Just in time for the Grammys, right here’s a whiskey from nation star Chris Stapleton

Now, you may add one other identify to the record: Country star Chris Stapleton, who’s up for 3 awards this 12 months. Stapleton can declare loads of previous Grammy glory — he’s gained eight awards up to now, together with one for Best Country Album for his breakthrough 2015 launch, “Traveller.”

Traveller is appropriately the identify for the whiskey he’s created in partnership with Buffalo Trace Distillery, probably the most revered bourbon makers within the enterprise. We sampled its $10,000 Eagle Rare 25 bourbon not that way back, the truth is.

But Traveller is in a unique class than that bottle — and never simply because it sells for a mere $39.99. It’s not purely a bourbon, however what’s known as an American blended whiskey. That means it will possibly include a little bit of something and the whole lot, together with a mixture of bourbon and grain impartial spirits. In the case of Traveller, the emphasis is on, effectively, whiskey. The Buffalo Trace staff says it pulled whiskeys from the broader portfolio of Sazerac, its guardian firm and the outfit behind such well-regard labels as E.H. Taylor and Stagg.

Stapleton mentioned he was deeply concerned within the mission each step of the best way, together with deciding on the ultimate mix from dozens of doable blends. At a latest press occasion in New York, he famous that he’s all the time been a fan of not simply whiskey, however particularly Buffalo Trace whiskey (he was born in Lexington, Ky., not removed from the distillery). “It didn’t take a lot of arm-twisting,” he mentioned of his choice to hitch forces with the model.

As far as the ultimate product, Stapleton added that “I can’t speak in educated terms other than ‘I like it’ or ‘I don’t like it.’” Needless to say, he likes what he and Buffalo Trace have created.

What we give it some thought

American blended whiskey is just not usually taken so significantly as a class — it’s extra within the value-priced realm of ingesting. But Traveller gives some actual pedigree for a reasonably reasonably priced bottle. Granted, it’s a straightforward and considerably candy sipper, with notes of caramel, oak and toasted nuts. But it’s nonetheless an actual whiskey, with simply sufficient fullness and complexity to present it an edge.

How to get pleasure from it

This is okay sipping by itself — or having fun with what the Buffalo Trace staff calls a Whiskey and You (as in Traveller over ice). For one thing with just a little extra taste, strive the Country & Western — Traveller with soda water, agave nectar and contemporary lime juice.