I didn’t realize the bourbon cult behind this beautiful, old school Bluegrass State bottle. It arrived, fairly inconspicuous, alongside a bottle of hibiscus liqueur. It was offered with the same level of PR casualness of Terry Bradshaw’s whiskey, a decent-enough bourbon aged two years and not ideal on its own. It languished in my liquor cabinet a couple months before I pulled it out.
What I got was the opposite of a cheap mixer. Kentucky Owl cracked my ass right out of the bottle with rich flavor and a spirit that had clearly been aged and blended with care. I’d figured the “Batch No. 12” was a gimmick on the label to sucker anyone taking a quick glance into thinking it’d sat in oak 12 years waiting for its turn. It hasn’t, but it has the smoothness and strength capable of convincing you otherwise.
Plus, gimmick bottles don’t typically run you $300 to $400 MSRP at the liquor store (you can get it for a lot less at the right places. Like Costco, impressively).
After going in blind I dropped the backup strategy of seeing how it would serve as a mixer. This would be perfectly fine as a very expensive whiskey and Coke and also an immensely stupid one. It’s clear this bourbon has everything it needs to stand up on its own.
First off, allow me to apologize for a headline referencing a terrible movie from nearly two decades ago. I am referring to, of course, the classic 2006 vehicle Failure to Launch starring Matthew McConaughey (playing, boldly, Matthew McConaughey) and Terry Bradshaw (playing, boldly, Terry Bradshaw). It’s just that a review of Sammy Hagar’s rum got a nice traffic rub by dropping a “can’t drive 55” line in there and, well, your boy needs those clicks.
But yes, Bradshaw is the latest celebrity to wade into the crowded pool of famous folks hawking alcohol. His Bradshaw Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. The Hall of Fame quarterback, significantly less than that country singer, surprisingly prolific 2000s film actor and pre/post-game show staple is a man of many talents, and now he’s stepping into the malt game — or at least lending his reputation to it.
That that reputation … phew. Bradshaw’s Super Bowl accolades are all over this dang thing. The bottle only has three printed labels and his NFL titles are mentioned four times. This bottle drops “IX, X, XII, XIV” like a typical episode of Lost threw out “four, eight, 15, 16, 23 and 42.”
This also provides hope. Bradshaw’s a southern man with a history of success. Of course he’s gonna know bourbon. His malt should lie on the upper spectrum of celebrity alcohols.
“I enjoy having fun. I enjoy laughing. I enjoy interacting with people.”
HOUSTON — Peyton Manning was holding court, much like he did for so many Sundays during an incredible National Football League career that spanned 18 seasons and included Super Bowls for two different franchises.
And although he wasn’t the only celebrity at a private event held Wednesday at Truth BBQ, just a few miles from Memorial Park — the site of this week’s Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open — he was certainly the biggest. PGA Tour star Keith Mitchell and Manning’s former teammate Owen Daniels were among the others floating around the room, but Manning was undeniably the center of attention.
And while he rises up in these scenarios, Manning is nothing if not gracious, even starting his appearance by filling out a name tag and placing it on his lapel, as if those who showed up might not pick him out of the crowd.
Manning’s life after football has included plenty of golf — he’s a member at Augusta National among other courses — and his appearance on The Match with Steph Curry was a fun showcase for his golf talents.
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And now, Manning, Mitchell, tennis star Andy Roddick, Jim Nantz and a number of other partners are riding a high as the group’s nine-hole Sweetens Cove has emerged as one of the golf world’s darlings, often considered a must-play for those in the area. The group started distilling bourbon and under the direction of CEO Mark Rivers — who was also on hand Wednesday — the group hopes to expand into multiple markets.
The partners brought on Tennessee native Marianne Eaves to serve as master blender. Known as Kentucky’s first female master distiller since Prohibition, Eaves spent time at Castle & Key and Brown-Forman and was named one of America’s Top 40 under 40 Tastemakers by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.
Golfweek caught up with Manning during the crowded event to talk about golf, bourbon, football and his memories of Houston, all over a sip of the spirit he’s hoping will become a household name.
