleries — and guess what Michael Hinds has a lot of. That’s right, barrels!
Nashville Barrel Co. has purchased a store of agave spirits and aged them in some of their favorite barrels that they have already emptied for previous releases, and the results are spectacular! A lovely honey amber in the glass, this is definitely a bourbon lover’s agave. Bottled at a punchy barrel proof, the agave has leached so much aroma, flavor and color from the char of the barrel and the whiskey that once rested there that you shouldn’t be ashamed if you mistake it for whiskey by sight and smell.
At first sip, you can definitely detect the high-proof burn, but not without discovering the lovely caramel and oak from the barrel. The agave essence is clean and slightly grassy, without any of the oily, palate-covering mouthfeel that some premium tequilas still can’t mask. This is way too good for a margarita and deserves the time to open up in a snifter. Revisiting it after a few minutes reveals even more whiskey notes, vanilla and nutmeg. If you do decide to make a daisy out of it, who am I to judge, but at least try it neat first! Plus, with that high ABV, your margarita might qualify as rocket fuel. Proceed with caution. It’s available from Nashville Barrel Co.’s online store and in their bottle shop starting at around $70 per bottle, with some special picks retailing at a higher price point.
The second new development at NBC is the creation of a new overarching brand to describe some of their latest products. One problem that they have had in the past is that just about every bottle release has a different name because they are unique barrel picks.
After a little sipping of their own stash, Hinds and Co. have settled on a new brand for some of their products, “Nashtucky.” Rather than promising that all the products under the line are from Kentucky, it’s actually a descriptor that whether the spirits inside the bottle were distilled in Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee or, hell, Iowa, Kentucky is definitely a state associated with fine whiskey. The “Nash” part of the name refers to the fact that the final product has been finished, blended and bottled in Nashville, and it’s just fun to say and looks great on a T-shirt.
I like to say that Nashville Barrel Co.’s releases may have begun their life somewhere else, they were all “designed” in Nashville, offering a unique sense of place to the brand. They're already distributed around the country, and Hinds wanted customers to know where their whiskey was actually coming from — and a brand was born.
I was fortunate enough to sample a Nashtucky single barrel Straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey with an eight-year age statement, and it was a remarkably complex whiskey, certainly improved from whatever was in the barrel when NBC purchased it. With a long lingering finish of dark chocolate and pecan, this whiskey has definitely drawn the best from the oak of the barrel.
Also available online and at NBC’s bottle shop, the Nashtucky label could be showing up soon in local liquor stores. Depending on the age, which currently ranges between five and 10 years, and the proof level, you may pay anywhere between $100 and $200 for a bottle, and you should definitely consider doing exactly that. These are some remarkable whiskeys.
Speaking of whiskeys, last month I told you about the inaugural Tennessee Crossroads Whiskey Tasting coming up this weekend on Saturday, Feb. 25, at NPT’s headquarters building at 161 Rains Ave. VIP tickets have sold out, but the organizers have graciously offered a $10 discount on general admission tickets if you go to the event’s website and enter the discount code “chamberlain” at checkout. Don’t say I never gave you anything!
