Whiskey Review: Clyde May’s Alabama Style Whiskey

Introduction

Today, we’re finishing out our three-bottle run through the Clyde May’s lineup with the whiskey the brand is probably best known for: Clyde May’s Alabama Style Whiskey.

And after how much we enjoyed the Clyde May’s Straight Bourbon and Straight Rye, expectations were actually pretty high.

The first question was what, exactly, “Alabama Style Whiskey” means. As far as we could tell, it isn’t an established legal whiskey category. Clyde May’s uses the term to describe a style connected to the brand’s namesake, an Alabama farmer and moonshiner, and the modern bottle is described as being aged four years in oak barrels and finished with a hint of apple.

That phrase—“finished with a hint of apple”—raised more questions than it answered. Are apples introduced directly? Is it juice? Some sort of finishing process? Does somebody just whisper the word “apple” over the barrel?

We couldn’t find much clarification. What we do know is that the whiskey is bottled at just 85 proof, making it the lowest-proof member of the Clyde May’s trio we tasted. Lower proof hadn’t hurt the bourbon or rye much. Both delivered far more flavor than we expected.

Unfortunately, the third time was not the charm.

This review is taken from our episode "Before Sunrise (1995) / Clyde May's Alabama Style Whiskey." Click the link to listen to this review in audio format.

Nose

Brad: There’s a lot of corn, a little bit of maple syrup, and the apple peel kind of comes through. But it feels like a very simple, straightforward whiskey. I don’t think it’s a bad nose. I’m not in love with it either. 6/10

Bob: It’s perfectly fine. It doesn’t necessarily smell youthful in the way poorly aged whiskey can have that really distinct raw-grain note. This just smells more like ethanol and kind of cheap whiskey. There’s a hint of green apple, and it does smell closer to natural apple than something like a Jolly Rancher. But so far, this is easily the most underwhelming of the three for me. 7/10

Taste

Brad: It tasted like raw corn, simple syrup, and maybe a hint of vanilla. It feels very simple and straightforward. There’s just nothing here that I’m getting excited about. 5.5/10

Bob: I’ll give it a 6/10 for basically the same reason. Anytime I give something below a six, I feel like I’m starting to suggest that it isn’t a quality product. And this is perfectly okay whiskey.

But it’s very thin. I was honestly surprised when Brad reminded me this was 85 proof because it feels even lighter than that. There’s no burn whatsoever.

If you’re just getting into drinking whiskey, maybe there’s a place for that. It tastes almost like somebody poured whiskey over ice, left the glass sitting on the counter, forgot about it for a while, and then came back later.

You get simple, typical bourbon-and-whiskey flavors with that green apple underneath.

But mostly, it tastes watered down.

Finish

Brad: My finish note was literally “water.” It didn’t leave me with anything other than feeling like I drank a glass of water.

Which isn’t a bad thing. I love water. I’m a big fan of H2O.

There’s just nothing there. 5/10

Bob: On really cheap-tasting whiskey, sometimes you at least get left with some aggressively bad note on the finish. This doesn’t do that. It’s pleasant. There’s vanilla and a little apple peel.

I’ll take that over a nasty finish all day. But there just isn’t much of a finish to speak of. 5/10

Balance

Bob: This puts me in a weird spot because it is actually pretty consistent. It’s just consistently mediocre. Nothing suddenly goes off the rails. The problem is that nothing ever really rises above “fine” either. 6/10

Brad: I’m at a 5/10. I’m just unimpressed with this whiskey across the board. And maybe part of that is because I’m holding it against what they sold us with the rye and bourbon, which were very, very good. This just doesn’t live up to either of them.

Value

Clyde May’s Alabama Style Whiskey comes in at around $40, only a couple of dollars less than the bourbon and rye that impressed us so much.

Brad: I’m going to give it a 2/10. This is one of the worst values I’ve seen in a long time. The other Clyde May’s bottles made sense around $42 because I’d actually buy them. This one doesn’t give me enough at $40 to justify being anywhere near that price.

Bob: This is a $15 bottle of whiskey. Maybe there’s some incredibly special, labor-intensive process behind making it. I wouldn’t know, because there isn’t much information explaining what actually goes into the “Alabama Style” process.

If we’re just going on taste, this is nowhere near a $40 whiskey for me. 2.5/10

Final Scores

Bob: 26.5/50

Brad: 23.5/50

Average Score: 25/50

The value category absolutely buried this one.

Bob: I think we’ve probably had worse whiskeys that scored better than this.

This is a perfectly acceptable entry-level whiskey. It’s watery enough that I’d put it almost in the category of something like Southern Comfort or Seagram’s. There’s a place for that kind of easy-drinking whiskey. The place just isn’t next to the other two Clyde May’s bottles we sampled.

I loved two-thirds of your portfolio here, Clyde May’s. Keep pumping those ones out. Dial this one back a little bit.

Brad: I deeply enjoyed both of the other products. I would buy them. This one just doesn’t measure up.

At Film & Whiskey, 35/50 is typically where we start recommending that you try a pour at a bar or consider buying a bottle. A whiskey reaching 40/50 is great, while 45/50 is excellent territory.

At an average of just 25/50, Clyde May’s Alabama Style Whiskey falls well short of that recommendation threshold.

But at $40, “fine” isn’t enough.

Especially when Clyde May’s own bourbon and rye cost essentially the same amount and gave us considerably more flavor, complexity, and character.