Q: You said earlier you’re a scratch beer drinker and a 14-handicap bourbon drinker. What’s this taste like to you?
Manning: I’m still probably not qualified to give you the proper terminology. I just really like the story that goes with it. Just start with the golf course. It’s kind of hard to find, hard to get to, but when you get to it, it’s worth the time and the effort. They think that’s kind of the same with this. It’s not super accessible.
But when you go through the effort to find it and you get it, it’s like, wow, it’s really special. So I just like that. Obviously, Tennessee’s important to me and so you know anytime I’m in the state of Tennessee, I have this peaceful, easy feeling — not to quote The Eagles — and so when I think about Sweetens Cove, I see the bottle, you know, I see ‘volunteer to share,’ I’ve got good memories of my time in Tennessee and the people there.
And now that I’m in this second chapter, what I miss the most about playing football is my teammates, being on that team. And so now I find myself on different teams and this is a fun Sweetens Cove team to be a part of.
Q: So why was Texas an important market for you guys? And how has that gone for you?
Manning: Yeah, I obviously just think you probably know the answer is that Texas is just critical in this space if you’re gonna, you know, gonna kind of become serious about it and we weren’t sure how this was gonna go.
You know, this started out as a kind of a fun project with the golf course, because of this tradition, that we witnessed in front of us, that people were doing a shot of whiskey before they hit their first shot. Leaving the bottle for the group behind it — a very kind of organic, unforced tradition.
Like, maybe we should start our own (bourbon) — still kind of fun. And then all of a sudden we hire Marianne, who’s from the area from the Chattanooga area, once again an authentic connection, maybe this can be real, you know I was telling somebody, football critics are hard, but bourbon critics are downright tough.
I don’t hate the term ‘celebrities spirit,’ but I don’t think that’s what this is. It’s Marianne’s. But it pains (critics) to sort of have to give a good review to us because they don’t think you’re putting any time and effort behind it and so but when they do give you a good review, you’re like, wow, maybe the people maybe people like it.
Peyton Manning talks about bourbon, the golf course that’s become the darling of the golf world, and his time in Houston. (Contributed photo by Sammie Theige)
Q: In talking to Keith Mitchell, these guys on Tour are ambassadors for a lot of products, and believe it or not, you’ve had an endorsement or two in your day. (Manning smiles.) So Keith turns to me and goes, ‘Yeah, I’m not here for any of that (expletive). I’m here because this is fun. This is really fun. We have a golf course that’s fun and playable and a bourbon that tastes great.’ What’s it like to see athletes and other people in this space just genuinely excited about something and not doing it because they have to?
Manning: Well, I think it’s great, especially, you know, during these times when you weren’t allowed to be together and you couldn’t have any fun in this kind of setting. So I think that’s it speaks to how all this got started.
We launched during the middle of COVID in April of 2020. I wouldn’t recommend launching during a pandemic, but we did it and here we are. And so, you know, I think anytime we have these get-togethers — we’ve been down in New Orleans, Denver, Indianapolis, Dallas and now Houston; I have a little better attendance than Andy, but you don’t have to put that — I love being together. I love being with people. Like you said, there’s smiling and having fun and seeing they genuinely like it. I mean, I can kind of tell when there’s somebody’s now who really thinks it tastes good and they’re not just saying it because I’m there.
Q: Word is that Jim Nantz occasionally drives around and does play-by-play when folks are on the tee boxes at Sweetens Cove. Did you ever think it would become something like this? You’re a golf guy. You love it. But to think of Jim Nantz calling golf shots at your golf course. Did you see this?
Manning: No. Never. I mean never. And to hear Rob Collins (principal designer at King-Collins Golf Design), who built the course, talk about Sweetens Cove before we got involved in it and where it’s gone, that’s fun.
I mean, you know, that Jim Nantz is narrating my friend Case’s 7-iron or 8-iron on No. 9 — it’s like you’re making it up, right? You’re making it up. And only Nantz can do it: ‘There’s a little breeze coming out of the east. What have you got there, Nick? I think he’s got a seven.’
