Four barrels, a nod to the Ryman stage, and a new Nashville whiskey bar. Here’s what I learned on my first night at the Opry.

I’ve wanted to go to the Grand Ole Opry since I moved to Tennessee. I figured I’d buy a ticket one night, hear some great country music, and finally cross it off my list. Instead, my first visit started with a bourbon tasting and ended with a pretty good story about all the trouble Dierks Bentley used to get into trying to go backstage.

ROW 94 Whiskey invited me to the Opry for Dierks Day, where Nashville favorite Kelly Sutton hosted a conversation with Bentley and ROW 94 VP of Operations Justin Willett. We tasted ROW 94’s Kentucky straight bourbon and heard about Trespasser’s Proof, an upcoming release that will spend the final stretch of its aging at the Grand Ole Opry. The name made a lot more sense once I heard the story.

The Bourbon Inspired by a Few Unauthorized Backstage Visits

Before Dierks Bentley was an Opry member, he was a country music fan who wanted to get as close to the music as he could. Sometimes that meant slipping through a guarded door. Sometimes it meant getting banned from a Nashville venue. I made it backstage with permission, which admittedly makes for a much shorter story.

Trespasser’s Proof starts at Green River Distilling Co. in Owensboro, Kentucky, with the same mash bill as the flagship ROW 94 bourbon. After at least four years of aging, the four barrels were moved to a secure spot at the Opry to finish. The release is planned for spring 2027, and the team will decide on the final proof closer to bottling as the barrels develop.

As a sommelier, the detail I wanted to know more about was the wood. ROW 94 chose white oak and sugar maple staves for the finish. Those are the same wood species used in the Ryman Auditorium stage, a piece of which lives on in the famous circle at center stage at the Grand Ole Opry. After tasting the flagship bourbon, I’m curious to see what the two woods bring to the finished whiskey.

There’s something especially fitting about those barrels spending their final months at the Opry while live country music fills the house. A young Dierks kept trying to get closer to that sound. Now his bourbon gets to stay backstage.

My First Opry Show, From the Dressing Rooms to the Stage

We got to tour the dressing rooms and see where artists hang out backstage before they go on. I kept thinking about how many country music icons have walked those halls and how many still do. For me, that was the part that made the history of the Opry feel real. These are rooms that artists still use on a regular show night.

And did you know no two Opry shows are the same? On my night, I got to hear Dierks Bentley, Kaitlin Butts, T. Graham Brown, Mae Estes, and more, all on the same stage. I’d waited years to go once, and now I’m already thinking about who I might get to hear the next time.

Inside the Plans for Dierks Bentley’s New ROW 94 Tasting Room

My next stop is the ROW 94 Tasting Room at Bode Nashville, opening to the public Thursday, November 5. The new downtown whiskey bar will have gear from Bentley’s tours, autographed guitars, and even a Dierks Bentley hologram. I’m going for the bourbon flight, but obviously I need to see the hologram.

The Flight 94 is $25 and gives you a side-by-side taste of the flagship ROW 94, Full Proof, and Broken Branches. I love a flight like this because you can go back and forth between pours and figure out what you actually like. On the cocktail side, the Front Row caught my eye with brown butter-infused ROW 94, espresso, pecan, amaro, and demerara. There’s also Dierks’ Lemonade with ROW 94, raspberry, and lemonade if that’s more your speed.

The tasting room is at 401 President Ronald Reagan Way in downtown Nashville, with opening hours of Thursday through Sunday, 4 to 10 p.m. ROW 94 Whiskey

I went into the night excited to finally see the Opry. I came home thinking about four barrels of bourbon tucked away somewhere in the building, getting a little more time with the wood while another completely different show goes on. I’ll be keeping an eye out for that bottle this spring. In the meantime, who’s coming to the tasting room with me?