Sweetens Cove Spirits is best-known as an offshoot of the famous quirky nine-hole golf course in South Pittsburg, Tenn., that draws golfers from around the world to play its distinctive layout. With celebrity owners including Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning, tennis star Andy Roddick and Nashville music artist Drew Holcomb, the course’s success gave birth to a whiskey brand that celebrates the same commitment to a good time as the golfers do.
In the past, Sweetens Cove has concentrated on luxury-level whiskeys, older barrels that were priced in the three-digit range per bottle. A few years ago, they released a blend of Tennessee whiskey and Kentucky bourbon they called “Kennessee” that was quite good in the $50/bottle range.
Now the spirits company has reinvented itself again. Thanks to a global slump in whiskey sales and the fact that many distilleries make big investments in new production equipment during the boom in demand five to six years ago, there is a lot of good whiskey on the market. As non-distilling producers, Sweetens Cove has the luxury of sourcing some excellent barrels at reasonable prices, and that’s exactly what they’ve done to create their two new core offerings.
The first is Sweetens Cove 5-Year Aged Tennessee Straight Bourbon, bottled at 93.7 proof and retailing for around $45 per bottle. One could speculate about the potential sources of the whiskey, but why bother when you’re getting an elevated-proof, affordable treat like this?!
Smooth enough to sip straight, this whiskey is also in the sweet spot of ABV for cocktails. The balanced vanilla, honey and caramel notes are an excellent base for an Old Fashioned. You might wonder why the photograph of the bottle looks like a mailbox on the beach. Let’s just say that if you’ve played the course a few times, you might find out that there is a particular sand trap that might have a little hidden treat for you to celebrate a good score or commiserate a bad one.
The second new product is called Sweetens Cove Dunwoody 6-Year Aged Wheated Tennessee Bourbon, and it retails for around $60. This is a nice return to the days when you could expect to pay something around $10 per year of aging for premium whiskeys. People who prefer “wheaters” (whiskey made using wheat instead of rye as a flavoring grain like Blanton’s, Pappy and Maker’s Mark) are usually pretty loyal fans of the style. I believe they will really enjoy this new Sweetens Cove whiskey.
The whiskey is named after the Dunwoody Tree, a tall pine tree that affected tee shots on the first hole and was an iconic symbol of the course until it fell on the day after Christmas 2022. The tree was, in turn, named after Mose Dunwoody, a longtime member of what was then called Sequatchie Valley Golf and Country Club who died on the course while playing a shot from near the tree.
With this much history tied up in a whiskey’s name, you’d expect it to be something special, and this Dunwoody delivers. The 95-proof whiskey opens up nicely in the glass with a few drops of water, releasing notes of fig and brown sugar. Similar to how a Wheat Thin is different from a Dorito, the wheat offers a softer sweetness to the flavor of the first sip. The long, buttery finish reveals the extra time in oak notes of wood and pipe tobacco are the last to fade away.
Let’s just say that the flask in my golf bag has a new whiskey in it, and at that price, I can afford to refill it when my friends drink it all.
