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It’s been a while since I’ve touched a product from the Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery. The producer had a very intense cult status back when they were known most for their Belle Meade brand (I guess that makes me a member of a cult?). It seemed like everything they touched turned to gold – especially their finished products. Then the brand was acquired by Constellation Brands in 2019 and things began to change.
I won’t blame Constellation entirely for their (almost) demise because some events were out of their control. I’m mostly talking about the free-flowing tap of mature MGP bourbon which started to dry up at this point. This caused the Belle Meade brand to wither and basically die. So the company pivoted to their own pot-distilled Tennessee Whiskey and began to source barrels from other places. One of those sources we know about was Bardstown Bourbon Company. I admit they make good distillate, but back when Nelson’s Green Brier first began to source it, the BBCo juice was maybe around 4 or 5 years old. It needed more time to hopefully get to the quality levels of those old MGP barrels. By the way, has anyone else noticed that BBCo bourbon seems to get better when they’re aged away from their Bardstown location? Drop me a comment if you think that’s true.
Nelson Bros refines their lineup
With Belle Meade pretty much in the rearview mirror, the Nelson Bros brand began to create labels that closely mimicked its predecessor. For instance, the volume majority of Belle Meade was finished in one of three casks – Cognac, Sherry or Madeira. They were always proofed to 90.4 and priced somewhere between $55 to $75. There were also single barrel, cask strength versions of each of those three finishes as well (see my list here if you’re curious). And I haven’t even touched the Belle Meade specialty cask releases, but those were primarily sold at their distillery in Nashville in very limited numbers.
The Nelson Bros brand began to revitalize those specialty cask finishes around 2020-21 and put them under the label “Nelson Bros.” Of course they had to recreate the classics like Honey Cask, Black Belle, Mouvedre and Calvados, but they also threw a few new ones in there as well.
Today’s bottle I’m reviewing is one of those new ones. During a recent trip to Nashville, I stopped by and decided to introduce a friend to the brand. I was intrigued by a bottle on the bar that said “White Wine Cask” on the front. I couldn’t read the rest of the label from my seat, but I ordered it anyway. I was confident that the wine cask they were referring to was Chardonnay and I was fully expecting something weird, woody and dry. Basically, I wanted to hate-drink it and write a bad review. To my surprise, it was the exact opposite of my expectations and was full of fantastic sweet fruit flavors. I asked the bartender to look at the bottle and was surprised that there the cask type said “Sauternes” in tiny print underneath the main words.
For the remainder of my time at the bar, I couldn’t shut up about why Nelson Bros would choose to put “White Wine Cask” in big bold letters on the front instead of “Sauternes” – especially when the former conjures up mental imagery like Yellow Tail or Williams Sonoma and the latter gives more of a delicious dessert vibe. It also sounds more decadent and exotic. Bad move by the marketing department!
The quick rundown of the contents of this bottle are a blend of straight bourbon whiskies (I’m guessing BBCo is a big part of the blend) where all of the components are at least six years old. Then the blend is dumped into Sauternes casks to rest for another 17 months. The one thing I think has changed between this bottle and the original Belle Meade Cask Strength options is that this one is not a single barrel. The bottles are individually numbered, but there is no cask differentiator. I did not find out the info on how many casks they blended into this final product, but based on the blending tank capacity that they used to make Belle Meade Reserve from, I’d say somewhere around 5 to 7 barrels were used. I’ll change this if I find out otherwise.
I enjoyed my pour of this bottle so much, I had to go buy one to let others experience it as well. I took it back to the Gaylord Hotel where I shot these pictures in their beautiful indoor garden atrium at night. I really love that place. Anyway, is Nelson’s Green Brier turning the ship around after years of mediocre stuff? Let’s find out. I sampled this neat in a glencairn.
Tasting Notes
Nose: Caramel, honey and creme brulee dominate the sweet scents while apricot and peach jam bring forward the fruitiness in each sniff. There’s a hint of chili pepper (obviously from the bourbon) as well as the aroma of ground cinnamon. Sweet orange peel also fills the glen with each sniff. While I may not have found a lot of complexity or voluminous nosing notes, the ones that I did find were so pleasing that I didn’t mind at all.
Palate: Each sip delivers a punch of fruity, jammy flavors. These revolve primarily around stone fruits of all kind. Other fruit flavors that don’t belong to the stone fruit family include sweet white grape juice and a bit of ripe raspberries. There is also a prominent vanilla flavor that I find every time I raise the glass up to my mouth. It kind of reminds me of Pound Cake. There’s also a bit of “spritzer” element that’s equal parts mouthfeel and taste – I just can’t put my finger on it. As for spices, I don’t pick up on much beyond a gentle cinnamon powder. I can find some oak which I missed on the nose. We know this doesn’t have much age to it, but I was hoping for at least a little bit of tannins.
Finish: Fruit notes (Orange, grape) continue as the very mellow finish lingers on. The honey sweetness that I’ve experienced up to this point has decreased a touch while tannins (mostly oak) creep in. This is kind of how I like my whiskies to be anyway. I find my tongue dries out a bit, but mostly everything stays very balanced.
Score: 8/10
Color me impressed with this bottle. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the blend of straight bourbons is actually quite good from the start and provides the solid foundation for the unique finishing cask to shine. Speaking of the finishing cask, you don’t often see Sauternes finished bourbon and I think that’s a shame. It’s such a delightfully sweet and fruity treat. I especially liked how the fragrant honey, vanilla and stone fruit dominated.
If I had to pick another kind of finishing cask this closely resembled, I’d pick Cognac, except Sauternes has much more syrupy fruit notes. Overall, it’s hard to find anything to dislike about it. I just wish it had a bit more complexity.
Final Thoughts
I’m glad I had the benefit of trying this first to see just how great it was. I say this because if I had went by just the name I saw on the bottle alone, I would never have bought one. But after first sip, I knew I had a winner in my hands. My experience makes me soften my stance against the Nelson Bros brand, even though I pine for the days of those cool Belle Meade labels. Still, they’ve done all the right things concerning this bottle including the hand-written proofs and bottle numbers on the bottom label. I guess I started to feel a bit nostalgic like they were trying to recreate some of the Belle Meade magic by not reverting to a digital rendering of real handwriting (like they do now on BTAC and Barrell Craft Spirits labels). Sorry to drift away from the point I’m trying to make here which is to say that I can tell the people at Nelson’s Green Brier seem to be trying again – and I guess it’s time for me to give them a second chance.
