Whisky Advocate: Peyton Manning Takes The Whiskey Field With Sweetens Cove

A whiskey ritual at an obscure Tennessee golf course has inspired its own brand of Bourbon, with All-Pro quarterback Peyton Manning and tennis great Andy Roddick, among others, behind it.

The golf course in question is Sweetens Cove, a nine-hole public course in Marion County, Tennessee, about 33 miles from Chattanooga. It was bought by Manning and Roddick along with Tom Nolan, former president of Ralph Lauren golf; course architect Rob Collins; and real estate developers Mark Rivers and Skip Bronson, in early 2019. Sweetens Cove has no clubhouse or even bathrooms, just a Home Depot shed, in which it’s traditional for players to take a shot of whiskey before each round. “Like they say there, ‘Take your first shot before your first shot,’” Manning tells Whisky Advocate. “[It’s] very authentic and real. And certainly a Tennessee thing to do.”

The resulting whiskey brand, Sweetens Cove 13-year-old Tennessee Straight Bourbon, is the handiwork of master distiller and blender Marianne Eaves, formerly of Woodford Reserve and Castle & Key. Eaves worked with 100 barrels of sourced 13-year-old Tennessee Bourbon, blending and bottling at cask strength with a final proof of 51.09% abv for the first batch. Whisky Advocate has more.—Ted Simmons

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