After greater than 20 profitable years within the nation music trade, singer-songwriter Dierks Bentley is making an attempt his hand at a brand new enterprise: bourbon. A longtime whiskey drinker, Bentley launches his Row 94 whiskey label at this time. It’s been a ardour mission for Bentley, and one he’s spent a few years engaged on via a partnership with Inexperienced River Distilling in Owensboro, Kentucky.
Row 94 debuts with this straight bourbon, which contains a high-rye mashbill (70% corn, 21% rye, and 9% malted barley) and is bottled at 47% ABV (94 proof, a tie-in to the model title). It’s aged for 4 years in new white oak barrels with a No. 4 char. Row 94 ($40) initially launches in Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Colorado, Arizona, and row94whiskey.com, with extra states anticipated in 2025.
For Bentley, the parallels between nation music and whiskey made the transition to bourbon-making really feel pure. In an unique interview with Whisky Advocate, Bentley famous that whiskey, very similar to nation music, is distinctively American and has a wealthy historical past that drew him in. Bentley says Hank Williams Jr. impressed his nation music profession, and Hank Jr. is a recognized bourbon aficionado, in order that influenced him too. And he provides that whereas he’s loved bourbon for a very long time, Bentley actually began to understand it through the Covid-19 pandemic, and he used the downtime that got here with pandemic life to work on his palate and study in regards to the historical past of America’s native spirit.
“I’m an old-school nation music sort of man and after I went to Inexperienced River, it felt like my sort of music within the type of a distillery,” Bentley says. “It’s old-fashioned and has some relics mendacity round from earlier generations. And it’s all in regards to the individuals—the individuals I met with at Inexperienced River are good Kentucky individuals.”
The mashbill for Row 94 is predicated on the recipe of Inexperienced River’s flagship Kentucky straight bourbon, and Bentley says utilizing that as a place to begin was useful in growing the flavour profile for his label. The high-rye content material and better proof are necessary, he notes, as a result of they add warmth, which he prefers. As well as, Row 94 options the tagline “Made with three elements and the reality,” but in addition the roots of nation music. For Row 94, the three elements are premium grain, purified Kentucky limestone water, and cultivated yeast. However the expression is a play on a phrase by Fifties nation music songwriter Harlan Howard, who stated nation music is made with simply three chords and the reality, a commentary on its musical construction and storytelling.
“I believed it’d be cool to reapply that to what I’m doing,” Bentley says. “It has significance for me. Row 94 is a severe whiskey however we don’t take ourselves too significantly, and I like the tie-in again to nation music. The juice is sweet, the value is sweet, and so is the bottle and label. It’s genuine to me and never only a facet mission.”
Working with Inexperienced River on Row 94 has been a fortuitous pairing. Bentley moved to Nashville in 1994 and found bluegrass music that very same 12 months. Owensboro, Kentucky, the place Inexperienced River’s distillery is situated, is the house of bluegrass music and homes a museum for the style. Moreover, Nashville has a famed Music Row and Bentley operates a gastropub referred to as Whiskey Row, which has areas in Nashville, Arizona, and Colorado. All of that ties again to the model title, Row 94. The label options a picture of a thunderbird, which Bentley says pays homage to his father and was featured on among the paintings for his albums.
Whereas there aren’t but agency plans for added whiskeys within the Row 94 portfolio, Bentley doesn’t rule it out. “I’m actually proud of what we now have and I’d like to see it stand by itself,” the nation music star says. “Once I make music, I would like an album that I can take a look at and say ‘I didn’t take any shortcuts. There’s nothing I might’ve executed in a different way.’ My albums mirror a chapter in my life and I write the songs for me. It’s the identical with this whiskey.”
