WC Tunes Up And Tastes Three Chord Bourbon

You may remember Neil Giraldo from such hit songs as “Love is a Battlefield”, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and “Hell is for Children”…wait a minute, you are now saying…those are Pat Benatar hit songs! And they are from the 1980s! And they do not have anything to do with bourbon! Well, to paraphrase Captain Tenneal from “MXC” – “wrong!” They have something to do with bourbon.

Specifically, Giraldo is Benatar’s long-time spouse and lead guitar-playing husband – it is mainly his riffs as well as some of his words that you are hearing on those hit songs. He and Benatar married in 1982, shortly before her megastar career took off with him at the lead guitar helm. After many years and many concerts, Giraldo eventually turned to side projects and one of those projects was Steel Bending Spirits, the Michigan-based producer of Three Chord Blended Bourbon, which was founded in 2017.

WhiskyCritic recently had the opportunity to taste Steel Bending Spirits’ Three Chord Blended Bourbon and we can report positive results. The mash bill consists of 75% corn, 21% rye and 4% malted barley with white American oak staves used in the maturing process before being bottled at 40.5% alcohol by volume [81 proof].

The promotional materials for Steel Bending Spirits’ Three Chord Blended Bourbon play up Giraldo’s musical background and claim the bourbon is “three chords and the truth” and the 12-year-old whiskey used in the blending process does create a smooth and pleasant taste which Steel Bending Spirits claim is akin to caramel apples, honeycomb, orange peel and oak – and we cannot dispute most of that except for the orange peel, WC did not detect any of that tasting note in our multiple recording sessions with Three Chord Blended Bourbon. The price point is halfway decent too – around $40 per bottle.

Overall, WC had a good and memorable first impression of Three Chord Blended Bourbon and we would award it a 91 on a scale of 100.