I mean, the videos are incredible. Jim does it because he loves it. That was cool and Jim’s a passionate, romantic guy. He loves the little things and he loves the story, too. So that’s a fun connection to him.
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Q: Did you think you’d have this much fun in retirement? The TV, the golf course, the bourbon. Look at you and Eli on Monday nights, having fun. It’s funny. I mean, except when you had Josh Allen on and jinxed him, everything else seems great. Did you think it would be this much fun?
Manning: No, I agree. It’s been so much fun. I enjoy having fun. I enjoy laughing. I enjoy interacting with people. That’s why I played team sports, you know, and I gravitated toward team sports and you know, it’s the interaction with the people and so this has been a really fun team to be a part of and that’s just the word you know people are excited about it.
They’re having fun. We’re everybody’s kind of curious where it’s gonna go, you know, we’re excited about it. Everybody’s, you know, very passionate about it.
Q: We’re here for the Houston Open. Give us some Houston memories. What do you think about when you come to this town?
Manning: I’ve got a buddy who I went to high school with who is out in the crowd here — he lives in Houston — and I remember coming to a Houston-Dodgers game. Mike Scott pitched. Fernando (Valenzuela) was pitching. (Pedro) Guerrero was playing. We drove over, and I went to AstroWorld.
My dad (Archie) played for the Oilers. I was six, but we didn’t move here. We stayed in New Orleans. Tuesday’s kind of your universal off-day, so on Monday after practice he would catch a $37 Southwest flight and come home to have dinner with us Monday night. He would take us to school on Tuesday and then come back over here.
We got to come over, too, and I got to be a ball boy for a game here — a Steelers game — and I got to serve Gatorade to the team. So those are my early memories of Houston.
Then when realignment happened, when the Texans came into the league, we were somewhat fortunate, we were beneficiaries that we got out of this brutal division with the Patriots, Dolphins, Bills and Jets, who all were good back then. Back then, they all made the playoffs — like three of them made it in one year. And so we got realigned to the AFC South and I got to come down and play Houston, which, look, when you’re a new franchise, there’s going to be growing pains.
But in 2002, I remember coming down here and it was fun because all my New Orleans friends came up here for this game. Mr. McNair was a great, great man. Somebody that I got to know so I have fond memories of Houston. And my dad has fond memories playing for the Oilers.
Former NFL star Owen Daniels and his wife Angela talk with Peyton Manning at a Sweetens Cove party in Houston. (Contributed photo by Sammie Theige)
Q: Speaking of Owen Daniels — I talked to him out there, and he tells me he just put a huge simulator in his garage. His wife told me he goes out there every day to hit balls. Where are you at with this? Are you playing a lot? And by the way, he says he hasn’t played Sweetens yet. You need to get him out there.
Manning: I know I do. I mean, a lot of people want to go play. I’m all for guys like Owen going to play there.
In Denver, I played in two January playoff games over 65 degrees. They keep the pins in year-round there. I’d rather be outside playing, you know, with some buddies — but my weekend golf is gone. I’m coaching kids sports and so that’s over. So if I don’t get out on a Wednesday, I’m probably not getting out there in the week, but I still love playing.
I love organizing a golf trip. I love the itinerary. I’m a big voice memo guy. I’m just sort of sending a 14-minute voice memo with the whole itinerary.
I am skeptical about this bourbon. It screams pandering to a demographic willing to pay whatever it takes to get a Vineyard Vines whale monogrammed on their golf bag. Manning says the 13-year blended malt, which experts speculate is from the George Dickel distillery in Tennessee, is pretty good. Of course, in the same Indy Star article where he talks about his new liquor he also admits to getting heavily into Michelob Ultra.
Peyton Manning has never met a grind he didn’t embrace. Football, sure, but even in his playing days he was opening up pizza chains and hawking DirecTV with shocking efficiency. Now he’s on to his latest venture: whiskey.
Well, not just whiskey. Bourbon. Specifically, bourbon for rich dads.
