For a whiskey that basically fell into my lap, I am really happy I picked up a bottle of Standard Proof.
It all started about six months ago when my wife and I were planning our Spring trip to Nashville, TN. We all know how the algorithms work by now, it wasn't long after doing a couple Google searches on places to stay and things to do that ads for Standard Proof started showing up in my Facebook and Instagram feed.
Standard Proof Whiskey Co. has a tasting room located right in downtown Nashville. It is just a couple of blocks away from the historic Ryman Auditorium and not too far from where we were staying. If my wife was more of a whiskey fan, we likely would have spent a lot more time there.
Standard Proof has a variety of "infused" or flavored whiskeys. I am not usually a fan of those, but the advertisements I had seen talked about a pecan flavored whiskey that had piqued my attention. I am actually not a huge fan of pecans, but remembering how butter pecan ice cream tasted when I was a kid, I have a feeling there is something about the nut that would lend itself very well to a whiskey blend.
From what I had been reading online, there was quite a run on the pecan flavor. People were buying it up like crazy, and many people were lamenting the fact that they couldn't find it at their preferred distributor.
I knew it was going to be a long shot, but I held out hope that visiting their tasting room directly would yield me better results than other people were having. It actually wasn't until our very last day in Nashville that we finally made it to the tasting room even though it was just around the corner.
My friend and I stopped in while our wives and his kids stood outside. That was probably our biggest mistake. We felt rushed to hurry up and get back to them so we really didn't spend as much time as we should have.
I mentioned that I was looking for the pecan flavored whiskey that I had seen online and unfortunately, they were out. As I said, they had several other flavored styles, but none of them sounded very appealing to me.
The person behind the counter walked us over to the bar and gave us a sample of the rye which I ended up buying a bottle of. He also gave us a bunch of stickers and free stuff like that to take home.
As I said, I should have spent much more time here. It was a really cool place and I likely would have been able to try some of their other offerings. I might have even been surprised by one of the flavored ones that I was totally against.
This is a blended whiskey that is then aged for two years in American oak barrels. Given the fact that they were established in 2014, it is safe to assume this might have been their own juice and not something sourced from another distiller. That doesn't mean one of the blending components wasn't from somewhere else down the road.
As you can see from the half empty bottle, I didn't hate this whiskey. That was just our first night of camping and I have to admit these were going down really smoothly. 80 proof will do that for you. After getting used to drinking bonded bourbons at 100 proof and higher, 80 proof is like drinking a liqueur.
This had a definite cinnamon note that was a little reminiscent of Fireball without the harshness and the mountain of regret from all the bad decisions it made you make.
Since this is a rye, that cinnamon spice fits in really well.
I'm trying to think of other notes that I can remember from this, but I honestly can't think of any other that sticks in my head like the cinnamon does.
While I absolutely enjoyed this on the rocks, I could see it working really well as a mixer too. I can just imagine how amazing an old fashioned would be with Standard Proof as the base.
If you happen to be in the Nashville area and you see Standard Proof on the shelf, I highly recommend you grab a bottle or at least order a dram. It is totally worth it! I am already thinking about heading back to their tasting room and spending some more time there.
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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or 
