1970s rock icon The Allman Brothers Band has rambled its way into a collaboration with Michigan’s Three Chord Bourbon for the brand’s latest musician-inspired release.
First teased in April, the bottling was officially revealed on Thursday to be a blend of 3.5- and 6-year-old bourbons sourced from Indiana and Tennessee. After testing various prototypes, whiskey maker Ari Sussman says that the team settled on resting the liquid in toasted peach wood barrels, an on-the-nose nod to the band’s 1972 album “Eat a Peach.”
Often used to smoke poultry and pork at barbecue joints throughout the South, the unexpected addition of peach wood is said to impart sweetness and structure to the 47.5%-ABV bourbon. Fans eager to taste the juicy limited-edition release can now pre-order it online at $49.99.
“If you like whiskey, you will dig our collaboration with Three Chord Bourbon. It’s a celebration of our legacy. Far out man. The Road Goes on Forever,” The Allman Brothers Band percussionist Jaimoe said in a news release.
Three Chord Bourbon was brought to market in 2017 by Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Neil Giraldo. Produced by Ann Arbor, Michigan’s Steel Bending Spirits, the imprint sources its whiskeys from distilleries across Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and Indiana.
The brand has cemented its musical ethos through a series of collaborative whiskeys dubbed the Backstage Series, within which the Allman Brothers bottling is the eighth. Whether intended or not, the whiskeys act as a sort of timeline through American rock history; previous releases have recruited the likes of Dinosaur Jr., The Cadillac Three, Black Stone Cherry and Halestorm.
Sipping through the collection, drinkers can chart their way from the twangy jazz-rock of the 1960s to the post-grunge thrash of the mid-2000s.
“The music of the Allman Brothers Band is part of our culture, and has been part of my soundtrack as far back as I can remember. Collaborating with them has been an honor,” Sussman remarked. “We set out to make a whiskey with bold, distinctive aromas and flavors, while incorporating elements from the band’s iconography.”
Three Chord Bourbon x Allman Brothers Band Tasting Notes, Per the Brand
- Color: Amber, with shades of red and brown
- Nose: Spice, vanilla, toasted wood, caramel
- Taste: Round and viscous with an added element of sweetness and structure from the toasted peach wood
- Finish: Long, lingering and balanced sweetness with spice and caramel