Green Brier bottle shop
On the heels of the surprising news that Charlie Nelson, one of the founding brothers of Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery, would be stepping away from the business, his brother Andy welcomed hundreds of visitors to the newly expanded facility last week to show off the company’s new digs.
After a long reconstruction process, NGB has created a really impressive new space to welcome visitors into their more than 50,000-square-foot distillery. The 2.0 version of the distillery includes a Hall of History that tracks the legacy of the Nelson family stretching back to the early days of Tennessee whiskey in the 19th century. Distillery tours now include behind-the-scenes peeks at the production process, from distillation to barrel-aging to a live demonstration of the bottling line. Of course, any great tour ends with a tasting, and Nelson’s Green Brier has created several cozy spaces for visitors to sample four of their products at the conclusion of a tour.
The distillery has also developed other spaces that were previously not customer-facing into private and public event spaces, including an impressive bottle shop, an atrium with natural greenery on the walls they’re calling The Whiskey Garden, an attractive bar filled with whiskey and memorabilia called The Cooper’s Club, and larger spaces in The Oak Room and The Rickhouse Room.
The other major addition to the facility is a full-service restaurant led by chef Joey Ray, a longtime Nashville culinary pro. Serving classic Southern fare plus some fun international twists like schnitzel and a croque madame, the restaurant is currently open for lunch Thursday through Monday.
Andy Nelson toasts the assembled crowd at Nelson's Green Brier Distillery's grand reopening
To celebrate the grand reopening, Nelson’s Green Brier has bottled a very limited, one-time release of its flagship Nelson’s Green Brier Tennessee Whiskey at cask strength, an impressive 121.4 proof. “It was important for us to commemorate this special occasion with a bottle release,” says Ed Kolb, lead distiller at Nelson’s Green Brier. “By bottling Charles Nelson’s original Tennessee Whiskey straight from the barrel at cask strength, we are honoring our brand’s history while looking forward to the exciting innovation to come.”
Available only in the distillery’s bottle shop, Nelson’s Green Brier Cask Strength Tennessee Whiskey is a bargain at $49.99, if there is any left!
Louisville-based Barrell Craft Spirits is also celebrating a major milestone, with 10 years of sourcing and blending some spectacular whiskeys over the decade. In fact, BCS’s latest release is their 35th batch, showcasing different distillation methods, barrels, and aging environments; the elements are blended together and barreled at cask strength to offer the whiskey in its most primal state.
Barrell Bourbon Batch 035 is a blend of barrels filled with 6- and 7-year-old bourbons with high rye contents. After spending two months mingling together, the barrels were mixed with a small amount of 13-year-old barrels that contribute extra fruit notes to the party. The result is an extremely complex and satisfying pour, bottled at a robust 116.24 proof. The combination of high oak extraction with spice from the rye and fruit from the older whiskey is quite delightful!
Barrell Craft Spirits' Rye Batch 004 is their first rye release since 2020, and it has definitely been worth the wait. The master blenders selected straight rye whiskeys from Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky and Canada to create this international whiskey. Barrel ages range from 5 years to 14 years for the products from Canada, where the cooler weather allows for a longer and slower maturation process.
They had do to a little math to figure out the percentages of grains in the final product, coming up with a derived mash bill of 89 percent rye, 7 percent corn and 4 percent malted barley. The result is a fruit-forward rye with nice molasses and toffee notes. At a proof level of 115.7, this makes a pretty violent Manhattan, but if you’re up for the challenge, it’s a delightful drink. Regardless of how you drink it, Rye Batch 004 is a welcome return to rye production for BBC, and I hope they keep up with these releases.
