Named after the Nelson family's pre-Prohibition matriarch who helped keep the business afloat upon her husband's death, Louisa's Liqueur is Nelson's Green Brier's latest release. A satisfyingly sweet digestif without being saccharine, this easy sipper tastes like a slice of pecan pie aside a cup of café au lait. — 6 years ago
Nelson’s Green Brier sources the liquid for their Belle Meade Bourbon from Indiana, and now the ageing process is completed in Nashville. Each batch is a proprietary four-barrel blend with a 30% rye content. The rye shows itself on the finish, bringing earth tones and length alongside a red pepper flake spiciness. The palate is juicier, tasting of ripe nectarines, vanilla and butterscotch. — 6 years ago
Corsair’s gin is still made at their first facility in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and remains a personal favorite in their portfolio. There’s an appealing oiliness to the gin’s texture – tasting of lemon and orange extracts. Brand ambassador Will Atkinson describes it as an Americanized Hendrick’s, namely for the inclusion of cucumber along with the botanicals. The cucumber’s freshness helps soften the spirit’s finish, which otherwise offers a sumptuously juicy expression of gin. — 6 years ago
A collaboration between Nashville Craft and Fugitives Artisan Spirits, Grandgousier is a welcome entrant to the blossoming Tennessee Whiskey category. The mash for Tennessee Whiskey must by law consist of at minimum 51% corn, but Grandgousier's clocks in at a high 89% from sustainably grown heirloom varieties. You can taste it too in the whiskey's warming breadth and gratifying sweetness - flavors of walnut peel and char meet crème-brûlée crust and honeycomb. — 6 years ago
Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery offers a series of Belle Meade Bourbons finished in different used casks. The Cognac finish helps reign in the bourbon’s flavors and choreography, coming to a narrower, cleaner point as it leaves the palate. Its aroma was described to me as “eggnog,” a descriptor I find hard to shake. The spirit does find a beautiful combination of suave, warming flavors – cream, cinnamon, clove – as well as a gentle magnolia blossom florality. — 6 years ago
Corsair’s Triple Smoke Whiskey is their best selling product and is crafted with malted barley smoked by three different fuel sources. The cherry wood from Wisconsin offers a sweet, floral aroma; the peat from Scotland brings with it a smoky finish; and the beech wood from Germany purportedly unites everything together. Brand ambassador Will Atkinson describes it as a spirit “for somebody looking to get into Scotch Whisky, but isn’t quite there yet.” While the peaty flavors certainly shine through, there’s a gratifying fullness to the whiskey, as well as a subtle bacony, charcuterie character. — 6 years ago
An authentically Southern creation, the name is both a reference to the spirit's absence of oak aging as well as how you'll jokingly be forced to eat your biscuits sorghum-less after Bruce Boeko buys up all the ingredient for distillation. To call a spirit "rum," it technically must be derived from sugar cane, but Nashville Craft's Sorghum Spirit is in essence an unaged white rum. There's an almost gin-like floral character to the aroma - honeysuckle and butterscotch - and the palate finds a softness of texture that tastes lighter than air. — 6 years ago
This half-bottle release is essentially a preview of the Nelson’s Green Brier’s signature Tennessee Whiskey to come. This first product was aged in smaller than normal vessels – 30 gallon barrels versus the full-sized 53 – to more rapidly advance its development. The result is a whiskey that already achieves impressive concentration – an explosive combination of flavors ranging from dried apricot and caramel to skillet cornbread and smoke. — 6 years ago
This is, to Corsair’s knowledge, the first ever whiskey derived from quinoa – although a handful of additional distillers have followed suit. In actuality, it tastes like, well, quinoa – capturing the grain’s earthy flavors and a certain grassy dryness, like some pastoral windblown field. Not surprising to this San Franciscan, the quinoa whiskey reportedly sells well in California. — 6 years ago
Bryce Wiatrak
Bruce Boeko crafts his gin from scratch, distilling the base spirit himself three times before adding a recipe of seven botanicals for the fourth. Juicy and palate coating, it tastes of juniper, jasmine, and lavender. The name is Boeko's own epithet to Nashville, the "Crane City" a reference to its explosive growth. — 6 years ago