Ok, fine. I get the hustle. I even get Manning doing the legwork to cold call Indiana liquor stores to coerce them into stocking his signature booze. Who in the Hoosier State is going to say no to Peyton Manning?
For the most part, though, Manning calls himself an “authentic beer drinker.” He has rotated from heavy beer to light beer and now, 45 years old, Michelob Ultra has been a dear friend to him, he said.
Michelob Ultra is actively marketed to marathoners, fitness dorks, and anyone else who feels a bottle of High Life is “too heavy.” Holding a can is a warning that you will, unprompted, tell a stranger about that killer WOD you had this morning. Then follow that with “oh, I’m sorry, WOD is workout of the day. It’s a CrossFit thing.” The beverage itself is as satisfying as someone describing a beer over a choppy Zoom call.
Then there’s the cost; the man with the fridge stocked with Michelob — the guy who went to school where they proudly drink their corn from a jar — would like you to buy a $200 blended bourbon. For the same price as one fifth I could pick up four bottles of Old Forester 1920 Prohibition Style Whiskey or, if you’re more into peaty Scotches, three bottles of Lagavulin 16 (it’s Wisconsin. Booze is cheap. Bars outnumber churches). Esquire says it’s overpriced but also better than Scottie Pippen’s bourbon or Nick Jonas’s tequila, so … take that how you will.
Ultimately it’s probably a pretty good malt — it’s aged like a premium spirit and blended by master distiller Marianne Eaves, who most connoisseurs agree rules — that retails for twice as much as what it’s worth because a Hall of Famer called up your local liquor store, worked “Omaha” and “laser rocket arm” into a three-minute conversation, and found a spot on the top shelf where the Stagg and Black Maple Hill used to be. Every pour comes with a story about how this is “Peyton Manning’s whiskey” and how it fits equally as well on a golf course or in a hunting lodge in front of a roaring fire. It is a whiskey designed to impress your boss or father-in-law. It is bottled clout.
Peyton Manning and his partners hope to stake a claim as Tennessee’s signature premium bourbon, building off their successful golf course.
Andy Roddick has a bottle-and-a half of Sweetens Cove Tennessee Bourbon Whiskey left in his pantry.
The former world No. 1 tennis player and partner in the new premium spirit brand often fields requests from friends looking to get a bottle.
“Sure,” Roddick tells them. “Just as soon as I can.”
It might be a tall order. The third of five batches will hit retail shelves next week, but Sweetens Cove Spirits CEO Mark Rivers estimates the 14,000 bottles in its inaugural release will be sold out by October.
With a limited release strategy, Sweetens Cove’s partners — including Tennessee Vols and NFL legend Peyton Manning — hope to stake a claim as Tennessee’s signature premium bourbon, rather than a celebrity brand.
“(Roddick and Manning) really want to put their shoulders behind the process and the product and the business more than put their faces in front of it,” Rivers said.
From golf course to bourbon
The Sweetens Cove story began with a treasure hunt, Roddick and Rivers said in an interview with Knox News, when they discovered and purchased Sweetens Cove Golf Club, a nine-hole golf course in South Pittsburg, just west of Chattanooga, in May 2019.
Manning joined the ownership team of the golf club, which was in need of long-term investment and, among other things, indoor plumbing.
The new owners have also added “the heckle deck,” an observation area at the par-3 9th green; a covered pavilion and firepit for events; The Honey Barrel, a 20,000-square-foot Himalayan-style putting green with lighting for evening events; and general improvements like new irrigation, flood control and landscaping.
The “heckledeck” overlooks the 9th green at Sweetens Cove. (Photo courtesy Sweetens Cove)
But they drew on the history of the club for the connection when it came to the new line of spirits.
“The course had a great ritual that preceded us, where golf guests would take a shot of whiskey on the first tee, before their first golf swing,” Manning said in an email to Knox News. “It became fundamental to the experience. People would bring a bottle, leave a bottle, share a bottle. All of us were so struck by that unique legend and so we said, ‘We need our own whiskey’ and the journey to create Sweetens Cove Spirits was born then and there.”
