Belle Meade Black Belle Review

Here's a fun bottle I picked up on Black Friday at the Nelson's Green Brier Distillery in Nashville. After dumping barrels of their (assuming sourced MGP) product, the Nelsons sent the empty barrels over to a local brewery called Blackstone who used them to make their Black Belle imperial stout. After Blackstone was finished with the barrels, they were sent back to Belle Meade who then finished some of their bourbon in these now twice used casks. Having read good things about at least one previous cask of Black Belle and it being a holiday weekend I was feeling vicarious enough to take a chance. 

Bourbon Whiskey Finished in Imperial Stout Casks; No Age Statement; 48.5% ABV; Cask 4171; $100

Nose: Wafts of your typical bourbon scents, especially typical MGP bourbon but also a lot of dark chocolate and malty cocoa. The nose is really nice.

Taste: Starts off like your typical MGP bourbon but quickly morphs into a torrent of dark chocolate, espresso, and the fruity notes you glean in really good coffee. Those atypical notes start in the mid palate and ride heavily through the finish. It's got a bit of the malty barley grain taste of a stout beer in the finish but the thing that strikes me most are the espresso notes. At less than 100 proof for cask strength it's super easy to drink and yet still full bodied, rich, and complex.

Thoughts: I have traditionally had bad experiences with beer finished whiskey but I am glad I took a chance on this - I really enjoy it. The imperial stout imparted coffee notes are really unique but not as overpowering as something like the Abraham Bowman coffee finished bourbon which basically tasted like barrel proof coffee. I've had slight ups and downs with Belle Meade's experimental finishes but this one is a winner for me.

Rating: B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Belle Meade Cask Strength Reserve Review

Nelson's Green Brier is a local distillery in Nashville that has been distilling their own bourbon for about 2 years. Like most other startup distilleries, they have been selling a sourced product while their own distillate comes of age. Belle Meade currently comes in quite a few forms, all of which is based on MGP bourbon. Of all their products, I find their higher aged cask strength single barrels to be the best. MGP bourbon like any single barrel can vary in quality though and as such off the shelf bottles can sometimes be a slight gamble. That's why I was intrigued to learn the Nelson's released a new product, Belle Meade Cask Strength Reserve. According to the website, it is a cask strength, non chill filtered, small batch blend of 7-11 year old high rye bourbon.

No Age Statement; 59.4% ABV; Batch no. 1; $60

Nose: Classic spicy bourbon. Vanilla and caramel wood sweets with tons of rye spice. The heat is well tamed for 120 proof.

Taste: Honey caramel sweets upfront, spicy cinnamon blast in the middle, and a finish of sweet / spicy oak. Throughout the start and finish are the hallmark red fruit notes I usually get in Four Roses OBSV which makes sense since MGP shares the mother V yeast with them. While there are touches of old oak, the wood notes have a lot of maturity and depth without being overly bitter. 

Thoughts: This is great - sweet, spice forward, and the right amount of wood balance. Unlike some older MGP bourbons I've had that could be a touch too bitter, the blend of ages is really working well. On top of all that, it's rather easy to drink considering it's 120 proof. While this isn't quite the best MGP bourbon I've ever had, it's better than any MGP bourbon I've had in quite a while. I love that this is a blend so if you get the same batch you know exactly what you are getting. I wish more folks buying up MGP whiskey would do this with their older stock.

Rating: B+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Belle Meade Sherry Finished Bourbon Lincoln Road Single Barrel Review

I've covered Nelson's Greenbier Distillery's Belle Meade a bit in a previous review but the TLDR is they are a startup that is selling MGP sourced bourbon while their own stock continues to age. I wasn't a huge fan of the cognac finished bourbon, mostly because it reminded me of their standard batched product which is slanted a bit too young and green in profile for my tastes. I did however enjoy the 90 proof 9 year sherry finished bourbon and I also really like the cask strength single barrel selections I've had from them. All of that led me to very interested in what we have here today which is a basically a higher proof version of their 9 year sherry finished and also bottled for the very reputable Lincoln Road package store out of Hattiesburg, MS. From what I have gathered, this version is rather limited with the only other single barrel I am aware of belonging to Jack Rose in Washington D.C.

Aged 9 years; Sherry finished 2 months 28 days; 55.1% ABV; $100; Single Barrel No. 2191, Bottle Number 186

Nose: Fruity and sweet. Smells like caramel and a light fruit glaze syrup. The spicy rye MGP bourbon mash is also evident with some prickly pine and menthol.

Taste: Very familiar spicy MGP bourbon notes but with a little added fruitiness. It's sweet, spicy, and slightly fruity the whole way through. I can tell the fruit sherry is in there as there are hints of grape jam but it's far from overbearing. The sweet wood notes have some darker chocolate and cocoa vibe to them in the finish which is showing off the age here. 

Thoughts: There are no surprises here, you are getting exactly that you paid for. It tastes like a middle aged spicy MGP bourbon at a respectable proof that's been smoothed over by some fortified wine finishing. What really shines with this one is how delicately the finishing process has been applied - it's far from sherry or port bomb that you can find in other finished products like Midwinters Night Dram. The finish here is a sideshow rather than the star which makes this a very well executed dram. I personally really like port and sherry finished fruit bombs though and I'd reach for Midwinters before this but it's a very nice change of pace in the finished bourbon category. 

Rating: B

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

Belle Meade Cognac Finished Bourbon Review

Belle Meade was launched in 2012 by a couple of local brothers, Andy and Charlie Nelson. Last I heard, they officially launched Green Brier Distillery in Nashville back in 2014 with a eventual plans of selling a Tennessee wheated bourbon. That distillate is probably far from ready so for now we just have products sourced from MGP in Indiana that the Nelsons have blended, bottled, and/or finished. I really enjoy MGP bourbon but for whatever reason I've never liked the standard blended Belle Meade. I do however like all of their single barrel products I've tried as I find them to be on par with other cask strength MGP bourbons like Smooth Ambler Old Scout. I typically enjoy finished whiskies and want to support the hometown guys so I took the plunge on their newly released cognac finished bourbon. 

No Age Statement; 45.2% ABV; Batch No. 1; $82

Nose: Sweet and spicy. The high rye MGP mashbill is evident as there is a good bit of spice as well as some menthol. Surprisingly there isn't as much cognac influence as I expected.

Taste: Very sweet and not as spicy as the nose. Upfront it's a lot of typical bourbon sweets with a decent amount of wood depth. On the backend is where the cognac starts to come through with some fruity grape notes. The cognac influence doesn't seem heavy handed though it does seem to be mellowing out what would normally be a spicy finish.

Thoughts: I like this a lot better than the standard Belle Meade but that's not saying much. Even though I never got around to reviewing it, I enjoyed their 9 year Sherry finished bourbon quite a bit more than this. Given the price, I'd go with their ~9 year old cask strength single barrels over this any day.

Rating: C+

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.