After more treasure hunting, Rivers discovered 100 barrels of 13-year-aged Tennessee bourbon available for purchase.
“We teased that it was being held hostage in a warehouse in Kentucky, and the first thing we did was buy it and the second thing we did was bring it back to Tennessee,” Rivers said.
The Sweetens Cove partners brought on Marianne Eaves, a Tennessee native, to serve as master blender to the brand, which is blended in Columbia, Tennessee.
Sweetens Cove Tennessee Bourbon Whiskey owners include Tom Nolan, from left, Andy Roddick, Rob Collins, Mark Rivers and Peyton Manning. The owners who are not pictured are Skip Bronson and Drew Holcomb. SUBMITTED PHOTOS
Known as Kentucky’s first female master distiller since Prohibition, Eaves spent time at Castle & Key and Brown-Forman and was named one of America’s Top 40 under 40 Tastemakers by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.
Rather than embrace the traditional role of a blender — to make batch after batch of a product taste the same year after year — the Sweetens Cove team gave Eaves more creative license to craft five distinct blends under the same label and distinguished only by proof.
“Basically, they were like you are the artist and these are the different colors on your palette and you’re here to create something that you believe is beautiful and delicious,” Eaves said.
Eaves initially spent at least 15 minutes nosing, tasting and writing extensive notes on each of the 100 barrels.
“(It’s) very rare to have someone with her skill and stature to do that deep dive of craftsmanship,” Manning said. “And so far, the reviews have really met our expectations.”
Across the barrels, Eaves found traditional oaky flavors, but also burnt marshmallow, tropical fruit, floral, herbal, black pepper and leather notes.
“(It was) fun to pull in different proportions of these different flavor characteristics to make these five unique batches,” Eaves said. “Overall I hope that people will find that it’s really approachable and then you get this really wonderful, creamy, smooth mouthfeel, but from batch to batch you’re going to get different flavors.”
Of the 100, she reserved four for single- barrel release later this year. The 14-year limited release 375-milliliter bottles will retail for $125.
‘We’ll start to look at some other markets in 2021’
Eaves will be involved in the barrel selection for the second and third releases, which will hit Tennessee shelves in 2021.
“We’ll go very slowly, very methodically, quality over speed, but we will start to ramp up the production volume and we’ll start to look at some other markets in 2021,” Rivers said.
When in stock, Knoxville fans of the brand can find Sweetens Cove bourbon at Green Meadow Wine and Spirits, Good Times Wine and Spirits and Bob’s Package Store.
Manning, a self-described “whiskey rookie,” said he’s enjoyed learning more about the process and was thrilled to back a Tennessee product. He enjoys his Sweetens Cove with an ice cube or two.
The bourbon is on the menu at Manning’s one-of-a-kind “watering hole” Saloon 16, which opened in August inside the new Graduate Hotel in Knoxville.
Seeing an opening in the Tennessee whiskey market
Rivers realized there was an opportunity in the Tennessee whiskey market after visiting a well-known Nashville bar about 18 months ago. The extensive spirits menu featured four pages of Kentucky bourbons. There were only six Tennessee bourbons listed.
“We believe 100% there is an opening to be the flagship premium Tennessee bourbon,” Rivers said. “Whiskey, bourbon from Tennessee has a great history and a great legacy and a long story of terrific craftsmanship, often overwhelmed by Kentucky’s story.”
More than 6.3 million visitors participated in the Tennessee Whiskey Trail in 2018.
Created by the Tennessee Distillers Guild, the trail is comprised of 26 distilleries across the state including George Dickel Distillery, Prichard’s Distillery, Corsair Artisan Distillery, Heaven’s Door, Nelson’s Green Brier Distillery and Uncle Nearest.
There are plenty of celebrity-backed spirits on the market, but Roddick said the brand has tried to focus on the quality of the product rather than rolling out marketing featuring famous faces.
“I enjoy the process of being involved in the day-to-day as opposed to just showing up and spouting off taglines and then leaving,” said Roddick.
Email Knoxville News Sentinel business reporter Brenna McDermott at brenna.mcdermott@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @_BrennaMcD.
